The Reward for Giving Alms II

Heidi Mahmoud Kheyamy

28 Apr 2018

Although it is condemned to envy anyone for having something you don’t have, it is approved to desire having a fortune like a prosperous man who spends his money helping underprivileged people. Ibn 'Umar (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said: "Envy is justified in regard to two types of persons only: a man whom Allah has given knowledge of the Qur'an, and so he recites it during the night and during the day; and a man whom Allah has given wealth and so he spends from it during the night and during the day." [Sahih Al-Bukhari and Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 572]

Allah Gives credit to those who give charity as Allah Says: “Believe in Allah and His Messenger and spend out of that in which He has made you successors. For those who have believed among you and spent, there will be a great reward.” [Al-Hadid, 7]

The importance of giving charity is stressed because it is related to being a true believer. Many verses of the Holy Quran shed light on the true believers who sacrificed everything they could to provide assistance for the poor and needy. “But the righteous one will avoid it (meaning Hell-Fire), [He] who gives [from] his wealth to purify himself.” [Al-Layl, 17, 18]

Selfless generous people are urgently needed all the time to help forming a better community. Allah created mankind and He knows how they are attached to fortune and property. That's why one of the rewards of giving alms is multiplying the wealth a man has in this life or his reward in the hereafter; as is mentioned in the Holy Quran: “Who is it that would loan Allah a benign loan so He may multiply it for him many times over? And it is Allah who withholds and grants abundance, and to Him you will be returned.”  “The example of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is like a seed [of grain] which grows seven spikes; in each spike is a hundred grains. And Allah multiplies [His reward] for whom He wills. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing.” [Al-Baqarah, 245, 261]

The alms giver is protected by Allah in the Judgment Day as it is related in the saying of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH): “Seven are (the persons) whom Allah would give protection with His Shade on the Day when there would be no shade but that of His (i.e. on the Day of Judgment, and they are): a just ruler, a youth who grew up with the worship of Allah; a person whose heart is attached to the mosques; two persons who love and meet each other and depart from each other for the sake of Allah; a man whom a beautiful woman of high rank seduces (for illicit relation), but he (rejects this offer by saying):" I fear Allah"; a person who gives charity and conceals it (to such an extent) that the right hand does not know what the left has given: and a person who remembered Allah in privacy and his eyes shed tears.” [Sahih Muslim 1031 a, Book 12, Hadith 117]

Giving charity secretly is highly recommended as it reflects the true faith of the giver and this concept is revealed in the verse of the Quran saying:” [O Muhammad], tell My servants who have believed to establish prayer and spend from what We have provided them, secretly and publicly, before a Day comes in which there will be no exchange, nor any friendships.” [Ibrahim, 31]

In Islam, there are types of charity other than giving money: for example a nice word and a smiling face. Abd al-Rahman bin 'Awf, the tycoon whose trade caravans traveled from Egypt and the Levant to Al-Madinah, sold one day a land for forty thousand Dinars and gave the money to his relatives, Banu Zuhrah, the mothers of the believers, and the poor. Furthermore, he donated five hundred horses for the Muslim Army; and in another occasion, he brought a thousand and five hundred riding camels to the army. He was a shining example of bounteousness.