[163] Cf. Lane, Modern Egyptians, p. 106.
[164] von Kremer, Culturgeschichte des Orients, i. 460.
[165] Burckhardt, Bedouins and Wahábys, p. 57.
[166] Burton, Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, i. 74.
[167] We can hardly regard as such the passage in the Koran (ii. 179) where it is said, “O ye who believe! There is prescribed for you the fast as it was prescribed for those before you; haply ye may fear.” The traditionists say that Muhammed was in the habit of spending the month of Ramaḍân every year in the cave at Hirâ, meditating and feeding all the poor who resorted to him, and that he did so in accordance with a religious practice which the Koreish used to perform in the days of their heathenism. Others add that ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib commenced the practice, saying “that it was the worship of God which that patriarch used to begin with the new moon of Ramaḍân, and continue during the whole of the month” (Muir, Life of Mahomet, ii. 56, n.* Sell, Faith of Islám, p. 316). But, as Muir remarks (op. cit. ii. 56, n.*), it is the tendency of the traditionists to foreshadow the customs and precepts of Islam as if some of them had existed prior to Muhammed, and constituted part of “the religion of Abraham.” See Jacob, ‘Der muslimische Fastenmonat Ramaḍân,’ in VI. Jahresbericht der Geographischen Gesellsch. zu Greifswald, pt. i. 1893-96, p. 2, sqq.
[168] Jacob, loc. cit. p. 5.
[169] Sell, op. cit. p. 317.
In various religions we meet with fasting as a form of penance, as a means of appeasing an angry or indignant God, as an expiation for sin.[170] The voluntary suffering involved in it is regarded as an expression of sorrow and repentance pleasing to God, as a substitute for the punishment which He otherwise would inflict upon the sinner; and at the same time it may be thought to excite His compassion, an idea noticeable in many Jewish fasts.[171] Among the Jews individuals fasted in cases of private distress or danger: Ahab, for instance, when Elijah predicted his downfall,[172] Ezra and his companions before their journey to Palestine,[173] the pious Israelite when his friends were sick.[174] Moreover, fasts were instituted for the whole community when it believed itself to be under divine displeasure, when danger threatened, when a great calamity befell the land, when pestilence raged or drought set in, or there was a reverse in war.[175] Four regular fast-days were established in commemoration of various sad events that had befallen Israel during the captivity;[176] and in the course of time many other fasts were added, in memory of certain national troubles, though they were not regarded as obligatory.[177] The law itself enjoined fasting for the great day of atonement only.
[170] Wasserschleben, Die Bussordnungen der abendländischen Kirche, passim (Christianity). Koran, ii. 192; iv. 94; v. 91, 96; lviii. 5. Jolly, ‘Recht und Sitte,’ in Bühler, Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie, p. 117; Dubois, Description of the Character, &c. of the People of India, p. 160 (Brahmanism). Clavigero, History of Mexico, i. 285. On the occasion of any public calamity the Mexican high-priest retired to a wood, where he constructed a hut for himself, and shut up in this hut he passed nine or ten months in constant prayer and frequent effusions of blood, eating only raw maize and water (Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana, ix. 25, vol. ii. 212 sq.).
[171] Cf. Benzinger, ‘Fasting,’ in Encyclopædia Biblica, ii. 1508; Schwally, Das Leben nach dem Tode nach den Vorstellungen des alten Israel, p. 26.