Muslim Teaching on Wealth and Poverty

1052 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Short essay about the zakat

When it comes to wealth and poverty, there are many significant roles that Islam plays in a Muslim’s life. Poverty is the term used when people live without the basic essentials that all people need in order to live adequately. These conditions are always below standard. There are two types of poverty. The first type is ‘absolute poverty’ : when a person does not have the basic essentials needed to live and the second is ‘relative poverty’: when a person does live an adequate life style but sees people richer than them and yearns for what the richer person has. This type of poverty is usually very common and which many people experience.

Islam encourages Muslims to help those in need and be considerate towards others. This attitude is expressed by making charity an obligation upon Muslims. However there are different types of charity and it is not all of them that are compulsory. Zakah is the act of charity that is an obligation but is commonly referred to as a tax. This is inaccurate as it is one of the five pillars of Islam therefore is a divine duty. It is a right that the poor have over the rich. Consequently, people who refuse to pay their share of Zakah are ones who deprive the poor of the God-given right. Viewing it as tax lessens the importance of Zakah and its importance is quite apparent in various verses of the Quran and hadith. It has been revealed in the Quran that: ‘In their wealth there is a known share for the beggars and the destitute’

It is such that the Quran associates Zakah instantaneously after Salah (prayer which is the first pillar of Islam and which is seen to be such that it differentiates Muslims from non-Muslims) further displaying the great importance that Zakah holds in a Muslim’s life.

The ...

... middle of paper ...

... money. They must not invest in anything that goes against Islam and must not waste their money unnecessarily and must not gamble their earnings away. As the Quran states: Satan’s plan is (but) to excite enmity and hatred between you, with intoxicants and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah, and from prayer: will ye not then abstain?

To conclude, Muslims must be grateful for the wealth they receive as they realise that everything they have is all from Allah. Every one is born equal in the eyes of Allah and born ‘naked’ and will leave in this state. They must not be greedy for wealth or miserly as their wealth belongs to Allah. Therefore it must be shared with others by giving charity. Work is an important part of a Muslim’s life as it is the only way they can earn money lawfully which further highlights this essential part of a person’s life.

Show More
Related

  • Christianity And Islam Dbq Analysis

    998 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Qur’an (which is extremely reliable as it is the Islamic holy law and read and practiced by most Muslims) read, “ And give full measure when you measure out and weigh with true balance. This is fair and better in the end” (Doc 2) This discusses how that trade is meritable when it is done with honesty and respect for others and the Islamic church itself. Similarly a monk believed that profit lead to eventual charity. He said, “ Sixteen years as a merchant, and began to think of spending on charity, to God’s honor and service, the goods which he had laboriously acquired. He therefore too the cross as a pilgrim to Jerusalem” (Document 3) This is important as it depicts that once one has worked for years to acquire his assets he will return those to not only charity but God. Muslims also believed that trade had once been beneficial and flourishing, but recently mishandled. The Islamic court said, “ The aforementioned has now acted contrary to the old custom; We do not agree with this” (Doc 7). This quote depicts how in the Islamic realm they believed that merchants and trade had the possibility of being great. These all directly supports the previous claim which said that trade is great when handled

    Read More

  • Conventional Common Wisdom

    1433 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although poverty has minimized, it is still significant poverty which is characterized by a numerous amount of things. There are two types of poverty case and insular. “Case poverty is the farm family with the junk-filled yard and the dirty children playing in the bare dirt” (Galbraith 236)Case poverty is not irretraceable and usually caused if someone in the household experiences “ mental deficiency, bad health, inability to adapt to the discipline of industrial life, uncontrollable procreation, alcohol, some educational handicap unrelated to community shortcomings” (Galbraith 236).Case poverty is often blamed on the people for their shortcomings but on some levels can be to pinpoint one person's shortcomings that caused this poverty. Most modern poverty is insular and is caused by things people in this community cannot control. “The most important characteristic of insular poverty is forces, common to all members of the community, that restrain or prevent participation in economic life and increase rates of return.

    Read More

  • Who Was Muhammad?

