Guest Author - Serkan Tufan

In Islam, the well-being and financial needs of everyone is very important. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) one said: You cannot be considered as a strong Muslim "if you do not desire things that you like for yourselves for your brother/sister in Islam". In Islam, helping out each other starts with the closest circle, one first has to commit and help, love, support spiritually and financially the mother, then, father, spouse, then siblings, neighbors, then other relatives and friends, and then respectively others around. Giving does not recognize borders, race, religion, status etc.

Indeed, giving the most precious things for ourselves is a very important virtue in Islam, instead of giving unwanted and cheap items. We have an example of Aisha (May Allah be pleased with her) the honorable and beloved wife of Prophet Muhammad scenting the money before giving it to the poor. When asked why she does this, she says "I heard that the given items comes to those persons directly from Allah,and I am just a messenger for that so I want them to be very pleasant, smelling nice, and give good feelings." She would also respond back when people even pray for her in return of her charity, and would pray at least the same amount back for them so she would not feel she is doing it for some exchange.

In Islam, when people give something, it is believed that we are just being distributors of what Allah gave us and wants us to give out of it. So it is certainly not a good thing to give something out and then being proud of it. Giving out things openly like a competition or auction, and giving things in secret are both valued in Islam, yet, expecting worldly things in return and having a little feeling of superiority might harm the purity of our intention. Remember, in many verse in Quran and in many Hadith (Prophet Muhammad's sayings and actions) it is clearly stated that the ones who will be saved are the ones who keep their purest feelings and their intentions at heart while doing things for good. In another hadith, Prophet Muhammad narrated: "Allah does not look at your faces and appearances, He looks at your heart. "

In the same way, there have been many people in Islamic history and today, who will leave items in front of people's door in the dark night, not letting people know who they are and not letting also town people know that they are leaving something on people's door. That is why many Muslims today will do lots of charity but do not want it to be announced every time. This is sometimes causing problems in contemporary world since some people might think that if those people did something nice, they would bargain about it, so they are probably not doing anything good for the benefit of poor and those in need. This is certainly a very big misunderstanding as many people will never mention the good deeds, keeping it in God's knowledge, and being satisfied with Him being pleased with them...I think this is the perspective we need to take while looking at everyone around us....

I would like to continue to this, and also talking about the obligatory part , the alms giving ( zekaat ) in Islam and how it is applied in the next article.