FARAZ. Arun. In the Mahomedan religion, points ordered by God—God's commandments ; Sunnud being the ordinances of their prophet. For instance, the Ramzan or Ecd-ul-Fitr feast and the Bakr-eed feast are alike Fan and Sunnucl, while the Akhri-char shambah, the Maharram, and the Shab-i-Burat are only Sunnud. Thus, also, Captain Burton says, the afternoon prayers being Farz, or obligatory, were recited, because we feared that evening might come on before the ceremony of Ziyarat (visitation) concluded. Throughout India, the Farz, or commands of God, are almost obscured by the quantity of the Sunnud and the traditions, and there are frequent refor mations attempted, but these speedily assume political features. A sect styled Farazi, or Faraizi, wail formed at Dacca in 1828. Daulatpur village, in Faridpur district of Bengal, was the birthplace of Haji Sharit-nlla, the founder of that Faraizi sect, which rapidly 'Tread throughout the whole of Eastern Bengal. The Faraizi are a branch of the great Sunni division, and in matters of law and speculative theology they belong to the school of Abu Hanifa, one of the four authoritative com mentators on the Koran. They reject traditional customs, declare that the Koran is the complete guide to spiritual life, and they therefore call themselves Faraizi, or followers of the Faraiz (pl. of Arabic Farz), the divine ordinances of God alone. Tho majority of Musalmans in the delta
of the Ganges and Brahmaputra are descendants of the aborigines, who retained many of the super stitious cerenaonies of their former life. The reform inaugurated by Haji Sharit-ulla was a protest against such pagan practices, and a return to the simple habits and monotheism of the Koran. He insisted on the duty of the holy war (jihad), the sinfulness of infidelity (kufr), of introducing rites and ceremonies into worship (bida'at), and of giving partners to the one God (shirk). Externally a Faraizi may be known by the fashion of wrapping his dhoti or waist-cloth round his loins without crossing it between his legs, so as to avoid any resemblance to a Chris tian's trousers, and by his ostentatious mode of offering prayers with peculiar genuflexions in public. The rapid spread of the Faraizi move ment in the lifetime of its founder affords sufficient justification for his enthusiasm. The majority of them are cultivators of the soil, but not a few occupy the rank of traders, being especially active in the export of hides. All alike are characterized by strictness of morals, religious fervour, and faithful promotion of the common interests of the sect. —Elliot; 1Vilson ; Burton's Mecca, ii. p. 66 ; Imp. Gaz.