The ways in which this passage suggests that people should help the poor are the more practical ways of helping people by sharing your food with the hungry and offering shelter to those whom are homeless. It also tells of how you should donate clothes to those who are homeless and that most importantly, to never refuse your relatives help. The passage tells of how God will help those who care for those in need as it claims that his “favour” will shine on you, healing your wounds and that his “presence will protect you on every side”. By obeying the words proclaimed in this verse by the prophet Isiah, God will welcome you and accept you as a good Christian.
It was recently discovered that when The Old Testament was being written, the historians who were composing the history of their people chose to include stories which would help emphasise the way that God wanted men and women to live and treat the poor. An example of these stories is of Naboth’s Vineyard told in 1 Kings 21. This passage emphasises that the poor should be respected, especially when they stand up to you and should not be exploited. In this story, Naboth stands up to Ahab who attempts to buy his vineyard off of him by saying that he cannot seek the vineyard as it was prohibited by the Lord God. In reaction to this, Ahab allowed the fabrication of letters organising the death of Naboth by Jezebel, so that he could inherit Naboth’s Vineyard. This goes ahead, but the Lord interceded Ahab when he was standing in the Vineyard by allowing Elijah to appear before him and warn him of the sin that he had committed and of the punishment of death suffered by Jezebel. This story emphasises that God will not tolerate those who disrespect or exploit the poor.
In The New Testament, Luke 2:1-20, tells the story of Jesus’ birth and how he seemed to identify with the poor from his beginning as he was born in a lowly stable, wrapped in “swaddling” clothes and was laid down in a manger. These early experiences, it is noted that Jesus could identify with the situation of the poor as he was born into a poor family and in deprived conditions due to the fact that there was no room at any inn for him to be born. The things within this story that connect Jesus to being able to identify with the poor are the circumstances of his birth, the situation and class of his parents and that the first to visit him were three shepherds.
Written in The New Testament is the teaching of John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin which responded to the teachings of the prophets from The Old Testament as he claimed in Luke 3:11 “…Whoever has two shirts must give one to the man who has none, and whoever has food must share it”, promoting his beliefs of those who are worse of than yourself should be helped in every way.
Jesus’ specific teaching was concerning the Kingdom of God. In his day, the majority of people that God had blessed were those who were wealthy, and so it was a sign that they would then be accepted into heaven. Jesus contradicted this message by telling them that the important people in the Kingdom were the social outcasts such as the sinners, lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes and the poor, not necessarily the reputable, wealthy and respected. Jesus’ message is outlined in Luke 6:20-21.
Jesus was echoed constantly throughout the Gospels, which initiated the belief that the poor were equally important in the Kingdom of God. In the New Testament, Mark 10:17-22, a story is told of a man who is seeking advice on how to obtain eternal life. He asks Jesus what he should do and in response, Jesus bids him to sell every possession that he owns give the money he receives for these goods to the poor and to join his following. By following Jesus, you are to live a simple life, not caring for material possessions and trusting in God for their necessities. In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus tells of how you are to “lay up your treasures in heaven…for where your treasure is, there will be your heart also”, outlining his belief that you cannot serve both God and money.
Throughout The New Testament, there is great emphasis that Jesus’ followers should serve the poor and only the poor. There is evidence of this as the Gospels imply that God will punish those who do not do this. In Luke 16:19-31, the story of the rich man and Lazarus is told. This story is of a rich man who lived a comfortable life in contrast to the beggar Lazarus who lived a cursed life. When the both died, Lazarus went to heaven and the rich man was sent to be tormented in hell. When the rich man questioned Abraham why he was not taken pity on, Abraham replied that the beggar had lived a wretched life and so now deserved a comfortable afterlife, whereas the rich man had lived a luxurious life and so deserved to be eternally tormented. This teaches Christians about the great responsibility that the rich should undertake to respect and help the poor at every opportunity, enforcing the idea that if they do not conform to this idea, they shall be plagued in their afterlife.
In the parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew’s Gospel 25: 31-46, the passage emphasises that people are judged on their actions that they do to benefit those who are not as well off as they are. It tells of how those who do their best to help others even if it means depriving themselves will be sent to heaven and those who are selfish and ignore the needs of others will be sent to hell to live an afterlife of suffering. Jesus who says that he identifies with the poor so much that those who help the poor are indeed helping Jesus in addition, unbeknownst to them, not realising the good that they have done. This belief therefore teaches Christians to believe that their duty is to serve the poor and do it in “obedience to Christ”.
