The education is delivered to everyone and anyone who wants it, they teach it in newly built schools and provide people with educational equipment. The educational programs they provide range from adults and pre-school teaching, to scholarship opportunities. ‘Through education we aim to give people the skills they need to create a sustainable, brighter future for themselves and their communities.’ (1) Before Muslim Aid can provide any education they as a priority must take care of everyone who is ill, or hurt. By using their healthcare programs, the free high quality healthcare that they provide saves many lives, and stops potentially deathly diseases. Most of the diseases that people catch in the poverty stricken areas are easy to cure, however the inhabitants do not have the equipment or the knowledge to stop the spreading problem. With the health problems that they face they can not even start to contemplate trying to earn some money for their families, some families who live in poverty live off 60 pence a day- if they are lucky, this is not enough for a single person, let alone a whole family! Muslim Aid’s is mission to heal everyone that they can, is not just so their patient’s can get better, so that they can support themselves and their families, and to relieve them from the vicious poverty circle that they live in, to give their whole community a better and a more successful future.
Muslim Aid is very well known for its child care programs, one of the main projects that it runs is called ‘the rainbow family’ (1). The Rainbow family’s ‘vision is to develop and grow strong independent individuals, all capable of becoming leaders and role models for the future.’ (3) Unlike most organizations Muslim aid takes a lot of care in choosing in which family they place a child. There are approximately 143 million orphans in the world, however the Rainbow family wants to support all of the orphans that they can, to give them a brighter future,-regardless of their race, religion, or their gender. Rainbow Family is a partner with Muslim Aid, and Muslim Aid has been working in this field for twenty-two years, they have a lot of experience and use it to ensure success in the Rainbow Family organisation.
Rasulullah Muhammad (PBUH) said"…Whoever supports an orphan from among his own or any other family, he will be as close to me in Heaven as these fingers are close to each other…"
AO2- Explain what inspirers a Muslim to carry out this work Muslim Aid do so much for so many people
The inspirational teams that help the thousands of people in need are Muslims; Muslims everywhere follow the Qu’ran and Muhammad. They are told to follow the five pillars of Islam, and one of those pillars is called Zakat, meaning charity tax. ‘Zakat (زكاة) is the Islamic concept of tithing and alms. It is an obligation on Muslims to pay 2.5% of their wealth to specified categories in society when their annual wealth exceeds a minimum level (nisab)’. (4) However if the family can not afford to pay 2.5% of their annual income, or there wage is below the nisab then they do not have to pay, Allah will forgive them, but if one week a family have enough money to spare then they can pay their Zakah, Allah will not punish them if they do not pay their Zakah if they can not afford. The giving of Zakah started in al-Madinah to look after the widows and the orphans, wealth is a gift from Allah and Muslims believe that it should be shared. They share their wealth happily to show the unity and the brotherhood of the Muslim Umma (community).
‘Spend your wealth for the cause of Allah, and do not be cast to ruin by your own hands; do good! Lo! Allah loves the generous.’ (Surah 2:195)
Muslims give money to purify themselves, it helps them to fight greed, jealously, hatred and envy; it helps them to grow spiritually,- however they cannot grow if they do not have the right intention when they give their Zakah. If they give their charity away to be acknowledged by others, or admired due to their generosity it would show a lack of their true faith in their God Allah, ‘for the giver has forgotten that Allah knows every motive.’(6) The Zakah that is usually given is normally given anonymously; the Muslim Umma would not want to draw attention to themselves, as it could encourage them to seek attention and possible power. Muslims everywhere share their wealth with ‘the poor, the needy, the debtor,’ (5) and ‘the prisoner,’ (5), but the Zakah that they send out is only sent to Muslims. Muslims believe strongly that Allah is compassionate, and they believe that they too should be compassionate. Their compassion is shown in the Zakah that they give.
‘He is not a believer who eats his fill whilst his neighbour remains hungry by his side’, (Hadith).
Some Muslims choose to give more then the compulsory 2.5% of their annual income, when they chose to give something else it would be by personal choice, this is called Sadaqah, a Muslim can give whatever they want whether it is bread left over from the bakes at the end of the week, or part of their birthday money, so that no one near them can say their Jumah prayer to Allah thinking of their hunger. Some Muslims give their Zakah or Sadaqah though their local mosque, in the Zakah box, whilst others send their money straight to a Muslim charity, like Muslim Aid, they can either do this online, or by the post.
Muhammad once moved from Makah to Medina, there were people who needed help and were suffering so they came together as a group to look after each other. Muhammad said that Umma, - all the Muslims together should look after and protect each other. Muslims believe that God decided who was to be rich and who was to be poor and that the wealthy should give to the poor, - we came into this world with nothing, no food or no clothes, and we leave the world this way too, with nothing. Muslim’s believe that ‘there is no point in clinging foolishly to possessions, or even worse, letting them become your masters.’ (6).
