Evening star. [volume], June 12, 1932, Page 5, Image 69

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
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The Thirteen Hundredth Anniversary of the
Death of Mohammed Finds a Bit of Islam
Just Outside London, Where British Peers
and Commoners IVorship Beside Those Who
Were Born to the Moslem Faith.
BY MILTON BRONNER.
l / ■—^ I3MILLAHI r-Rahmani r-Rahim!”
f I I J (In the Name of God. the Com
passionate, the Merciful.)
I ^ The phrase is interned in a
I J strange chant. It is in a foreign
language—Arabic, in fact—the
classic language cf the Moslem Koran.
“Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim!”
The phrase should be sounding in some cool,
breeze-swept strn? and marble mosque in the
hot lands—Turkey or Arabia or Egypt or
Mesopotamia. Or in the torrid, sandy deserts.
As a matter cf fact, it is being chanted in the
town of Woking. 36 miles away from London.
Across the road is the tiny mosque of Shah
Jehan in its Oriental blue and gold, but it is
empty, because it is too small to held the wor
shipers. So on the wet grass a great canvas
marquee has been erected and the ground has
been covered with precious large Oriental rugs.
Stoves also have been erected to take off the
deadly chill of a “Spring” day. such as only
England can provide. Outside the rain is fall
ing from a leaden sky in icy torrents.
Inside some 300 men and women of all social
classes, occupations and colors of skin are down
on their knees, touching their foreheads to the
earth. The occasion is one of the greatest
festivals in the Moslem calendar, that of Eid
ul-Azha. in commemoration of the Biblical
story telling how Abraham was ready to sacri
fice his own son if the Lord willed it so.
“Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim!"
THE man who is acting as Imam for the day
• « and wearing an Oriental fez. is evidently
no Oriental. In fact, he Is an Englishman—
William Burchell Bashyr-Pickard—a convert to
the Moslem laich.
It is the first time that this great Moslem
festival has so been conducted In England. It
coincides, roughly, with the 1300th anniversary
of Mohammed's death, celebrated June 6.
Aftf b-ud-Dtn Ahmad, a pleasant-faced, bearded
young Indian from the Punjab, who is the real
Imam of the Shah Jehan Masque, has stood
■side for the day to let his English brother take
the services.
A strange figure, this Bashyr-Pickard (Bashyr
is the Moslem name for "The Blessed." which
has been sdded to his names). He is evidently
s c-r;amer. the kind of man who has furnished
England with the saints and martyrs it has had.
Like one bora to the manor—or rather to
the Arabian tent—he intones suras from the
Koran in the Arabic, as if it were the speech
to which he -was bom. His eyes are turned
upward Id an ecstasy. In everyday life he is
a brilliant graduate from Cambridge University
and a famous librarian at Hertford.
His audience Includes Indians, Malays. Per
sians, Arabs, Afghans and Moroccans. There
are young m::n from the Orient, who are study
ing engineering, medicine, law. all the liberal
professions in English universities. There are
men who work hard for their living.
There is the tall, soldierly Col. Newab Sir
Umar Hayat Khan from the Punjab, who has
fought In many of England's wars, who Is on
the Council of India at the India office, and
who & an aide-de-camp to the king.
There is the minister from the Arabian
kingdom of the Hedjaz. in his unmistakable
white garments and hraddress of the Wahabis.
There is the minister to England from Egypt.
And. above all and most interesting, perhaps,
there is a large sprinkling of English men and
women, who are converts to the faith of Mo
hammedanism.
Here is Lord Headley, president of the Brit
ish Moslem Society, in European dress, but
wearing a red fez. and J. W. Lovegrove. a well
known merchant tailor, who is secretary of the
same society.
THE democracy of the Moslems Is shown here
In all its simplicity. When the Englishman,
who is conducting th? services, commands that
the audience of worshipers shall kneel and make
the set genuflexions, white man kneels down
alongside brown man, peer beside laborer,
student by minister. There is no class, no
caste, no privilege. All are alike in their de
votion to Allah and in the sight of Allah upon
whose name they call blTsslngs as they perform
the ceremonies of their faith.
