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)
circumcision 1. Tho’ I cannot say the Jews led the Mohammedans the way here, yet they seem so unwilling to believe any of the principal patriarchs or prophets before Abraham were really uncircumcised, that they pretend several of them, as well as some holy men who lived after his time, were born ready circumcised, or without a foreskin, and that Adam, in particular, was so created 2; whence the Mohammedans affirm the same thing of their prophet 3.
Prayer was by Mohammed thought so necessary a duty, that he used to call it the pillar of religion, and the key of paradise; and when the Thakisites, who dwelt at Tâyef, sending in the ninth year of the Hejra to make their submission to that prophet, after the keeping of their favourite idol had been denied them 4, begged, at least, that they might be dispensed with as to their saying of the appointed prayers, he answered, That there could be no good in that religion wherein was no prayer 5.
That so important a duty, therefore, might not be neglected, Mohammed obliged his followers to pray five times every twenty-four hours, at certain stated times; viz. 1. In the morning, before sunrise: 2. When noon is past, and the sun begins to decline from the meridian: 3. In the afternoon, before sun-set: 4. In the evening, after sun-set, and before day be shut in: and 5. After the day is shut in, and before the first watch of the night 6. For this institution he pretended to have received the divine command from the throne of God himself, when he took his night-journey to heaven: and the observing of the stated times of prayer is frequently insisted on in the Korân, tho’ they be not particularly prescribed therein. Accordingly, at the aforesaid times, of which public notice is given by the Muedhdbins, or Cryers, from the steeples of their Mosques, (for they use no bells,) every consciencious Moslem prepares himself for prayer, which he performs either in the Mosque or any other place, provided it be clean, after a prescribed form, and with a certain number of praises or ejaculations (which the more scrupulous count by a string of beads) and using certain postures of worship; all which
1 This is the substance of the following passage of the Gospel of Barnabas, (chap. 23) viz. Entonces dixo Jesus; Adam el primer hombre aviendo comido por engano del demonio la comida prohibida por Dios en el parayso, se le rebelo su carne à su espiritu; por lo qual jurò diziendo, Por Dios que yo te quiero cortar; y rompiendo una piedra tomò su carne para cortarla con el corte de la piedra. Por loqual sue reprehendido del angel Gabriel, y el le dixo; Yo be jurado por Dios que lo be de cortar, y mentiroso no lo serè jamas. Ala hora el angel le enseno la superfluidad de su carne, y a quella cortò. De manera que ansi como todo hombre toma carne de Adam, ansi esta obligado a cumplir aquello que Adam con juramento prometió.
2 Shallhel. hakkabala. V. Poc. Spec. p. 320. Gagn er, Not. in Abulfed. vit. Moh. p. 2.
3 V. Poc. Spec. p. 304.
4 See before, p. 18.
5 Abulfed. vit. Moh. p. 127.
6 V. ibid. p. 38, 39.
