The women sometimes wear charms to make their husbands love them. One poor thing gave me hers—two large beads: they had not proved of much use, for her husband beat her and treated her very badly.
Another charm is a tiny bag of the scented earth of Kerbela, where Muhammad’s grandson Husain was killed, and if rubbed on the eyelids it is said to cause the eyes to shine brightly.
The beads of the Muhammadan rosaries are often made of this Kerbela earth. Every Muhammadan has his rosary—many of them have quite a collection, for pilgrims to Kerbela bring back rosaries for all their friends.
These rosaries are never used for counting prayers, but occasionally for counting the attributes of God or invocations. But the main use is a very different one. They are the Persian’s ordinary means of trying to find out God’s will. They are used both in serious and in frivolous matters; no Persian will settle anything without “taking the beads.” He takes the beads before making a business appointment, but he takes them again to see whether he shall keep it or not. He takes the beads to see what doctor he is to send for, and again to see if he shall follow his instructions. He takes the beads to see if it is a good day to buy a new coat, and again to see if it is a good day to put it on. You often see a pious Muhammadan fingering the beads under her chādar before she answers your questions.
The rosaries are made of a large number of small beads all alike, and three only, which are different and are called “Sheikhs,” placed in different parts of the string. To take the beads a Muhammadan turns towards Mecca and says an Arabic collect. Then he divides the beads without looking, and tells them off two by two, saying over and over, as he does so, “Subhānu’llāh” (God is glorious) “Alhamdu’li’llāh” (Praise be to God), “Va’llāh” (and He is the God), passing two beads for each word until he comes to a Sheikh, when he stops. If there are two beads for the last word, the answer is much more emphatic than if there is only an odd one. If the last word is “Subhānu’llāh” the answer is favourable, “Alhamdu’li’llāh” is doubtful and “Va’llāh” is unfavourable. If the answer is doubtful a Persian generally follows his own inclinations.
If the answer is not what the questioner likes, the beads may be taken again in the mosque, and the answer in the mosque take precedence of that in the house. If, however, the answer is still the same, there is a third method. For a small fee a mulla will do the same sort of thing with the Quran, and the text selected overrules the two previous answers.
A Persian lady sent for an English missionary to extract an aching tooth. The missionary found her in great pain, but she said she could not have the tooth out as the beads were against it, but she had sent to the mosque and was hoping for a favourable answer from there. However, all methods gave an unfavourable answer, so she put off the extraction to another day.
“It would be much better for me to have it out,” she said, “but it is not God’s Will.”
The Wise Men from the East looked for God’s guidance among the stars, and there God sent them a message. And here and there where a Muhammadan earnestly seeks God’s guidance, because he is trying to really live as God’s servant, who shall say that he does not receive it where he has been taught to look for it.
But taken as a system, how trivial, how childish, how irreverent it all is. They use God’s name, but they take His name in vain. They profess to seek God’s will, and profess to receive an answer from Him, and often try the next moment to set it aside and force or coax an opposite answer out of Him.