Friday Focus | In Charity part with valuable

Charity entails parting with what is valuable, there is no charity in parting with what you don’t put a value on, or what is useless to you:

They ask thee what they should spend (in charity) Say: ”Whatever wealth ye spend that is good, is for parents and kindred and orphans and for those in want and for wayfarers. And whatever ye do that is good, Allah knoweth it all” (2:215)

   

First consideration in charity should remain–what shall we part with in order to provide meaning and affect to it? It cannot be something we don’t put a value on, what we consider to be of no use to us, which is of no good to us anymore. It has to be something we put a value on, what could still be useful to us, what we take to be good.

Second consideration should remain–provide to someone who deserves it the most, the orphan, the one in want, the wayfarer, such are the people who have the prime claim. Hence, charity entails judicious selection. It cannot be an off the cuff affair, but a matter of societal responsibility, executed with utmost sincerity.

Third consideration should remain–how should we give what we have judiciously decided to part with? As is proverbially related left hand may not know what right hand parts with. Hence, there should no pretence, no show, no insincerity. Charity could improve the quality of life of an orphan, of one in want, of a wayfarer. We may not deface it but making charity a matter of public knowledge.

We may keep in mind that whatever we may do is ever and always in the sight of Allah (SwT)

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