Quran Lessons
Charity
By the name of Allah the merciful the compassionate
Assalmu�alikom wa rhamatullahi wa baraktuh:
Allah said:
�By no means shall ye attain righteousness unless ye give (freely) of that which ye love; and whatever ye give, of a truth Allah knoweth it well.� 3/29
The Prophet pbuh said, � whoever gives charity that equals a date from lawful earning Allah accepts it with his right hand and then raises it in the same way one raises his bony until it becomes a mountain of good deeds.�
Sadaqah (voluntary charity) is different from Zakat (obligatory on certain amounts of wealth) then Sadaqah is beloved to Allah because it is an optional deed.
Omar ibn Al Khatab used to make Sadaqah with part of his money and leaves the other part for him and family so as not to become poor and ask people for help.
In a Hadeeth: �He who introduces charity Allah will protect his family from harm for him.�
In another Hadeeth: � every day the sun rises two angels would come and say Oh Allah give every one who spends charity protection and more money and give every one who keeps his money and doesn�t spend for charity harm and destruction.�
In another Hadeeth, � No money will become less from paying charity.�
�Generosity� is a tree in heaven that elevates those who pay charity to Allah�s thrown.
�Stinginess� is a tree in hell fire that would pull those who are stingy down to hell fire.
In a Qudsi Hadeeth, �oh son of Adam spend and I�ll spend on you.�
A story: a man came to Prophet Ibraheem pbuh and asked him for some food. Ibraheem asked if the man was a Muslim and the man said no I�m a Magus (fire worshipper) so Ibraheem told him that he will not feed him until he becomes a Muslim but the man refused and went away.
Allah then sent an angel to Prophet Ibraheem and said, �Oh Ibraheem I�ve (Allah) been feeding him since I created him and you deny him a meal?�
Ibraheem quickly followed the man and told him that Allah blamed me for what I�ve done to you and that made the man to become a Muslim.
In a Hadeeth: �Make your money better by paying Zakat, and heal your sick people with Sadaqah, and if anyone is harmed let him ease that with making Du�aa.�
We understand from this that it is like Allah is giving us a prescription for healing and curing from Charity.
A story: a woman with 4 daughters went to a judge and asked him to give her some food because she was poor but he didn�t.
She went away crying then another man saw her and gave her a bag of money so she bought some food and fed her family.
In the other day the judge came to her crying and told her that I saw in my dreams a palace I had in Jennah but there was something preventing me from entering it. At the same time the man who gave her the money came and told her that he saw in his dream that a palace was for another man and Allah presented it for me instead.
In a Hadeeth, � whoever feeds and clothes an orphan Allah will enter him Jennah.�
To whom should charity be given?
1. The poor who have no money.
2. The needy that own some money but it is less than what they need.
3. Those who collect charity so that they won�t be seduced to steal from that money.
4. Those who are new to Islam (just became Muslims) or those with weak faith.
5. Those who are in deep debts.
6. Travelers whose money are out.
In another Hadeeth, �the best of charity is on poor relatives, then poor neighbors, then poor friends, then poor people of one�s country, them poor Muslims in another country.�
May Allah enable us to make a lot of Charity and to overcome selfishness in ourselves.
Ahmad & Linda
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