    3246 Words  | 7 Pages

    Muslims are expected to give alms to the Muslim community that amount to 2.5% of one’s income. The principle of knowing that all things belong to God is essential to purification and growth. Zakāt is obligatory for all Muslims who are able to do so. Currently,Muslims are living under secular governments and must pay taxes to them. So the zakat is in addition to their secular taxes. Because there is no central Islamic state, each person must choose where to give his money.

    Read More

  • Islam: Its History, Sects, and Pillars

    2993 Words  | 6 Pages

    Islam is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion alongside Judaism and Christianity. It is currently the second largest religion in the world today. Its beliefs come from the Qur'an which literally means "the recitation" which is believed to be a literal transcription of the word of God. Its main prophet is named Muhammad who began Islam by speaking with the angel Gabriel in a cave during his meditation and then acting as an instrument of God to help write the Qur’an. Muhammad then spread Islam to the scattered tribes of Arabia by becoming the leader of Yathrib and using his wonderful leadership abilities to then grow his influence over virtually all of Arabia. Muhammad is known by Muslims to be the seal of the profits because no profits after Muhammad should be considered legitimate. Muhammad also left behind the Hadith or “tradition” which is a collection of writings compiled of reports of Muhammad’s actions as leader of Yathrib. These reports are used as a more specific code of ethics in day to day life and from these reports the 5 Pillars of Islam are derived (Smith 160). Although Islam shares many similarities to Judaism and Christianity it is often viewed in the US with hate derived from preconceived notions following the attack on September 11th 2001. This paper seeks to provide an overview of Islam’s history as well as its two major sects and 5 main pillars to remove preconceived notions and provide a glance into the minds of the Islamic people.

    Read More

  • Spread Of Islam Dbq Essay

    624 Words  | 2 Pages

    “But the believers who do good works, both men and women shall enter paradise”(Document B). This shows that this religion has benefits for both men and women which was not a popular thing. The Qu’ran provides rewards to all people in their religion, as long as they follow the Qu’ran. In Islam it is against the law to take, someone’s belongings in unjust means (Document B). This shows that Islam protects personal belongings, this may be an appealing to those not in the Islamic faith.The Islamic faith has a property peace and a responsibility to help each other which includes giving to the

    Read More

  • Famine, Affluence And Morality By Peter Singer

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    In most cases, shortage of money is not the sole problem. Rather, poverty is a mere term summarised by a sophisticated factors of corruption, lack of infrastructure, civil unrest, government failure, and many more. Especially, donated money are regularly spent to run campaigns, provide wages to staffs, and to run the charities, with a very few of the amount being invested directly to help the poor. This socio-political scepticism can be worse as some believe that charity is merely a band aid fix to the deeper underlying problem that is continuously causing the poverty, and it only becomes the basis for local communities to be dependent on

    Read More

  • The Hajj: Journey to Mekka

    588 Words  | 2 Pages

    health or age. If a Muslim family is poor then they will save up for

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Children And Poverty

    1952 Words  | 4 Pages

    Poverty is “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions” (Merriam-Webster dictionary, 2015); in other words, struggling to provide a comfortable living style. It is the cause of family stress and many other problems, especially for the children. Millions of people around the world are struggling with poverty; families suffering to provide enough food seem to be growing in numbers. According to the United States Census Bureau, the poverty rate was highest in the 1960s and decreased greatly in the 1970s. However, it is now slowly starting to increase again. Recently released census data by the Bureau showed that one in five people are living in poverty (Census Bureau, 2014). Poverty is even

    Read More

  • Absolute Poverty And Relative Poverty

    1739 Words  | 4 Pages

    Poverty is general scarcity or dearth, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. It is a multifaceted concept, which includes social, economic, and political elements. Poverty seems to be chronic or temporary, and most of the time it is closely related to inequality. As a dynamic concept, poverty is changing and adapting according to consumption patterns, social dynamics and technological change. Absolute poverty or destitution refers to the deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter and health care. Relative poverty is defined contextually as economic inequality in the location or society in which people live.

