The Muhammadan form of worship was too simple for a country, in which an allegorical and idolatrous religion predominated, addressing itself to the senses and the imaginations rather than to the understanding and the heart; consequently the Musalman festivals have borrowed from it a variety of pagan rites, and a pompous and splendid ceremonial. While this has done much to add to the superstition of the Musalmans in India, it has no doubt softened their intolerant spirit. Though the Sunnis consider the Shia'h observances as impious, they look on with the contempt of indifference. The fact that the British Government punishes all who break {243} the peace may have something to do with this. Still the Sunni and the Shia'h in India live on much better terms, and have more respect for each other than the Turk has for the Persian, or the Persian for the Turk. Some Musalman poets, indeed, are both Sunnis and Shia'hs. Thus Wali, begins his poem with a brief encomium on the four first Khalifs, and then bestows an eulogy on 'Ali and his sons Hasan and Husain whom he calls "Imams of the world." The following is a prayer used in a Fatiha for 'Ali:-- I pray, "That God may deign for the sake of that pure soul, the ornament of the book of nature, the first of mortals after the Prophet, the star of mortals, the most precious jewel of the jewel-box of virtue, the lord of the high and the low, he who occupies a distinguished place on the bridge of eternity, the mihrab[251] of the faith, he who sits upon the throne of the palace of the law, the ship of the sea of religion, the sun of the firmament of glory, the power of the arm of the Prophet, he who has merited access to the tabernacle of the Divine Unity, the most profound of all religious people, the resplendent brightness of the marvels of God, the father of victory, the Imam of the gate of heaven, the cup-bearer of the water of Kausar, he who has merited the praise of Muhammad, he who is the best of men, the holy martyr, the chief of Believers, the Imam of the Faithful, 'Ali, son of Abu Talib, 'Ali the victorious lion of the Most High. I pray that God for the sake of this holy Khalif may favourably hear the vows which I offer to Him." The following prayer occurs in a Fatiha said for Hasan and Husain:-- I pray, "That the eternal God may deign to accept the vows which I make for the repose of the glorious souls of the two brave Imams, the martyrs well-beloved by God, the innocent victims of wickedness, the blessed Abu Muhammad Al-Hasan and Abu 'Abd-Allah Al-Husain, and for the twelve Imams, and the fourteen[252] pure ones, and for the seventy-two martyrs of the plain of Karbala." {244}