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THE KORAN.
115

not the bad thereof to give it in alms, such as ye would not accept yourselves otherwise than by connivance, and know that God is rich and worthy to be praised! If ye make your alms to appear, it is well: but if ye conceal them and give them to the poor, this will be better for you, and atone for your sins[1]." Again, "Believe in God and his Apostle, and lay out in alms a part of the wealth, whereof God has made you partakers: for unto such of you as believe and bestow alms shall be given a great reward[2]." Particular directions are given in the Koran respecting the measure of alms, the Musuiman must bestow a tenth of his revenue, and "if his conscience accuse him of fraud and extortion, the tenth, under the idea of restitution, is enlarged to a fifth[3]." The principle of

  1. See Koran chapter 2, entitled The Cow.
  2. Ibid. chapter 56, entitled The Inevitable.
  3. See Gibbon.