PERSIAN PRAYERS
Persian boys and girls need not say their prayers till they are
seven years old. Sometimes they begin sooner, but that is considered
unnecessarily good. They are not to be beaten for not saying them till
they are ten, and I have not seen many children under ten years old
saying their prayers. We cannot remember learning to pray, for as soon
as we could understand anything about God, we were taught to ask Him
to take care of us, to ask Him to forgive us when we were naughty, and
to help us to be good, to thank Him for His kindness and His gifts.
It is so simple that a child of three or four can come to God in this
way, we need not wait till we are seven to bring simple petitions to
our Heavenly Father. But little Ghulām Husain’s prayers are far from
simple. He has first to learn to wash his face, hands and arms, and
feet and legs. “That does not need much teaching,” you say. “He can
surely wash himself at that age.” But there is a right and a wrong way
of washing in Persia before prayers. There is a right and a wrong side
of your face to wash first, there is a right and a wrong hand and a
right and a wrong foot to wash first. If a Persian is very religious
and careful there is even a right and a wrong side of his arm and leg
to wash first, but few Persian children are as careful as that. No soap
is wanted, just plain water, or, if there is no water, sand. So our our
little Ghulām Husain learns his washings, and now he is ready to learn
the prayers themselves, which are all in Arabic so that he does not
understand them.
[Illustration: PERSIANS AT PRAYER]
He is shown the direction of Mecca to which he must always turn when
saying them, and he is taught when to stand, when to kneel, when to bow
himself till his forehead touches the ground, and when to make various
gestures. And when he has learnt all this he is ready to begin saying
his prayers regularly, and he is told that if he says them correctly,
and with the right movements, they will be pleasing to God, and count
as good works. He must say them three times a day, and he cannot
choose his time. When the prayer-call sounds from the mosque roofs,
and is taken up by people on the house roofs, he must leave what he is
doing, and wash and say his prayers--the same prayers every time. First
in the early dawn, before sunrise, he hears the call, and he must get
out of bed for washing and prayers. In the summer it may be as early
as four o’clock, in winter not till six or seven. Then, again, when
the sun-dial on the mosque marks noon, the call is heard, and again at
sunset, and each time the prayers must be said within half an hour.
Half an hour’s grace is allowed, so if Persians have visitors when the
prayer-call sounds, they are able to go in turns to say their prayers,
so as not to leave the visitor alone.
Some Persians are very particular about their prayers, but many are
not so particular and will leave them unsaid if there is any excuse;
and, as in other religions, there are people who neglect their prayers
altogether.
There are many who are very regular in their prayers and very
particular as to the direction towards which they face, and their
positions and gestures at various parts of the prayers, but who are
not in the least really reverent over them. Medical missionaries
especially cannot always choose the time of their visits, and sometimes
cannot avoid prayer-time. Then, instead of going to a quiet room, the
Muhammadans often say their prayers in the room where the missionary
is being entertained, and the conversation is never hushed for them;
indeed, they will often themselves join in the conversation even while
they are supposed to be praying.
One day a party of women from a Mullā’s house were visiting a
missionary, when the evening prayer-call sounded.
“We shall hardly have time to get home in half an hour,” the Mullā’s
wife said. “May I say my prayers here?” The missionary readily gave her
consent, but only the one lady availed herself of the permission, and,
having asked in which direction Mecca lay, placed her prayer-stone in
front of her and knelt down to say her prayers.
The rest went on talking loudly round her, calling out and stretching
across just in front of her in a way that must have attracted her
attention. When the missionary asked them to be quiet they assured her
that their friend did not mind, and she herself turned from her prayers
to beg them not to stop for her. But the missionary insisted on quiet
until the prayers were over, explaining that it was not a question of
respect to the lady, but of reverence to God, and, in the conversation
which naturally followed, she was able to tell them some of the Bible
teaching on prayer.
The prayer-stone is a small slab of about an inch and a half across,
made of the earth of Kerbela where Husain, the grandson of Muhammad was
killed. The Kerbela earth is said to be scented with “the blood of the
martyrs,” and is much used for prayer-stones and rosaries.
A Muhammadan places his prayer-stone on the ground before him when he
says his prayers. If anyone passes in front of a Muhammadan as he is
saying his prayers it is supposed to greatly reduce their value. But
if he puts the prayer-stone in front of him it acts as a church wall
and cuts him off from the outside world, and nothing passing on the far
side of the stone can affect his prayers. If he has no prayer-stone he
sometimes draws a line on the earth instead, and this is said to be
just as effectual. At certain points in the prayers the forehead must
touch the ground, and when a prayer-stone is used the forehead touches
the prayer-stone, and perhaps the holiness of the earth touched is
supposed to increase the value of the prayers.
After the regular Arabic prayers have been said any further prayers
may be added in Persian, but the people seem generally to content
themselves with the set prayers and to be shy of adding any of their
own wording, and in any case the Arabic prayers are considered the more
important.
Although the Persians use their prayers like charms, repeating forms
which convey to them no meaning, yet they have great faith in the
efficacy of prayers as charms. One Sunday a Persian woman brought her
little girl to the doctor’s house, covered with smallpox and very ill.
Finding that it was service time she thought the prayers might do the
child good, so she put off asking for medicine till later, and, hiding
the child under her _chādar_, she sat down among the other women and
children through the whole service.
I have never known Persians refuse Christian prayers over their sick
friends, and generally they join in with a heartfelt _Amen_ to prayers
which they have been able to understand. At one house where they were
afraid of the medicine they entreated the missionary doctor to come
daily to pray over the patient. The patient was one of five cases of
typhoid fever in the house. The others were being treated by a Persian
doctor, but this woman had very serious complications and seemed so
unlikely to recover that he suggested their calling in a Christian
doctor for her. For many days she lay quite unconscious, but every day
the missionary walked a mile and a half to pray beside her, and every
day the same entreaty was repeated, “You will come again to-morrow,
won’t you?” And the prayers were answered, for at last signs of
improvement appeared, and the poor woman was restored to health and
strength again.
God has given us a wonderful privilege in allowing us to come freely
to Him as our Father, and lay all our joys and sorrows, troubles and
perplexities before Him.
“Oh! What peace we often forfeit,
Oh! What needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!”
And, if that is true of us, how much more true it is of the Muhammadans
who do not know God as their Father, who do not know that God is love,
who do not know that they may carry everything to God in prayer. When
we think of the want of peace, the needless pain, the sin, the sorrow,
the wretchedness in Muhammadan lands, and yet see the people so ready
to pray, surely it is our plain and urgent duty to teach them _how_ to
pray, as our Lord has taught us, and to teach them _to Whom_ they must
pray--not to an unknowable, unloving Allah, but to a tender, pitying
Father, Who so loved them that He gave His only begotten Son to die for
their salvation.