The writer, Sameer Murad Kermalli (Nairobi, Kenya) is a graphic designer, photographer and has been involved in leadership and community service positions.
For humans, everything is a transaction. The Lord is all-knowing about this fact for he created us. To allow us to develop, and become closer to him so that our transactional mentality leaves our souls and we only care about our meeting Him, he sent clear instructions in His books.
He decreed in the Quran that we share wealth. Baqarah 2:177: “Righteousness is not in turning your faces towards the east or the west. Rather, the righteous are those who believe in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Books, and the prophets; who give charity out of their cherished wealth to relatives, orphans, the poor, needy travellers, and beggars, and for freeing captives; who establish prayer, pay alms-tax, and keep the pledges they make; and who are patient in times of suffering, adversity, and in the heat of? battle. It is they who are true in faith? and it is they who are mindful of Allah”.
Clearly, in this decree, there is no mention of a return for this, however, He does calm our poor hearts. Less than 100 verses later in Surah Baqarah 2:261: “The example of those who spend their wealth in the cause of Allah is that of a grain that sprouts into seven ears, each bearing one hundred grains. And Allah multiplies the reward even more? to whoever He wills. For Allah is All-Bountiful, All-Knowing.” With a disclaimer regardless that this return is dependent on his will, despite being bountiful, He also is all-knowing.
Charity should not be watered down to just a financial aspect, which again sadly is a language we humans seem to understand well or have been made to understand.
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
Mother Theresa is quoted to have said. Charity for her was helping hands, time, a kind word, love but most of all a smile. She said, “Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” When being charitable, if done with compassion, it would have an endless effect, for there is heart in it. The outcome humans expect seems to have been brought down to a ‘what is in it for me’ notion.
We were to take lessons from the actions of the prophets and the ones who believed through their knowledge of the lord and hence their nearness to Him. Stories like about the woman who threw garbage at the Holy Prophet every time he passed, until the day she did not and the Prophet went to see how she was was. A lesson in being compassionate to the ones who wrong us, and asking them if they needed help was a gesture of compassion that she did not expect, and since he was not expecting anything in return made it a charity so strong that according to the narrators of the story, she submitted to the lord whose messenger was gracious.
When giving sadaqa, we have been told to thank the person receiving it, for they are a means for us to get close to our lord, and being grateful is humbling.
In the Quran, Surah Naml 27:40 Says one who knew the Scripture,
“I will bring it to you before your glance returns to you.” And when [Solomon] saw it placed before him, he said, “This is from the favour of my Lord to test me whether I will be grateful or ungrateful. And whoever is grateful – his gratitude is only for [the benefit of] himself. And whoever is ungrateful – then indeed, my Lord is Free of need and Generous.”
Asif Barkhia was a believer and the Lord favoured him, and for this, he was grateful to his lord, rather than being boastful that he was stronger or more learned than the jinn who offered the same feat, just a little slower.
One can only be grateful for what he has, and he can only be grateful to the one who gives him. The lord however is too loving and too merciful, such that he gives you, and then when you are charitable and give back compassionately to his creations, he returns to you several folds as he reiterates in Surah Ibrahim 14:7
“And remember when your Lord proclaimed, “If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more. But if you are ungrateful, surely My punishment is severe.”
‘Charity begins at home’ is a common phrase; with contemplation we can understand that it starts with being taught manners, being given a moral and ethical compass by our parents and beyond that showing the love and compassion that is unconditional. The Lord loves you more than your mother we are also told, and if we understood this, we would not need anyone save the lord and then maybe we would understand the words of Imam Husayn in Dua Arafah,
“O Allah! What did he find who lost You and what did he lose who found You?.”
The writer, Sameer Murad Kermalli (Nairobi, Kenya) is a graphic designer, photographer and has been involved in leadership and community service positions.
