iii. The command to fast begins with the words, "O ye who believe! There is prescribed for you the fast, as it was prescribed for those before you." The expression "those before you" has been taken to refer to the Jews, who fasted on the day of atonement, but more probably refers to the long fast of thirty-six days observed by the Eastern Christians. In the passage of the Koran referred to (ii. 179-181) Moslems are required to fast during the month of Ramadhan, "wherein the Koran was revealed," but if one is on a journey or sick he may fast "another number of days," and if he is able to fast and does not, "he may redeem it by feeding a poor man," but "if ye fast, it is better for you." This fast was probably instituted in the second year at Medina. At that time the corrected lunar year was in use and Ramadhan, the ninth month, was always in the winter. A few years later Mahomet decreed the use of the uncorrected lunar year, which remains the standard of time for the Moslem world, so that the month of fasting now occurs at all seasons of the year in turn. The fast is severe, and means entire abstinence from food and drink from sunrise to sunset each day of the month. The fast is associated with the statement that in this month God sent down the Koran from the seventh heaven to Gabriel in the lowest that it might be revealed to the Prophet. Alms. iv. Alms are of two kinds: (1) the legal and determined (_zakat_), and (2) voluntary (_sadaqat_). The former were given in cattle, grain, fruit, merchandise and money once a year after a year's possession. For cattle a somewhat elaborate scale is adopted. Of grain and fruit a tenth is given if watered by rain, a twentieth if the result of irrigation. Of the value of merchandise and of money a fortieth is prescribed. In the early days of Islam the alms were collected by officials and used for the building of mosques and similar religious purposes. At the present time the carrying of these prescriptions is left to the conscience of the believers, who pay the alms to any needy fellow-Moslem. A good example of a _sadaqa_ is found in a gift to an unbeliever (see C. M. Doughty, _Arabia deserta_, i. 446, ii. 278, Cambridge, 1888). Pilgrimage.