In conclusion, it is obvious that the main motivation for Christians to help the poor is because they are serving Jesus as they serve the poor due to his connection with them and that God welcomes those who are willing to help others even if they are depriving themselves.
The response of the Church is slightly divided between the two denominations of Christianity; the Catholic Church and The Church of England. It is written in the Bible that it is a Christian’s duty to help those who are poor or in need as God is noted as being “on the side of the poor”.
The Roman Catholic Church take their responsibilities of caring for the poor very seriously and are encouraged to help those in great need. In 1987, pope John Paul II distributed an encyclical called Social Concern, Sollicitudo Rei Sociallis in Italian. Within it were the causes of poverty and there was great emphasis on the fact that the problems that cause long-term poverty are problems that are unavoidable. It was noted as saying that all of the money that is spent carelessly on weapons could effortlessly provide clothes, food, housing and the opportunities for education and medical care for the entire current population of the world. Unfortunately, hazards such as natural disasters occur frequently, causing short-term poverty in lesser economically developed areas, but it is felt that it could be dealt with more adequately rather than tending to ignore things in the hope of them disappearing.
The Catholic Church believes that the reason many things are not as they are because the methods of our thinking have been immoral, really that poverty has been caused by the great sin of the world. The Catholic Church believes that the only reason people are interested in development is so to profit from it and do not take into account human rights or basic morals, or most importantly how God wants and initially intended the world to be. Due to the selfishness of those who have been more interested in gaining from issues such as trade and politics, is why the world is in the state it is today and is the reason behind why so many are living in poverty and deprivation. These problems are known as the structures of sin in the Catholic Church.
In hope of improving the countries living in poverty, the Catholic Church teaches its followers to conform with a duty of knowing about the problems concerning poverty in the world today and to pray for and act to protect the poor who are going without. The attitude of the Catholic Church is that by changing the hearts of their Christians, they can then go on to change the single and particular sins which congest and build up into the structures of sin that can be depicted from trade and politics nowadays. In countless parishes, certain groups called the ‘Justice and Peace groups’ have been set up in order to tackle the ever-growing issue of poverty. Here, Catholics can meet and discuss the teachings of the Catholic Church about poverty and from here, can then hopefully be able to act on it. The company CAFOD, The Catholic Fund for Oversees Development, was set up in order to help those in need, and Catholics can join this association and become involved in its work.
Similarly to the Catholic Church, in 1983 the Church of England’s Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, David Sheppard wrote a book called “Bias to the Poor” with which he highlighted several issues proving Christianity to have a strong bias towards the poor and needy, and told of how Christians are to work against the injustices of poverty.
The issues raised by David Sheppard were recognised by the Church of England in 1983 and in reaction, the Archbishop of Canterbury summoned for a Commission to look at the problems of poverty within cities. When the report was published in 1985, it criticised a number of policies created by the Government, which supposedly kept people poor. The report also urged Christians to question their own morality, the morality of their system of economics, which unfortunately seemed to keep the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Likewise to the Catholics, Anglican parishes contribute a large sum of their annual-income to deprived areas suffering from poverty.
Similarly to Christianity, Islam believes that wealth is a gift given by God and it recognises that money has control over your lifestyle, whether it is control over an individual or a nation. Muslims believe that they can have money and enjoy it, but similarly to Christians, they acknowledge that they must attain the right attitude towards money.
It is said in the Hadith, “Riches are sweet, and are a source of blessing for he who acquires them by the way; but they are not blessed for him who seeks them out of greed. He is like one who eats but is not filled.” This quote emphasises that those who acquire money through inheritance or by other similar means are to enjoy the money they possess and live a good life with it as it was distributed to them rightfully, but those who gain money from other people’s misfortune possessing the nature of greed will not be blessed by the convenience of having money. It is basically saying that people who have money should live a good Muslim life with it, accepting it as a blessing but Muslims should not seek it out for the sake of greed as it will not benefit them.
Within the Islamic faith, Muslims believe that life is a test in which each individual has free will, the freedom of choice and the consequence of responsibility. It is strongly believed that the test, which the poor have to endure, is one of patience and having to earn money by any means necessary, even if they are unlawful. By passing this test, Allah will reward the poor. For the rich, the test is much greater as it includes the realisation that wealth is a gift, which should be shared and used to benefit the poor, and the temptation for using it for unlawful purposes should be resisted, otherwise those who act upon this temptation will be punished.