The prayers in Arabic and the readings from
the Koran have now been concluded, and the
Englishman, who is acting Imam for the day.
now delivers a sermon, just as one does in
Christian and Jewish congregations. He dwells
upon the simplicity of the faith, upon its de
mocracy, upon its essential love or peace and
brotherhood.
Now the service is over. Do the worshipers
beat it for the door to go their several ways
without even a nod for each other? They do
not.
Moslem greets Moslem with the double em
brace peculiar to the faith. It It a true holiday.
For the time being all worldly cares and
troubles are forgotten and the congregation is
all smiles.
But there is more. They are waiting to eat
together.
People sit any way. There are no seats re
served for the mighty of the earth. AU are on
Where Englishmen and men from across the sea join in Moslem services in an English mosque. William Barehdl
Bashyr-Pickard, an English convert, is addressing the worshipers at Woking.
I-ord Headley (wearing the fez), the British peer who is his nation s most prom-,
usent convert to Mohammedanism, photographed at the Woking services.
* !**■• Young men. who are students, act as
waiters.
A simple Oriental mewl Is served: Saffron
rice cooked with cloves and currants: a meat
and potato dish enveloped in a thick, brown
sauce made hot with all the spices of the
Orient: a sweetmeat compounded of wheat and
akncnd*.
“Is the masque so rich that it can afford
to m»d this very satisfying and bountiful meal
for three or four hundred people?" one asks.
“Bless you. no," says Secretary Lovegrove
"We leave that to the care of the real Imam
of the mosque. He knows something of the
financial ability of each and every one of his
regular congregation. He estimates the cosf
of the feast and then be ‘fines* each of us tin
amount we are to pay. We pay it without
question. It is just as simple as that."
Inquiry develops the fact that there are,
perhaps, some 2.000 open, avowed English con*
verts to Mohammedanism. Many of them an
men who have acted as soldier* or professions!
men on England's services in Moslem lands.
Others are scholars who have studied religion
at home.
The English Moslems say that there wen
really more than 2.000. but who. for social
or business reasons, did not openly avow their
faith.
In many ways the prise convert is Lord
Headley, the fifth baron and eleventh baronet
of that name. He is one of England's famous
civil engineers.
In his younger days—he is now 77—he did
engineering work in Kashmir and foreshore
work in England and Ireland. He is a fellow
and past president of the Society of Engineers
and twice was awarded the Bessemer Premium
of the Society of Engineers.
His books on tidal and wave action and sea
coast erosion are engineering classics. He pub
licly announced his conversion to the Moslem
faith over 12 years ago.
In 1923, as. every good Moslem should, he
made the pilgrimage to Mecca and is entitled
to "A1 Hij” to his name. He wears the Order
of the Nehda of Arabia, conferred upon him
by the King of the Hedjaz.
ANOTHER famous English Moslem is H.
John Philby. who has just completed a
dangerous and arduous journey through one of
the least explored parts of Arabia and is now
resting at Mecca, where only Moslems are ait
lowed to enter.
Phi jy is one of the greatest Arabic authfiS*
ties in fhe world. Son of an English tea planter
in Ceylcn. he graduated from Cambridge Uni
versity and then entered the Indian Civil Serv
ice in the Punjab. During the war he was
English political officer at Bagdad in Meso
potamia. Today he is one of the trusted ad
risers of the Wahabi King of the Hedjaz. ijjg
books on Arabia are classics.
Still another famous English Moslem to
Marmaduke Pickthall. who lived for lor.g in
Arabia and who is celebrated as a novelist of
Arabian lands. Among his best works are
“Said the Fisherman." 1903; “The House of
Islam." 1906; "Knights of Araby." 1917. He has
also made the best and most faithful version
of the Koran into English that has ever been
written.
Other well-known converts arc Sir Abdullah
Archibald Hamilton, a well-known soldier
baronet and sportsman of Sussex, and Sir Omar
Hubert Rankin, likewise soldier and sportsman.
Oh, we could give you many more names,”
aaid Lord Headley, “but there are many who,
while thoroughly in acecrd with Islamic
teaching, cannot face the comments or their
relations and friends.
"When I myself openly professed the Mos
• hm faith I had to meet the vindictive j“t
marks that I had deserted the religion of mv
fathers, that I was an apostate, who could
not be saved. So I pointed out that I cnwri
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