Page:Thomas Patrick Hughes - Notes on Muhammadanism - 2ed. (1877).djvu/157

 136 direction to which Muslims are to pray. Mosques are, therefore, always erected Qibla-wards. At the commencement of Islám, the Qibla was Jerusalem; but when Muhammad failed to conciliate the Jews to his prophetic pretensions, he made the Kʾaba the Qibla, or the direction in which to pray.

The pilgrimage cannot be performed by proxy, as some English authors have stated, although it is considered a meritorious act to pay the expenses of one who cannot afford to perform it. But if a Muhammadan on his death-bed bequeath a sum of money to be paid to a certain person to perform the pilgrimage, it is considered to satisfy the claims of the Muslim law. If a Muslim have the means of performing the pilgrimage, and omit to do so, its omission is equal to a kabíra, or mortal sin.