from the wisdom and folly of preceding times, or the rites and ceremonies of existing superstition; and the records of the Pentateuch, the fables of the Ta.mud, the truths of the Gospel, the customs, manners, prejudices, and barbarities of the cotemporaneous Arab, supplied him with the incongruous doctrines which alternately disgrace and adorn the pages of the Koran. Nor was he gifted with any extraordinary foresight. He adapted his religion to circumstances as they arose, but made little provision for circumstances that were to come. Hence his celestial visitant was to contradict at one time what he had revealed at another; and the injunctions of the eternal book became innumerable, which, however authoritatively proclaimed, were, subsequently, to be limited, extended, or annulled, according as new occurrences required new expedients, and unforeseen conjunctures arose to derange the schemes of the Prophet.

Of the two great institutions of the Koran, fasting and pilgrimage, almost every circumstance, even to the minutest forms, was borrowed from the rituals of other creeds. Mahomet could boast only the merit of impressing upon them a greater degree of solemnity, and of supporting them by higher and more effectual sanctions.

I. Fasting, said the Prophet, "is as the gate of "religion; and the odour of the mouth of him who fasteth is more grateful to God than that of musk*." In conformity with this doctrine, the necessity of solemn and reiterated fasts has been announced by the Koran; and days, and weeks, and months, are every year to be set apart by the Mussulman

Sale. Prelim. Disc. sect, iv. p. 48.

for the punctilious performance of the duties of abstinence. If the fast have unfortunately been neglected at the appointed season, atonement must be made to the law by "fasting a like number of

days at another period*." The slightest indulgence, from the moment "when a white thread can "be distinguished from a dark, till the hour of "sun-set," might vitiate the whole virtue of the observancet. The saving efficacy is in the mode, not in the principle, in the punctiliousness of the performance, and not in the temper of the heart. The fast is not holy and efficacious according to the spirit with which it is observed, but, according as the day or month, during which it is observed, is holy or common. The very air during its continuance must not be too freely breathed, nor even the communications of speech indulged||; and the most learned of the Mahomedan doctors maintain that it is rendered inoperative and unholy, by cir cumstances which, in the estimate of common sense, would be considered as utterly disconnected with the duties of man, but which they enumerate and magnify with punctilious piety and sectarian zeal §. The Koran, however, is, on this subject, singularly inconsistent and contradictory. The obligation of frequent and formal fasts was enforced by numerous

*Koran, chap. ii. p. 33.

+ Koran, ch. ii.

# "It is an admitted tradition, that a fast of one day in a sacred month, is better than a fast of thirty days in another month; and that the fast of one day in Ràhmadan is more meritorious than a fast of thirty days in a sacred month." Sale. Prel. Disc. sect. iv. p. 150.

H

"I have vowed a fast to the Omnipotent, and therefore I cannot speak to a man this day." Kor. ch. xix. vol. ii. p. 131.

precepts and reiterated sanctions; and was classed among the highest of those duties which are indispensably necessary to the salvation of the sinner. Yet an ordinance so solemnly and emphatically enjoined, may, it seems, be omitted by the faithful Mussulman, at the expense of a slight and easy penalty. "Those who can keep the fast and do not, must redeem their neglect by maintaining of a poor man *." The act of charity is not required as a duty, but prescribed as a mulct. The fulfilment of one obligation is to atone for the contempt or disregard of another; and the votary is instructed to enter into a composition with God, and to believe that, however this imperfection of his abstinence may have merited the punishment of disobedience, he possesses, in an act of mercy, a supererogatory treasure to make satisfaction for his frailty.

The most zealous and learned of the commentators on the Koran are disturbed by this tenet, and they utterly and justly deny the doctrine of composition which it seems to affirm. They have, therefore, exercised all their ingenuity to rescue their prophet from the contradiction of, at once, requiring the observance, and authorizing the neglect, of one of his most solemn and essential institutions; but, after having tried every artifice of sophistry on the original text which has created the difficulty, they have been compelled to abandon their purpose altogether, and to shelter themselves and their religion under the convenient doctrine of celestial abrogation †.

Kor. ch. ii. pp. 32, 33. "By maintaining of a poor man ; according to the usual quantity which a man eats in a day, and the custom of the country. Sale. Note. Koran. ch. ii. pp. 32, 33. + Sale. Note on Kor. eh. ii. p. 32.

II. To the ordinance of fasts, the Koran has added the institution of pilgrimage. "Perform the

pilgrimage to Mecca, in the known months let it "be performed, and remember God the appointed "number of days in the valley of Mina-Proclaim "unto the people a solemn pilgrimage; let them "come unto thee on foot, and on every lean camel, "arriving from every distant road, that they may be "witnesses of the advantage arising from visiting the holy place, and that they may pay their vows, and compass the holy house." In the performance of this duty, from which even female feebleness is not exempt, every true disciple of Islem is faithful and exemplary. Once at least in their lives, the most unthinking of the moslems bend their knees on the sacred steps of the Caaba; but the more scrupulous and pious votaries frequently resort, from the most distant regions, to that consecrated temple. "It was "there that God gave the site of the house, for an "abode unto Abraham;" and "there is the scene of "the venerable Arafat and the holy mountain †." Patriarchs, and saints, and prophets, the primitive guides and teachers of mankind, walked and dwelt in those divine precincts. Celestial communications imparted there the precepts of life; and, there "the last and best" of the prophets planted the standard of

At

* Koran. ch. ii. pp. 35, 36. Kor. ch. xxii. p. 170. † Arafat is a mountain near Mecca. When Adam was driven out of paradise, he fell on the distant and desert island of Serendib or Ceylon, while the unhappy Eve was conducted to Jodda. length the father of men, having mitigated the wrath of God by his repentance, was led by the angel Gabriel to the mount of Arafat, where the long lost Eve was again restored to her husband. Hence the holy character of the mountain. D'Herbelot. Bibl. Oriental. p. 55.

Islem. Inflamed by these representations, the pilgrim proceeds from every part of the empire of the Mussulmans, to that memorable scene; and his piety is exercised with more exalted devotion on a spot where every object wears a sacred impress in his imagination, and where the most affecting monuments of divine power and wisdom tend to purify his meditations and elevate his faith.

Various were the painful or ludicrous observances required of the pilgrim, prior and subsequent to his pilgrimage, and during its continuance. He was to prepare for his holy wanderings by a long and rigid seclusion, and to exercise his piety on the way by numerous and afflicting austerities*. On his arrival at a certain distance from "the house wherein are "manifested signs," his piety was to display itself in the squalidness of his garb, and the neglect of his person t. His nails, his beard, and his hair, were to remain uncut until "he had fulfilled his vow;' and he was to enter the sacred territory with his head bare, and with a perfect heedlessness of every thing but the awful duties in which he was engaged.

On his arrival at Mecca, the wearied but sedulous votary is to commence a new series of pious observances. Seven times, beginning at the consecrated stone at the corner of the temple, he must proceed to encompass the wide extent of the Caaba; three

* To these austerities was frequently to be added hunger and thirst. Whatever might be his want of food, he was prohibited from the profane occupation of fowling and hunting, and permitted only to fish. Kor. ch. v. Sale, Prelim. Disc. sect. iv.

+ The pilgrims deem it a breach of the injunctions of their prophet to destroy the vermin, which multiply from neglect and dirt on their person. Sale. Prel. Disc. sect. iv.

Appendix, Note S. S..