Islamic View of Charity

Most cultures have a tradition of encouraging charity and generosity, of enjoining those who have enough to give to those who do not. Most cultures tell their children cautionary tales about what happens to those who do not give to the needy. In legends throughout the world and across the ages one can be pretty sure that the poor stranger who asks for only a crust of bread and a corner of a stable to rest in and is refused will turn out to be an angel or other powerful creature.

Islam, and predominantly Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia, has formalized this generally held human inclination towards charity. While Christians are told how Mary and Joseph were turned away again and again out of the lack of charity, it is Moslems who have incorporated the importance of giving as one of the five essential elements of their religion--just as those Christians who still tithe have made a formal incorporation into their faith of the importance of charity to a religiously observant life.

After providing a brief background on Islam and on Saudi Arabia, this paper looks at how the concept of Zkhat, or the practice of giving to the needy. Zkhat is one of the five pillars of Islam and its importance to observant Moslems can best be understood within the context of these five commitments. They will be described briefly here before this paper considers how contemporary Muslims, and especially those in Saudi Arabia, fulfill this obligation.

The first pillar of Islam, the first duty of a

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e rest of society - such as the Amish or to some extent the Mennonites - may have a similar experience of life as a religious person in a society in which life is defined by the religiously obligated actions of others of the same faith as does the Moslem in Saudi Arabia, but it is hard for most Americans to imagine the way that action, belief, individual identity and social identity are blended seamlessly for the Saudi Moslem (Karwan, 1992, p. 105). Burrell makes this point with cogency and insight and so is worth quoting at some length. These core beliefs profoundly shape Muslim society. They are put into practice via the famous "five pillars" of Islam: (1) confessing that God is One and Muhammad is God's prophet (the shahada); (2) communal ritual prayer, five times daily; (3) fasting during the lunar month of Ramadan, which ends with (4) an annual obligatory almsgiving; and (5) for those able to do so, making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. The first and last of these are eminently personal actions, yet as the first profession of faith initiates one into the umma (the community), the other gives eloquent expression to that inclusive community itself. The three other "pillars" underscore the communal c

Category: Philosophy - I