Page:Thomas Patrick Hughes - Notes on Muhammadanism - 2ed. (1877).djvu/149

 128 6. Proselytes to Muhammadanism.

The Zakát, or legal alms, must be distinguished from the Sadaqa, or offerings, which is a term more especially applied to the offerings on the ʾId-ul-Fitr (q.v.) although it is used for almsgiving in general.

As far as we have been able to ascertain, it does not appear that the Muhammadans of the present day are very regular in the payment of the Zakát, which ought to be given on the termination of a year's possession. In countries under Muhammadan rule it is exacted by Government.

It is somewhat remarkable that Muhammad in his institution of legal almsgiving did not more closely copy the Jewish law in the giving of the "tenths," more particularly as the number ten appears to have been so frequently preferred as a number of selection in the cases of offerings in both sacred and secular history. The Muhammadan Zakát, however, differs very materially from the Jewish tithe; for the latter was given to the Levites of the Temple, and employed by them for their own support and for that of the priests, as well as for festival