In Islam wealth is something that is thought to be a gift from god; this is very much like in Christianity. Muslims believe that if someone is wealthy they should give to the poor, this is known as Zakah. Zakah is an Arabic word meaning purification, and the reason many Muslims give Zakah is because it “purifies” their money.
Firstly Muslims believe that wealth is a good thing when some of it is given to charity. Muslims adopt this view from the Q’uran which says “those who in charity……..have their reward with their lord” Surah 2:274. This shows that n Islam wealth is accepted as long as the person or people don’t become greedy and worshipers of their money.
Secondly Muslims don’t accept wealth if someone becomes greedy, they believe that someone who becomes greedy forgets his morals taught to him in Islam and therefore not a Muslim any more. Muslims also get this view from the Q’uran, from Hadith which says “he who eats and drinks whilst his brother goes hungry is not one of us. This shows that Muslims have a controversial view about wealth, on one hand they accept it and on the other they don’t. This is very much like the Christians controversial view about wealth.
There are striking similarities between Islam and Christianity when it comes to the subject of wealth and poverty, for example the both believe that wealth is a gift from god and they also both believe that it is their moral responsibility as Christians and Muslims to help those living in poverty. Overall Muslims and Christians have pretty much exactly the same attitude towards the subject of wealth and poverty.
1) B)
Religious agencies are like any normal aid charity except that their motivation is religious for example the purpose of Christian aid is to follow Jesus’ teachings. Religious agencies are very important because they help the poor and often forgotten about people like the Rwandan people, their eighteen year was forgotten about by most of the world except the religious agencies like Christian and Muslim aid.
Another way in which Christian aid helps poor countries is through emergency aid. Emergency aid is more preferred to long term because without it people would die. Christian aid uses it emergency fund to deal with natural disasters and a sudden influx of refugees. An example of Christian aid helping a country in a state of emergency would be when they sent food, antibiotics and shelters to the victims in Honduras of the 1998 hurricanes. Another example of emergency aid is when Christian aid sent tents, blankets and food the war stricken Bosnia. About 13% of Christian aid’s annual funds go towards emergency aid.
A third way in which Christian aid assists poor countries is through long term aid. Christian aid provides long term aid through financing local organization which comes up with the ideas for long term sustainable development. Christian aid has helped farmers in America and Columbia by financing a farmer’s organization which would develop the land and help them keep their homes. Another place where Christian aids long term aid has helped is in Bangladesh where it funded a group of health workers and financed their basic drug making factory. Christian aid has also helped in Lesotho where it financed a local agricultural school which aims to increase food production by minimizing soil erosion. The purpose of long term aid is to help people help themselves so in the future they won’t need foreign aid.
2)
Poverty is a world wide problem and billions of people suffer from poverty. It’s such a large problem that people split the world in to two large categories known as the “north south divide”. Basically what the “north south divide” means is that the rich and developed countries like the USA and Briton are in the north side and the less developed poor countries like Bangladesh and Srilanka are on the south side. Some people think that there should be no rich people until there are no poor people and they argue the there are people dieing from hunger whilst others can afford to feed an army.
Christian view on the matter of wealth and poverty is clear; they believe that wealth as a gift from god and therefore should be shared with the poor. They believe that it is okay that there are rich and people that co-exist as long as the rich help the poor.
The Christian view is very much the same as the Muslim view on the issue of wealth and poverty. Muslims believe that wealth is something of a gift from god and MUST be shred with the poor. When Muslims give money to the poor it’s called Zakah and Zakah is one of the five pillars of Islam so Muslims must do it.
I think that the issue of wealth and poverty can be viewed in different ways but I think that it is right to have rich while there is poor because if there weren’t poor there wouldn’t be rich.
