Charity in theistic religions
Dr. AfsanehPaymard
Introduction
Human being has inclination to ethical virtues by the order of divine nature from birth to death. In other words, spirituality and ethics are cultivated in human nature at the part of God. In this regard, series of divine ambassadors along with invoking nations to monotheism also lead human beings to growth by relying on joint ethical values.
Althoughundoubtedly, in the true religion of Islam ethical teachings and revelations have completely been mentioned, each possessor of thought can see the objectives and joint features of theistic religions in the realm of ethical teachings and among the joint ethical virtues, encouraging charity and altruism in order to create social justice which is the main goal of transmitting messengers and revealing books, is very important in today’s world.
In this article, it is attempted to use charity to remove the issue of social classes and revive social justice, relying on Holy Quran as the main divine source in terms of this divine approach and indication of this matter in Tura and Bible, with the aim of adapting ethical teachings of religions and encouraging helping the poor.
Explanation of the issue
One of the most important social problem affecting all communities is class distinction. Today, despite all economic and industrial developments and the attempt of people to improve their economy and life, it should be stated that the issue is by far more outstanding than before. Class distinction which is caused by social and economic inequity has always been taken into consideration by prophets and reformers and with the thought of creating social justice, they considered it as the basis of laws, plans and social reforms.
Social justice has also been introduced as one of the goals of prophets’ mission in Quran such that it is stated: “indeed we appointed our prophets with clear evidence and revealed book and balance to them so that they stand up for justice” (Hadid 25). Attempts to create social justice has also been mentioned by philosophers and rulers such that Plato tried to found utopia on the earth based on his ideas and one important feature of his society was reviving justice. Plato sometimes called coordination and agreement among the members of society beauty and sometimes called it goodness, but he always called this beauty and goodness justice and encouraged people to reach it.
In line with that, thinkers and economic schools in the world always wanted to find a solution for this problem. Cancellation of individual possession at the part of communism and getting heavy taxes from outstanding capitalists are actions at the part of economic schools trying to remove social and economic inequity among the rich and the poor. However, it can surely be stated that this resourcefulness cannot be an influential step in moderating wealth and its distribution in the societies because solving this problem is not possible with materialism ruling the world.
However, Quran as the most essential and complete guide book for humanity introduces basic approaches under the title of charity for reducing or removing class distinction with wise measures in a thousand and four hundred years ago. God made some of the spending compulsory such as contribution of the fifth of income paid by Shi’a, alms tax, financial expiation and different kinds of ransom and made some of them recommended such as some alms, charitable legacy and permanent accommodating people, will and forgiving so that people can deal with class distinction in addition to calling people to maintain social correlation.
In addition to the above-mentioned approaches, encouraging interest-free loan and forbidding usury are the examples of general strategy of Islamic economy system that is the control line towardbalance of wealth in the society in the face of material differences between the rich and the deprived. Among the aforementioned plans and approaches it seems that charity is more comprehensive and as if it includes the other approaches as well so that this term has been repeated seventy times in Quran. The importance of charity is to the extent that God at the beginning of Guidance in Bagharesurah mentions five attributes representing piety that include: believing in unseen, saying prayer, spending money from what God granted as sustenance, believing in what has been revealed to the prophets and attaining the certainty to the day f resurrection and those who have such attributes are among the liberated (Baghareh 2-5).
Literally it can be stated that; the word charity literally means spending and this title includes marriage portion, alimony of the children and even the amount of money spent for personal uses, but ethically it means forgiving property in the path of God which is benevolence and beneficence and God mentions this ethical virtue which is the most important feature of servitude in His first signs.
According to the idea of commentators God in the above-mentioned sign generalizes forgiving and charity so that it encompasses all spiritual and material gifts and the virtuous people are the ones who not only give their property but also their knowledge and common sense, physical power, stance and social position, in other words all spiritual and material assets to those who are in need. In the creation of laws, the creator put rain fall as one of the laws,the law of rainfall means people should forgive money, knowledge, book, good words, good thought, love and whatever they can by getting inspired by nature. Yes, forgiving without refraining is the law of nature. Sun also shines without refraining for many years.
Therefore, charity is a general rule. Reflecting on the body structure of every living thing we will observe that human heart doesn’t only work for itself but it serves other cells. Brain, lung and the other body organs benefit the other organs and in fact, every organ along with the other organs forms a healthy body unit and how beautifully SaadyShirazi, the master of word said:
Human beings are one in nature
Who were created by one essence
If one member is in pain
The other members are affected too
Undoubtedly, human society is like that unified body and has different members. Although its members have different names and forms, they form one body and they are unified in the aim of living. So, if one member gets poor, with the order of human nature and Quran teachings that says in the affluent’ property there is a right for deprived ones (Alzariat 19), the human and divine duty makes the other people help him/her and it is obvious that the aim of this religious human duty is the creation of the obligation that the members of society must try to make a living for each other and he who is rich must help the poor.