    Read More

  • Religious Pluralism and Islam

    1660 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Shahadah, or testimony, is the first of the five pillars of Islam. In order to officially convert to Islam, it is required to recite the Shahadah three times, “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.” This has been a practice within the Islamic faith for hundreds of years. Yet, even within the Islamic faith there are differing versions. Those who practice Shia Islam add, “and Ali is the friend of God” to the end of the Shahadah. This, among many other practices, is an example of the religious plurality that exists within the Islamic world. The Islamic world is home to a large and diversified religious community that, on the surface, seems homogenous in its religious practices. But many religious schools of jurisprudence, schools of theology, and other religious movements exist under the umbrella of Islam, these schools bring religious diversity to Islam that seek to meet the diverse needs and wants of the religious marketplace of the Islamic world. Though the United States is often used as the example to describe religious pluralism, there are many instances in the Islamic world that can even rival the plurality of the American religious market. The Muslim Brotherhood is a prime example of an Islamic organization that has become deeply entrenched in society. Through the extensive use of social services and extreme religious power, the Muslim Brotherhood has been able to enjoy a large membership base, devoted to their cause, and dedicated to its principles. Every year, many Muslims will embrace Sufi Islamic practices into their lives. The Islamic world is not an exception to the religious economies model and is, in fact, a very religiously diverse region of the world.

    Read More

  • Causes and Solutions of World Poverty

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    What is poverty? Well, according to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, poverty is "lack of money or material possessions; poor." Two-thirds of the world's population fits this definition. I know that many times we think of being poor as not being able to buy the car we want or take the trip we can only dream about. However, being poor, living in poverty, hits a lot lower than that. For example, a resident of the country of Chad will only bring in $100 each year. Since many people can make more than that in one week, some in one day, can you imagine having the feed a family of five or six, or even a family of two, on only $100 a year? These are the conditions that exist in poverty-stricken countries.

    Read More

  • Position Of Poverty

    2322 Words  | 5 Pages

    Poverty, also known as the silent killer, exists in every corner of the world. In fact, almost half of the world’s population lives in poverty. According to the United States Census Bureau, there were 46.7 million people living in poverty the year of 2014 (1). Unfortunately, thousands of people die each year due to this world-wide problem. Some people view poverty as individuals or families not being able to afford an occupational meal or having to skip a meal to save money. However, this is not the true definition of poverty. According to the author of The Position of Poverty, John Kenneth Galbraith, “people are poverty-stricken when their income, even if adequate for survival, falls radically behind that of the community”, which means people

    Read More

  • Poverty In the Philippines

    2760 Words  | 6 Pages

    The rich, the middle class, and the poor; are described by the way we live and the amount of money one has. There are many different ways of describing what poverty is, whether it is by how you live or how much money you have. What is poverty and what does it mean to be poor? Not many of us know the true meaning of these terms. Poverty is an issue dealt with throughout the world, but we are not all aware if its conditions. Poverty is a very serious problem around the world. Poverty is defined as the equality to poorness and impoverishment -- (the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions). A question to ask ourselves is: “Should poverty be defined strictly in terms of monetary income, as opposed to some qualitative formula which takes into consideration styles of life as well as material possessions?” (Sheppard 13) Because there are so many different ways we can express the term poverty, maybe there should be a certain way we can determine poverty world wide? A person might look like they are poor or think that they are, but by definition they really are not even close. Every country has poverty levels that decide if they are poor or not. The Philippines is a country that deals with this issue on a daily basis.

    Read More

  • The Causes and Effects of Poverty

    598 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin, there are two main types of poverty in the world, non-income and income poverty (ZPRP). Non Income Poverty is when people may have money, but only a little to keep themselves alive (ZPRP). They don’t have the money to afford physical services and social events such as schooling, work, medicines, health care, sanitation, and transportation (ZPRP). The best way to condense the cause of non-income poverty is to make sure that individuals have access to inexpensive and exceptional social services, that they feel safe when in their homes and that they have family and friends to protect them when needed (ZPRP). Income poverty is when people are living on less than 1 dollar a day, which is far from the normal amount a family can survive on (ZPRP). They tend to not have fresh food and water, medicine, live in poor houses, sometimes no houses, and have dirty and ragged clothes (ZPRP). Just as there are many types of poverty, there are many effects to it to.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Poverty

    1213 Words  | 3 Pages

    The question is, what is poverty? Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs of life, including food, clothing, and shelter. Nevertheless I believe that poverty is much more that not having enough money. The World Bank Organization describes poverty as, “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is the lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty

    Read More

More about Muslim Teaching on Wealth and Poverty

Open Document