"There is no piety in turning your faces toward the east or west, but he is pious who believeth in God and the last day, and the angels and the scripture, and the prophets; who for the love of God disburseth his wealth to his kindred; and to the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and those who ask, and for ransoming; who observeth the prayer, and payeth alms, and who is of those who are faithful to their engagements when they have engaged in them, and patient under ills and hardships, and in time of trouble, these are they who are just, and these are they who fear the Lord."--_Ibid_, 172. [Sidenote: Amount of alms.] In the place of a fixed amount of alms the Koran only says to give what ye can spare. "They will ask thee also what shall they bestow in alms: "Say: What ye can spare."--_Ibid_, 216, 217. [Sidenote: Fasts.] Instead of imposing a very strict fast, which in the middle of summer is extremely mortifying, the Koran makes its observance optional. "And as for those who are able to keep it and yet observe it not, the expiation of this shall be the maintenance of a poor man. And he who of his own accord performeth a good work, shall derive good from it: and good shall it be for you to fast, if ye knew it."--_Ibid_, 180. [Sidenote: No prescribed forms of prayer.] The Koran does not teach any prescribed forms of worship and other ritualistic prayers. No attitude is fixed, and no outward observance of posture is required. There is no scrupulosity and punctiliousness, neither the change of posture in prayer nor the displacement of a single genuflexion calls any censure on the devotee in the Koran. Simply reading the Koran (Suras LXXIII, 20; XXIX, 44), and bearing God in mind, standing and sitting; reclining (III, 188; IV, 104) or bowing down or prostrating (XXII, 76) is the only form and ritual, if it may be called so, of prayer and worship taught in the Koran. "Recite then as much of the Koran as may be easy to you."--Sura LXXIII, 20. "Recite the portions of the Book which have been revealed to thee and discharge the duty of prayer; verily prayer restraineth from the filthy and the blameworthy. And assuredly the gravest duty is the remembrance of God; and God knoweth what ye do."--Sura XXIX, 44. "And when the Koran is rehearsed, then listen ye to it and keep silence: haply ye may obtain mercy." "And think within thine ownself on God, with lowliness and with fear and without loud-spoken words, at even and at morn; and be not of the heedless."--Sura VII, 203, 204. [Sidenote: Pretentious prayers and ostentatious almsgiving condemned.] The Koran condemns pretentious prayers and ostentatious almsgiving.