J. F. Campbell Collection > Koran: or, Alcoran of Mohammed

BECT. ir. PRELHUNARY DISCUUKSE. 81
as women with child, and giving suck, ancient people ancl yoimg children);
but then they are obliged, as soon as the impediment is removed, to fast
an equal number of other days ; and the bi-eaking the fast is ordered to be
expiated by giving alms to the poor.^
Mohammed seems to have followed the guidance of the Jews in his
ordinances concerning fasting, no less than in the former particidars. That
nation, when they fast, abstain not only from eating and drinking, but fi'om
women, and from anointing themselves,* fi-om daybreak until sunset, and
the stars begin to appear ; ^ spending the night in taking what refreshments
they please.' And they allow women with child and giving suck, old per-
sons, and young childi-en, to be exempted from keeping most of the public
fasts.*
Though my design here be briefly to treat of those points only which are
of indispensable obligation on a Moslem, and expressly required by the
Koran, without entering into their practice as to voluntary and supereroga-
tory works ; yet to show how closely IMohammed's institutions follow the
Je^vish, I shall add a word or two of the voluntaiy fasts of the Moham-
medans. These are such as have been recommended either by the example
or approbation of their prophet ; and especially certain days of those
months which they esteem sacred : there being a tradition that he \ised to
say, That a fast of one day in a sacred month was better than a fast of
thirty days in another month : and that the fast of one day in Ramadan
was more meritorious than a fast of thii-ty days in a sacred month. ^
Among the more commendable days is that of Ashura, the tenth of
MohaiTam ; which, though some wi-iters tell us it was observed by the
Arabs, and particularly tlie tribe of Koreish, before Mohammed's time,"* yet,
as othei-s assure us, that prophet bon-owed both the name and the fast from
the Jews ; it being, with them, the tenth of the seventh nionth, or Tisri,
and the great day of expiation commanded to be kept liy the law of Moses.*
Al Ka2r\vini relates, that when Mohammed came to Medina and found the
Jews there fasted on the day of Aslidra, he asked them the reason of it ;
and they told him it was because on that day Pharaoh and his people were
di-owned, Moses, and those who were with him escaping : wherevipon he
said, that he bore a nearer relation to Moses than they ; and ordered
his followers to fest on that day. However, it seems, afterwards he was
not so well pleased in having imitated the Jews herein ; and therefore de-
clared, that if he lived another year, he would altei- the day, and fast on
the ninth, abhoridng so near an agreement with them.^
The pilgrimage to Mecca is so necessary a point of practice, that accord-
ing to a tradition of JMohammed, he who dies without performing it may as
well tlie a Jew or a Christian ; ^ and the same is expressly commanded in
the Koran. ^ Before I speak of the time and manner of pei'forming this
pilgrimage, it may be proper to give a short account of the temple of Mecca,
the chief scene of the Mohammedan worship ; in doing which I need
be the less prolix, because that edifice has been ah-eady described by several
"WTiters,^ though they, following diSerent relations, have been led into some
7 See Koran, chap. 2, p. 22. « Siphra, fol. 252. 2. » Tosephoth ad Gomar.
Yoma. f. 34. i Vide Gemar. Yoma, f. 40, and Alaimon. in Halachoth Tanioth,
c. 5. sect. V. » Vide Gemar. Tanith, f. 12, and Yoma, f. 83, and Es Ilayim,
Tanith, c. 1. ' Al Ghazali. * Al Barezi, in comment, ad Orat. Ebn ^obata5.
« Levit. xvi. 29, and xxui. 27. « Ebn al Athir. Vide Pocock, tSpec. p. 309.
^ Al Ghazali. s Chap. 3, p 47. See also chap 22. and chap. 2. p. 16, &c.
* Chardin, Voy. de Perse, t. ii. p. 428. &c Bremond, Descrittioni dell' Egitto, &c.
lib. i.e. 29. Pitt's account of the Rel. ic. of the Mohammedans, p. 98, &c. and
Boulainvilliers. Vie de Mohammed, p. 54, &c which last author is the most particulaj.