'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎122] (131/568)

122
RELIGIONS
Koran includes resurrection, last judgement, paradise^, and hell.
Qiyas is the process by which a belief or practice is justified on the
ground that something similar is expressly enjoined by the Koran,
tradition, or ijma. Ijma is the universal consent, which is held to
justify practices or beliefs, although they are not warranted by the
Koran or tradition, and may be inconsistent with the teaching ot
one or both. Law in Mohammedan countries is in theory essentially
religious, based on the Koran and the traditions (see further on this
point pp. 146-7).
(6) The acts of worship enjoined by Islam are five in number : (i) the
recital of the creed ; (ii) observance of the five daily prayers ; (iii) fast
in the month of Ramadan ; (iv) giving of alms ; (v) the pilgrimage to
Mecca. The creed ('there is no God but God, Mohammed is the
messenger of God ') is the main article of belief, to be professed
without hesitation at any time until death. The consist of
prescribed ejaculations, petitions, and recital of parts of the Koran,
accompanied by certain gestures of the body, at the following five
stated times : dawn, just after noon, before sunset, just after sunset,
and after the day has closed. The worshipper must be in a state ot
ceremonial cleanness, for which certain ablutions are required. In
order to prevent contact with anything unclean, prayer is usually
performed on a praying-carpet. The extent to which this obligation
is discharged varies greatly in different places, and with social and
other conditions: it is on the whole more scrupulously observed in
the towns than in the desert, and by the poor than by the rich.
Where prayer is offered in assembly, there is a leader who repeats
the formulae in front of the congregation. The where
public prayer is offered, has one or more minarets, from the top of
which the muezzin call the devout to prayer at the appointed time.
Attendance at public prayer is theoretically obligatory on Fridays at
noon, when a short sermon of about 5 minutes' length is delivered.
Hostility may be aroused by Christians who at any time enter, or
show curiosity in, a mosque; this applies especially to the principal
Shiah mosques. The fast is in the month Ramadan, ' wherein the
Koran was revealed': it is perhaps borrowed from the Jews or
Eastern Christians. By fasting is meant abstinence from food,
solid and liquid, and from smoking from sunrise to sunset. Owing
to the fact that the Moslem calendar is lunar, Ramadan falls at dif
ferent periods in different years. In 1919 it will last from May 31
to June 30. The fast, when it comes in summer, is a cause of
great suffering to those who observe it, who are the same class as those
who perform their prayer with regularity. So far as is possible the
inconvenience is met by sleeping in daytime. The fast is thought