According to what mentioned the relationship of humans with each other is the result of the connection with God. He who got united with God considers all gifts and provisions from God’s side not himself and such a human knows that he is the trustee of all the gifts granted to him by God. Therefore, he not only doesn’t get annoyed by forgiving but also he gets happy because he is certain that according to divine retribution in Quran, he will receive all the spiritual and material blessings of his deed soon. This way of thinking and attitude not only cleanses human soul but also it changes struggle for survival to world of cooperation. In addition, In Baqaresurah God beautifully features charity in the signs 261-274 and mentions its rituals, conditions and virtues. First, He analogizes the deed of people who spend money in Allah’s cause to a blessed seed planted in a fertile land and utters:
“the story of people who spend money in Allah’s cause is like a seed that makes seven clusters grow, each of which gets one hundred seeds and God makes it double for whoever He wishes and God is bounty abounding and wise”.
From the perspective of Quran whenever spending money is in Allah’s cause and with the aim of gaining His satisfaction, it will grow, because it is impossible that this kind of spending be along with losses.
Something like this allegory has also been mentioned in Bible: “harken, once a farmer planted seed in his farm, when he was planting some seeds were dropped on the road, some birds ate them and some were dropped on the soil with the stone under that, the latter grew soon, but they were perished under the sun because they didn’t have a firm root. Some seeds were also dropped in the thorns. The thorns surrounded them and prevented them from bearing fruit, but some of them were dropped in a fertile land and multiplied by thirty times, sixty times and even one hundred times, harken if you have ears” (Mark 3-9/4). After this advice at the part of Jesus (peace be upon him) his followers asked him what was the reason for telling this story, he answered: “God let you grasp the mysteries of His celestial kingdom… fertile land is the heart of people whom accept God’s message with all their beings and in return it bears fruit thirty times, sixty times and even one hundred times (Mark 10-20/4/). Yes! In Christianity helping the poor is exactly derived from the teachings of Jesus (peace be upon him). In most of the discussed points in Bible, the poor and handicaps who are intensely deprived are looked in contact with Jesus (peace be upon him) and this important matter that he called people to help such people to get by.
Poles and the other writers of new era also show how looking after the poor was changed as the accepted part in Christianity. Poles writes: “O’ brothers! Let’s not get tired of doing good deeds because soon you will get your reward provided that we don’t stop.” (Galatian 9/6/)
In the view of Jews the poor are deserved to be paid attention. In Deuteronomy we read under the title of the law of tithe: “you must set aside one tenth of your products every year to learn to respect God in your lives”. (Deuteronomy 22-24/14/) in another part we read: “at the end of each year you must collect tithe of your products to give them to the Levites who don’t have any property, strangers, widows and the orphans of your city to eat and get full, then God will enhance your blessings”. (Deuteronomy 28-29/14/)
In the biography of Albert Einstein we read: the parents of Einstein were Jewish, they weren’t religious, but they kept some old religious traditions, for example every week they invited a poor person to have a meal with them.
The most comprehensive human guide, Quran, after mentioning the allegory which was mentioned in terms of rituals and conditions of charity says: “those who spend money in Allah’s cause, then they don’t rub it into their face and don’t irritate them, their reward is reserved in the sight of God, they neither have any fears nor get sad.” In the subsequent complementary signs it says: “admirable speech and giving alms which is not followed by any annoyance is better and God is absolute and clement”.
Undoubtedly, in Islamic worldview, each deed has its own conditions and principles to reach its ideal. In Quran’s view the aim of charity is not only dealing with class distinction but it also is the spender’s transcendence and evolution. Therefore, Quran prevents people from almsgiving with annoyance and rubbing it into their face in order to save the poor’s personality and the evolution of spender. Because it makes it useless and eliminates its great reward. God prevents people from indecent incentives for almsgiving and says: he who is hypocrite in charity, his deed has no reward even if his deed is seemingly flawless. Then He analogizes charity with reproach to a garden that is burnt in fire. In addition to forgiving high quality property, Quran considers another condition for acceptance of charity that is being halal which is deducible by referring to one’s nature and common sense. In the last signs regarding charity in Bagharehsurah God considers not spending money for the poor due to the fear of poverty as Satan’s temptation and notes that those who spend money overtly and covertly for gaining God’s satisfaction, they will be granted reward. (Baghare 264-274/)
Conclusion
According to what mentioned, one of the ethical messages of theistic religions and their joint rituals is charity and attending to the poor and deprived ones which is emphasized a lot by prophets and they continuously invited people to such value principles. In addition, it can be stated that such stable ethical principles were manifested in different Sharia and historical eras in different forms and they are valuable in every time, place and with every subject. We hope the result of such attitude is nothing but manifestation of common ethics of Abrahamic religions all around the world.