Page:History of Mahomet, that grand impostor.pdf/37

 of the service seem in the least to abate their zeal and devotion.

The next indispensable duty of the Mahometans, and without which even their prayers are held to be vain and ineffectual, is that of alms giving; but their doctors are not agreed by what rules every one ought to measure their charity. Some think a man is obliged to give annually a tenth part of his substance to the poor; others say that a fortieth, and some that a hundredth is sufficient. The truth is, they are commanded to give different proportions of different sorts of goods, and are also advised to regard no limits in their liberality to the necessitous. Hence it comes to pass, that many give a fourth of what they are worth, others a third, and some give half of their estates once in their lifetime; nay, there have been instances of men who have given all their fortunes to the poor, and lived ever after upon alms themselves. There is no people in the world among whom poverty is so honourable as among the Mahometans, who say of a person that makes a voluntary profession of it, “That as he possesses nothing, so he is professed by nothing;” by which they mean to suggest, that in the midst of his poverty, he is master of himself and of the world, on account of that freedom from carnal desires which they suppose he enjoys, whilst the rest of mankind are slaves to their passions and insatiable appetites.

The Mahometans look upon circumcision rather as a mark of obedience to their religion, than an essential law, and that it is not absolutely necessary to salvation, though the omission is generally esteemed sinful, and believe that children may be saved without it. The