George Sale, The Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed, translated into English immediately from the original Arabic; with Explanatory Notes, taken from the most approved Commentators. To which is prefixed A Preliminary Discource (1734)

As this doctrine of absolute election and reprobation has been thought by many of the Mohammedan divines to be derogatory to the goodness and justice of God, and to make God the author of evil; several subtle distinctions have been invented, and disputes raised, to explicate or soften it; and different sects have been formed, according to their several opinions, or methods of explaining this point: some of them going so far as even to hold the direct contrary position, of absolute free will in man, as we shall see hereafter ¹.

Of prayer, and the previous purifications.
Of the four fundamental points of religious practice required by the Korân, the first is prayer, under which, as has been said, are also comprehended those legal washings or purifications which are necessary preparations thereto.

Of these purifications there are two degrees, one called Ghosl, being a total immersion or bathing of the body in water; and the other called Wodû, (by the Persians, Abdest) which is the washing of their faces, hands, and feet, after a certain manner. The first is required in some extraordinary cases only, as after having lain with a woman, or been polluted by emission of seed, or by approaching a dead body; women also being obliged to it after their courses or childbirth. The latter is the ordinary ablution in common cases, and before prayer, and must necessarily be used by every person before he can enter upon that duty ². It is performed with certain formal ceremonies, which have been described by some writers, but are much easier apprehended by seeing them done, than by the best description.

These purifications were perhaps borrowed by Mohammed of the Jews, at least they agree in a great measure with those used by that nation ³, who in process of time burthened the precepts of Moses in this point, with so many traditionary ceremonies, that whole books have been written about them, and who were so exact and superstitious therein even in our Saviour’s time, that they are often reproved by him for it ⁴. Buc as it is certain that the pagan Arabs used lustrations of this kind ⁵, long before the time of Mohammed, as most nations did, and still do in the east, where the warmth of the climate requires a greater nicery and degree of cleanliness than these colder parts; perhaps Mohammed only recalled his countrymen to a more strict observance of those purifying rites, which had been probably neglected by them, or at least performed in a careless and perfunctory manner. The Mohammedans however will have it that they are as