, or rise beyond the rank of a servant." Again, the King may
himself wish to pardon the offender, but he fears lest the majesty of the
law should be lowered. The Vizier perceives the King's wish, and
intercedes. This intercession is lawful. It is called
Shafa'at-i-ba-izn--intercession by permission, and such power Muhammad will
have at the day of Judgment. Wahhabis hold that he has not that power now,
though all other Musalmans consider that he has, and in consequence (in
Wahhabi opinion) commit the sin of Shirk-ut-tasarruf. The Wahhabis quote
the following passages in support of their view. "Who is he that can
intercede with Him but by _His own permission_." (Sura ii. 256) "Say:
Intercession is wholly with God! His the kingdoms of the heavens and of the
earth." (Sura xxxix. 46). They also say: "whenever an allusion is made in
the Quran, or the Traditions to the intercession of certain prophets or
apostles, it is this kind of intercession and no other that is meant."

The third Shirk is prostration before any created beings with the idea of
worshipping it. It also includes perambulating the shrines of departed
saints. Thus: "Prostration, bowing down, standing with folded arms,
spending money in the name of an individual, fasting out of respect to his
memory, proceeding to a distant shrine in a pilgrim's garb and calling out
the name of the saint whilst so going is Shirk-ul-'Ibadat." It is wrong "to
cover the grave with a sheet (ghilaf), to say prayers at the shrine, to
kiss any particular stone, to rub the mouth and breast against the walls of
the shrine, &c." This is a stern condemnation of the very common practice
of visiting the tombs of saints and of some of the special practices of the
pilgrimage to Mecca. All such practices as are here condemned are called
Ishrak fi'l 'Ibadat--'association in worship.'

The fourth Shirk is the keeping up of superstitious customs, such as the
Istikhara--seeking guidance from beads {109} &c., trusting to omens, good
or bad, believing in lucky and unlucky days, adopting such names as
'Abd-un-Nabi (slave of the Prophet), and so on. In fact, the denouncing of
such practices and calling them Shirk brings Wahhabiism into daily contact
with the other sects, for scarcely any people in the world are such
profound believers in the virtue of charms and the power of astrologers as
Musalmans. The difference between the first and fourth Shirk, the
Shirk-ul-'Ilm and the Shirk-ul-'adat, seems to be