However different in their reach
Of thought, in manners, dress or speech,--
Will quietly their carpet spread.
To Mekkeh turn the humble head,
And, as if blind to all around,
And deaf to each distracting sound,
In ritual language God adore,
In spirit to his presence soar,
And in the pauses of the prayer,
Rest, as if rapt in glory there."

"There are of course formalists and hypocrites in Islam as well as
in religions of which we have more experience. The uniformity and
regularity of their prostrations resemble the movements of a
well-drilled company of soldiers or of machines, but the Koran
denounces "woe upon those who pray, but in their prayers are
careless, who make a show of devotion, but refuse to help the
needy;" while nowhere is formalism more pungently ridiculed than in
the common Arabic proverb, "His head is towards the Kibleh, but his
heels among the weeds." We could almost excuse a touch of formalism
for the sake of securing that absolute stillness and outward
decorum in worship which deceives the stranger as he enters a
crowded mosque into the belief that it is quite empty. Persons who
hold themselves excused from the duty of worship by every slight
obstacle might do worse than get infected with the sublime
formalism of Cais, son of Sad, who would not shift his head an inch
from the place of his prostration, though a huge serpent lifted its
fangs close to his face and finally coiled itself round his neck.
And if some are formal, certainly many are very much in
earnest."[157]

[Sidenote: Ablutions.]

The ablutions have not been imposed as burdens, or as having any
mysterious merit, but merely as a measure of cleanliness.

"God desireth not to lay a burden upon you, but he desireth to
purify you."

[Footnote 156: The institution of pilgrimage is a harmless one, and
conducive to unity in religion for Arabs, and gives moreover an impetus
to trade at large.]

[Footnote 157: Mohammed, Buddha, and Christ, by Marcus Dods, D.D., pp.
30-1.]

[Sidenote: Koran both abstract and concrete in morals.]

41. (4) The Koran seems fully aware of the danger of the precise and
fixed system of positive precepts moulding and regulating every
department of life. The danger is that the system of formalism in which
men are tied down to the performance of certain relig