An emergency on the subway last week\u00a0forced me to switch to the bus in the middle of the city.\u00a0 I ended up waiting at a bus stop outside a soup kitchen serving breakfast.<\/p>\n
As I waited, a homeless man leaving the soup kitchen asked me for a pen.\u00a0 I wanted to help him out, and of course I’m not one to refuse such a simple request, or just ignore him (like so many do with the urban poor) so I\u00a0reached into my bag and I eyed a pen I didn’t really want.\u00a0 I looked at it again as I handed it to him, making sure it wasn’t one I “needed.”\u00a0 He got on a payphone, asked someone for an address so he could apply for a job, and then left.\u00a0 With the pen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Later, as I studied the faces of\u00a0the other passengers on the bus\u00a0(I am always amazed by the immense class difference between the city bus and the Metro), I started to feel guilty.\u00a0 I felt guilty not because I had given him a pen, but because\u00a0I am instinctively selfish.\u00a0 Without really thinking about it, I made sure to give him\u00a0something\u00a0I didn’t want or like.\u00a0 Sure, functionally, I gave him what he needed.\u00a0 But\u00a0had\u00a0I really been charitable?\u00a0 What if I had just reached into my bag blindly and pulled out whatever I saw?\u00a0 Most of the pens I own are ones I’ve found here and there — mostly just freebies I’ve up from offices or the Lexis\/Westlaw printing room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The point is that even\u00a0when faced with\u00a0small, easy moments\u00a0to be charitable, I try to minimize the cost to me.\u00a0 What about giving charity freely, for its own sake, especially when\u00a0it is so easy?\u00a0 I hate that I don’t give freely from what I love.\u00a0 Charity has to be more than just convenient.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0So if I could go back\u00a0and do it again,\u00a0I’d reach into my bag\u00a0and pull out the pen I’d want to keep (not that I think about pens in those terms really).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0I need to learn how to give from what I\u00a0value, to sacrifice.\u00a0 Isn’t that the point of relgion for the people who “have”?\u00a0Aren’t we are supposed to learn how to give to the “have nots”?<\/p>\n
Muslims have to learn to give from what they love — whether that means their pens, their time, their energy, their money… we need to learn to be charitable and take advantage of the small opportunities as they arise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This reminds me of Surah Ma’uun, 107 of the Qur’an:<\/p>\n
\u0628\u0633\u0645 \u0627\u0644\u0644\u0647 \u0627\u0644\u0631\u062d\u0645\u0646 \u0627\u0644\u0631\u062d\u064a\u0645<\/p>\n
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.<\/p>\n
\u0623\u064e\u0631\u064e\u0623\u064e\u064a\u0652\u062a\u064e \u0627\u0644\u0651\u064e\u0630\u0650\u064a \u064a\u064f\u0643\u064e\u0630\u0651\u0650\u0628\u064f \u0628\u0650\u0627\u0644\u062f\u0651\u0650\u064a\u0646\u0650<\/p>\n
Have you seen the one who denies the Reckoning?<\/p>\n
\u0641\u064e\u0630\u064e\u0644\u0650\u0643\u064e \u0627\u0644\u0651\u064e\u0630\u0650\u064a \u064a\u064e\u062f\u064f\u0639\u0651\u064f \u0627\u0644\u0652\u064a\u064e\u062a\u0650\u064a\u0645\u064e<\/p>\n
Who shuns the orphan,<\/p>\n
\u0648\u064e\u0644\u064e\u0627 \u064a\u064e\u062d\u064f\u0636\u0651\u064f \u0639\u064e\u0644\u064e\u0649 \u0637\u064e\u0639\u064e\u0627\u0645\u0650 \u0627\u0644\u0652\u0645\u0650\u0633\u0652\u0643\u0650\u064a\u0646\u0650<\/p>\n
and forgets the hungry?<\/p>\n
\u0641\u064e\u0648\u064e\u064a\u0652\u0644\u064c \u0644\u0651\u0650\u0644\u0652\u0645\u064f\u0635\u064e\u0644\u0651\u0650\u064a\u0646\u064e<\/p>\n
\u0627\u0644\u0651\u064e\u0630\u0650\u064a\u0646\u064e \u0647\u064f\u0645\u0652 \u0639\u064e\u0646 \u0635\u064e\u0644\u064e\u0627\u062a\u0650\u0647\u0650\u0645\u0652 \u0633\u064e\u0627\u0647\u064f\u0648\u0646\u064e<\/p>\n
Who worships mindlessly,<\/p>\n
\u0627\u0644\u0651\u064e\u0630\u0650\u064a\u0646\u064e \u0647\u064f\u0645\u0652 \u064a\u064f\u0631\u064e\u0627\u0624\u064f\u0648\u0646\u064e<\/p>\n
and only to be seen,<\/p>\n
\u0648\u064e\u064a\u064e\u0645\u0652\u0646\u064e\u0639\u064f\u0648\u0646\u064e \u0627\u0644\u0652\u0645\u064e\u0627\u0639\u064f\u0648\u0646\u064e<\/p>\n
and fails in neighborly kindness?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An emergency on the subway last week\u00a0forced me to switch to the bus in the middle of the city.\u00a0 I ended up waiting at a bus stop outside a soup kitchen serving breakfast. As I waited, a homeless man leaving the soup kitchen asked me for a pen.\u00a0 I wanted to help him out, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":304,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[604],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beliefs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/wasim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/wasim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/wasim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/wasim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/304"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/wasim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/wasim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/wasim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/wasim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/wasim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}