obliged to perform their devotions at home, or if they visit the mosques, it
must be at a time when the men are not there: for the Moslems are of opinion
that their presence inspires a different kind of devotion from that which is
requisite in a place dedicated to the worship of GOD.8
The greater part of the particulars comprised in the Mohammedan institution
of prayer, their prophet seems to have copied from others, and especially the
Jews; exceeding their institutions only in the number of daily prayer.1 The
Jews are directed to pray three times a day,2 in the morning, in the evening,
and within night; in imitation of Abraham,3 Isaac,4 and Jacob;5 and the
practice was as early, at least, as the time of Daniel.6 The several postures
used by the Mohammedans in their prayers are also the same with those
prescribed by the Jewish Rabbins, and particularly the most solemn act of
adoration, by prostrating themselves so as to touch the ground with their
forehead;7 notwithstanding, the latter pretend the practice of the former, in
this respect, to be a relic of their ancient manner of paying their devotions
to Baal-Peor.8 The Jews likewise constantly pray with their faces turned
towards the temple of Jerusalem,9 which has been their Kebla from the time it
was first dedicated by Solomon;10 for which reason Daniel, praying in Chaldea,
had the windows of his chamber open towards that city:11 and the same was the
Kebla of Mohammed and his followers for six or seven months,12 and till he
found himself obliged to change it for the Caaba. The Jews, moreover, are
obliged by the precepts of their religion to be careful that the place they
pray in, and the garments they have on when they perform their duty, be
clean:13 the men and women also among them pray apart (in which particular
they were imitated by the eastern Christians); and several other conformities
might be remarked between the Jewish public worship and that of the
Mohammedans.14
The next point of the Mohammedan religion is the giving of alms, which are
of two sorts, legal and voluntary. The legal alms are of indispensable
obligation, being commanded by the law, which directs and determines both the
portion which is to be given, and of what things it ought to be given; but the
voluntary alms are left to every one's liberty, to give more or less, as he
shall see fit. The former kind of alms some think to be properly called
Zacât, and the latter Sadakat;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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