The quote “If you had all of the gold on the earth, you could not buy your place in the Hereafter with it” taken from the Hadith again only emphasises that as wealth is acknowledged as a gift, it should not be exploited. It proves that just because you may be wealthy doesn’t guarantee you a place in the afterlife of Paradise and shows that Allah accepts all, especially those who have had to live without.
The quote “He is not a believer who eats his fill while his neighbour remains hungry” taken from the Hadith proves that Islam would not accept someone as a follower of their religion who would eat as much as they could whilst leaving their neighbour to go without. This shows that although wealth is greatly welcomed within the religion, it is again stressed that it is to be understood as a gift from Allah and should not be used to satisfy your own needs but to help others around you who are in need.
Within the religion of Islam, it is a conceived notion that all wealth is owned by Allah and only by Allah. They respect the fact that all Muslims do not own any possessions but are simply loaned things in trust by Allah and proves that if anything is to be sacrificed for God it is only being given back to its original, rightful owner. Muslims believe that Allah chooses who is rich and who is poor and so therefore the wealthy are grateful and are obliged to give to the poor. Muslims believe that it is foolish to attempt to cling to material goods as “naked you came into this world and naked you leave it”. Another belief held by the Islamic religion is that you will only receive the true value of something by giving it away for the sake of God.
Islam believes that wealth is a God-given gift and so those Muslims who are granted this gift of wealth are expected to be charitable and sympathetic to the poor. The quote “Those who in charity spend of their goods by night and by day, in secret and in public, have their reward with their Lord” taken from the Surah 2:274 emphasises this belief that by sharing what you have been given by God and helping those in need with the wealth you have been expended, in the eyes of God you are fulfilling your duty as a good Muslim, holding compassion for the poor. This is not seen as an option – Muslims are expected to recognise their duty to help the poor with whatever they have and within Islam, there are three main ways of which they help the poor. They are as follows:
- Zakah
Zakah is understood as the third pillar of Islam and all of the Muslims in the world today who are financially comfortable are expected to grant a quota of their savings annually as zakah to help the poor who are living in deprivation. Zakah is sometimes known as a tax but really should be recognised as a higher form of worship, Ibadah. It is extremely common in the UK for Muslims to pay Zakah by contributing to their local mosque or placing it in a collection box and then a committee of the mosque decides how and what it should be spent on.
Zakah is officially known as a benefit provided to help those in need and is spent in a number of different ways in an attempt to reach the majority of the poor population. It can be spent for example, including converts to Islam, relieving debt of poor people, assisting and providing for the poorer people of their community and supplying education of Islam. It is forbidden to spend this money on a mosque, as it would be like buying yourself a present instead of giving to others.
It is understood that the more wealthy someone is, they more they should contribute as Zakah is only taken from savings, and its main aim is to transfer more money to the poor from the rich to close up the gap of inequality. Zakah encourages Muslims to give money from their jobs to help others rather than allowing them to accumulate a large sum of money, which is frowned upon by Allah.
Surprisingly, it is not only the receivers who gain from Zakah as the giver does too. The word “Zakah” translated means “Growth” or “Purification”. Zakah prohibits greed and egotism and also manages to be a heightened form of worship as Allah can be worshiped through providing for others, especially as all wealth is known to belong to Allah. The only problem with Zakah is that savings must be given every year whether the individual wants to or not.
- Zakat-ul-Fitr
This is another form of payment towards the end of each year near Ramandan. It is well known that fasting during the month of Ramadan is the fourth pillar of Islam, and through fasting, most Muslims say that this is when they identify most with the poor. This month-long fast ends with the Id-ul-Fitr festival and at this time, Muslims are expected to provide willingly to those in need and these provisions are known as Zakat-ul-Fitr.
- Sadaqah
This is known as a good deed that must be done for the sake of Allah rather than for yourself, for selfish reasons and can be practised at any time and any place. It may include having to give up prayer, time, talents or money or it can even be something small in comparison, for example, picking up a piece of litter – Sadaqah can often be given through a will after someone’s death.
In conclusion the belief of poverty and wealth within Islam is that Allah is definitely on the side of the poor, as it is made clear in all of their holy books that greed is condemned and Muslims should all take part in giving to the poor. The acts that Muslims invest in, to provide for the needy are worthwhile schemes and are helping relieve poverty dramatically although not as much as it would like. Overall, the Muslim beliefs on poverty are very similar to the Christian, in the way that they both believe that the poor should be respected and cared for. If the teachings were put into action, poverty may eventually relieved.