Muhammad teaches all Muslim everywhere to be generous and selfless; Muslims try to follow the teachings of Muhammad to make the world a better place. Muhammad gave charity when he could and many stories still spread around the world though Muslim’s of his kindness. One of the most well-known stories is when Muhammad and Aisha his wife fed a starving man who was poverty-stricken, the two of them together only had 2 meals a day to share, but the fed the poor man everything that they had that day, and pretended to eat from bowls- which were empty, so that the man would not feel guilty. Muslim’s everywhere respect Muhammad and look up to him, the follow his rules that he set down a long time ago, rights about women, children, animals and cruelty.
‘So fear God as much as ye can; listen and obey and spend in charity for the benefit of your own soul and those saved from the covetousness of their own souls, - they are the ones that achieve prosperity’. AT-TAGHABUN Verse 064.016
Muslim’s believe that everyone in the world is kind and generous, and everyone would give something big or small away to the ‘needy’ (5), even if it is in the form of tax. Muslim’s try as much as they can to be compassionate and caring, and
spread their compassion around the world. Muhammad changed the lives of millions of Muslim’s; he stopped them from gambling, drinking alcohol and forcing sexual relationships on their slaves. ‘Do not charge interest on money loaned to those who have need of it.’(6) Zakah works so well because of this rule, Muhammad saw a balance between the rich and the poor, they both help each other out in times of need and desperation. One of the other most important rules that Muslim’s follow is ‘Gladden the heart of the afflicted, feed the hungry, give comfort to the sorrowful, and remove the wrongs of the injured,’ (6) and they do everything in their power to fulfill this.
AO3- ‘Charity work is a short term solution to the problem faced by the poor.’ Do you agree? Give you reasons to support your answer and show that you have thought about different points of view.
Charity can easily be seen as a short term solution, because many of the organizations that help the people around the world who need their help can not stay in one place for a long period of time, they have to move on and help others also because the help that they usually need to give, is because the need that they require is a short term need, for example feeding a hungry man, who could not pay for food that day, or someone that is sick, they can heal him, he is better and does not need the charities help anymore. So charity could be seen as a short term solution, as it doesn’t always provide everyone with the skills and the equipment to keep their lives stable forever.
However some charities today are creating long term programs, that will provide a family with nourishment for all of their life, they would pass on their new learnt knowledge to the younger generations and protect the community they live in. Some other charities with long term solutions include fitting village with water, or building homes, these give the families a better life and a healthier way of living.
But on the other hand, a well can be damaged, or cave in during a storm, homes can be destroyed or damaged because of the often extreme weather that people experience in certain areas. The community would not know how to repair of re-build their homes or other buildings, they would not know how to repair broken wells, or piping underground.
Muslims would disagree saying that the Charities that they send money to are working hard to develop long-term solutions, and the short term solutions can help mask the problems until they can completely repair the damaged lives and areas in which these people live. Muslim Aid have created a fully equipped ambulance in a village in Palestine, the village will take a lot of pride in their new ambulance, they will make sure that it will never stop running.
The poor face hunger, homelessness and war; these are the main problems that face the millions in poverty. All of these problems stem from greed, and as much as anyone like a charity would want to remove all greed from the planet they cannot, so they must instead try to heal the people who are affected by the greed that plagues their lives. So in actual fact as much as a charity could provide a community with a lifetime of knowledge and food, the disease that creates all of the problems will carry on because nobody is there that can heal the greed.
I think that charity is a short term solution, however the charities today are more advanced and take a lot of care in to providing someone with enough knowledge and security that they will be able to look after themselves for ever, they would teach their children their knew found skills, and provide their family with food and a good home for generations. Nevertheless if a disaster strikes then the people in that area, are back in the cyclical circle of poverty, unable to escape or repair the problem, they could lose their homes and not have the materials to re-build their houses, their land could have been destroyed and their food source diminished. These devastated people would be in the same place that they were before and have to wait for the charities to come and re-build their lives for them again.
Conclusion
I have learnt a lot from this project, I have discovered a lot more about Muslims views toward charity, and how it affects their religion. The ideas that I had before, that I struggled to understand, I now grasp. Now that I have completed this project I can see not only the values of charity, but the generosity in every Muslims life, and the way he or she feels towards the people in the world who are less fortunate then themselves and are in dire need. If I didn’t complete this project, I know that I would still have been very ignorant towards charity and Muslims views of charity.
Bibliography
Alexandra Hebden
Religious Studies Coursework
20/05/2008