Sadaqah and Charity by Ghulam Ahmed Parwez

Sadaqah and Charity

by G. A. Parwez

translated by Dr. Manzoor-ul-Haque

What is the injunction of Quran about Sadaqa and charity?

QUESTION 

It has been asked, “Is there any benefit of distributing the amount of charity by the method it is being done today?” 

ANSWER 

The Quran says about the Jews that as a first step they used to hand over their kith and kin to others’ captivity, and then, on behalf of them, they used to make them free on redemption. And thinking it to be the greatest act of good, they considered it a mean of their salvation.

This is exactly the state of the Muslim capitalists. These people, by sucking the blood of others, become rich, and make them poor and needy. And then, by giving them a few coins in charity feel satisfied that this very Sawaab-generating act would transform their life hereafter better revamped. It means, in our mystic poetry, ‘to sin’ is considered essential only on this reason that if there are no sinful people, how the facets of Allah’s Divine mercy and forgiveness would manifest. So is the existence of the poor and the needy in the nation thought essential on the plea that if no poor remains in the society, how the injunctions of charity will be compiled with. Just observe meticulously: How deep-rooted is the influence of the parasites of capitalism?  

In the System, Islam envisages implementing; the security for meeting the basic needs of life in every human rests with the government. So a permanent class of the needy can not even be envisioned in this system. But there can surely be some local and individual type of urgencies where some sort of immediate aid may be needed. Or there may be some evolutionary events in which the Government itself is compelled to call for meeting such needs and so it may appeal to volunteer collection of funds. But such type of events will be scarce. The normal condition will be that the system of the government will provide subsistence to the needy. So the need of charity will come up either during the interim period when this type of your system has not yet come up with or there are some local or evolutionary events that have crept in. Keeping a permanent class of the poor and the needy, and then, by throwing a few coins in charity to them, envisioning it to be an act of Sawab (Reward) cannot weigh any thing in the Islamic System. It is the deceitful vision of the system of capitalism, which is being engulfed in embellishing garb of the religious sacredness. And its result is the same exposition of the Quranic words “their works expended to no purpose”. It means despite paying all Sadaqah and charity, the magnitude of the poor – the have-nots – and the needy are on increasing strength day by day. And this all is due to the non-Quranic concept of the System of Capitalism that is in vogue among us, and no one is willing to change it. It is only because it (Capital system) has been awarded the certificate of Sharia.