Page:Thomas Patrick Hughes - Notes on Muhammadanism - 2ed. (1877).djvu/142

Rh pared with the ascetic spirit of the times. Sir Wilham Muir thinks Muhammad did not foresee that, when he changed the Jewish intercalary year for the lunar year, that the fast would become a grievous burden instead of an easy one; but Muhammadan lexicographers say, the fast was established when the month occurred in the hot season (see note, p. 119).

During the month of Ramazán twenty additional rakʾats, or forms of prayer, are repeated after the night prayer. These are called Taráwíh.

Devout Muslims seclude themselves for some time in the Mosque curing this month, and abstain from all worldly conversation and engage themselves in the reading of the Qurán. This seclusion is called ʾItiqáf. Muhammad is said to have usually observed this custom for the last ten days of Ramazán.

The Laylut-ul-Qadr, or the "night of power," is said by Muhammad to be either on the twenty-first, twenty-third, or twenty-fifth, or twenty-seventh, or twenty-ninth. The exact date of this solemn night has not been dis-