Outline Christian teaching, and the teaching of ONE other religion, on wealth and poverty
Outline Christian teaching, and the teaching of ONE other religion, on wealth and poverty.
Christians believe that all the creation belongs to God as told in the 'Psalm 50:12' God says, " For the world is mine and everything in it is mine" and mankind is only to look after it for the time being.
The Luke 3:11 makes clear that anyone who has wealth must divide it as it says, "whoever has two shirts must give one to the man who has none and whoever has food must share it."
Another leading message was pass on by the parable of the 'man and the Lazarus' (Luke 16:190-31) where the rich man was sent to hell for not giving food to the beggar.
Christians have faith in to put the right attitudes towards the wealth and consider that they should always use it properly so they don't fall for the wrong concept of loving it and act greedy and be selfish, as mentioned in Matthew 6:24 'wealth can be dangerous as it can easily be worshipped'. This saying also links up with the parable of the 'rich and poor', in which the man saved up all his earnings and never shared a single bit and in the end he was demanded for his life and couldn't do anything with his savings. This describes Christianity teaches that everyone is to die one day and God is the one who owns you and everything and when he takes your life away then you had be left with nothing and wealth will not help you.
Christians also consider earning their wealth in the correct way along with the accurate use of it. They believe wealth can lead people to do sins in order to earn it as told in 1 Timothy 6: 9-10 'for love of money is a root of all kind of evil', therefore they must earn it the right way; example of their sin may be to gamble, fraud, or black male another for gaining prosperity.
'If God gives a man wealth and property he should be grateful and enjoy what he has worked for' (Ecclesiastes 5:19), this ...
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Christians also consider earning their wealth in the correct way along with the accurate use of it. They believe wealth can lead people to do sins in order to earn it as told in 1 Timothy 6: 9-10 'for love of money is a root of all kind of evil', therefore they must earn it the right way; example of their sin may be to gamble, fraud, or black male another for gaining prosperity.
'If God gives a man wealth and property he should be grateful and enjoy what he has worked for' (Ecclesiastes 5:19), this explains that man who has wealth should be happy for what he has received from God than wanting even more.
Christians donate one tenth of their earnings as their duty towards helping the poor. They review their reasons to help the poor, as they believe it is not enough to feel regretful for the ones in need and some action should be shown in progress for the help. The faith mentions that the love should be preformed in pure version then just words and feelings. In '1 John 3:17-18' it clarifies this situation-'helping the poor is clear obligation for Christians- it is a practical way of showing god's love and concern for people in every day life'.
Overall Christian's faith teaches that the wealth is by no means bad but they must learn the right purposes for earning it and using it.
Like Christianity, Islam does not ignore the significance of money; in fact in some cases it may be stricter, as one of the most important principles of Islam is that every thing belongs to Allah (the God), and that the wealth is given to the human being to be looked after; for that reason it must be shared among all fairly. It is warned by Allah's prophet Mohammad (pbuh) against lack of sympathy in the world saying "he who eats and drinks whilst his brother goes hungry is not one of us" (Hadith), which clarifies that the one who does not share is not a true believer.
Unlike other religions where donation may be voluntary; Islam teaches that every earning Muslim must pay Zakah and may pay Sadaqah to their own will. The Qur'an (the holy book) emphasises strictly against greediness, plus states that all the matter on earth belong to Allah and mankind does not actually own the money they possess on earth, together with Allah's message of hate for those who are "given to excess" (Surah 5:90). It also told prophet Mohammad (pbuh) "you could buy your place in Hereafter", which highlights the idea that wealth on earth has no value in heaven. Islam also teaches that humans entered the world naked and will leave in the same circumstances.
The compulsory character of Zakah is strongly established in Qur'an and it's surahs (chapters) and Hadith. Zakah is the third pillar of Islam that requires giving of at least 2.5% of the amount of money that every adult, mentally stable, free, and financially able Muslim who may be a male or a female must pay to those in need. It cannot be given to or received by the wealthy ones as mentioned in the Hadith 'accepting charity is forbidden for the rich and the able-bodies'.
The word Zakah itself means 'purification' and 'growth'.
In addition to Zakah Muslims give 'Sadaqah' as an extra and optional donation. Sadaqah can be contributed to anyone, Muslim or non-Muslim. It does not have any limit of obligatory donation and can be given in small amount; for instance, one could give away left over food from previous night to the one who may be hungry.
Other than charity, Islam also requires Muslims not legitimate allowance to charge interest, and to the one who has difficulties to return the loan they are expected to just gift it to them, as situated in 'Surah 2:280'- "if the debtor is in difficulty grand him time to repay. But if ye remit it by the way of charity, that is best for ye only knew".
Similar to Christians, Muslims must not earn wealth by doing any misdemeanour. Islam teaches that if someone gaining money can hurt another it is 'haram' (strictly prohibited). Examples of haram earning are mainly any sort of cheating like fraud or bribery, gambling, sexual degradation like pornography and any other type of building up wealth that includes dishonesties like stealing, or even producing and selling intoxicants and harmful drugs like heroin or selling liquors are forbidden to Muslims. They avoid 'haram' factors, as they believe that it is way of earning sins; plus in 'Hadith' it declares-'it is not poverty which I fear for you, but that you might begin to desire the world as others before you desired it, and it may destroy you as destroyed them' -this explains in the end when you are left with nothing and it will not be poverty that get you wrong, plus if you'd cheated somebody else then you'll be paid back for it.
On other hand Islam obligates honest earning that can be profitable in good ways- in Hadith it says 'No one eats better food than which they have earned by their own labour' which describes that it is safer to earn something you have worked honestly for as it does not get you wrong; this sort earning is 'halal' (allowed). Additionally, the Muslim prayer states 'Taqqabbal Allah minna wa minkum' translated- 'may God accept the work we have done for his sake' that points out that its up to God to decide whether you have done a right thing or not.
On the whole, Christian and Muslims have a lot of similar concepts when coming to the issues of tackling ' wealth and poverty' with both faiths responding responsibly to those in need.
