Fatemeh Sadr Ameli
The Qur’an says in surat Aal-‘Imran, 3:92:
You will never reach righteousness unless you spend out of what is dear to you.
In many places, the Qur’an enjoins Muslims to be charitable and to care for the well being of their fellow human being in society. This may be done in many ways. It can be done by helping others financially, or y visiting and caring for the sick, or by empowering people who are physically or mentally challenged, or by any other kind of charitable action. As we learn from the aforementioned verse from Surat Aal-‘Imran, such activities are considered charitable only a) if the intention behind them is not the expectation of merits or rewards from the side of the person who carries them out, but if they are done exclusively for the sake of God and for the love of one’s fellow human beings; b) if this is taken on as a social commitment equally important as other commitments and practiced conscientiously.
The aforementioned verse basically says: Only then will people really experience the positive results of charity if they are ready to spend out of what is dear to them. Why is that the case?
Charity has a decisive role for the protection of the psychosocial and spiritual environment of human beings that must not be underestimated. The physical environment can be damaged or preserved by human behaviour and lifestyle. The same applies to the spiritual environment that is influenced by people’s attitudes. In turn, just as breathing in polluted air can damage the lungs and other inner organs, the conditions of the psychosocial and spiritual environment have a considerable influence on the mental and spiritual development and well being of all human beings.
People appear as individuals. According to the Qur’an, each human individual represents all humankind, so that “if someone saves a human being’s life, it is as if he had saved all humankind”. Nevertheless none of us is really separate from the others. No one is an island to himself or herself. All of us are connected with each other. Based on a statement of the Prophet Muhammad, the famous Iranian poet Saadi says: Human beings are different members of one body (if one member hurts, the whole body suffers).
Nowadays, many different academic disciplines, like philosophy, psychology, sociology and the like, explore shared areas of human existence. In a way that reminds very much of some of our classical mystics: they say that the way that leads a human individual to himself or herself, leads through the others and through the world.
Beyond subject, philosophers like Husserl (Edmund Husserl) have developed the concept of inter-subjectness to describe that the common area between human beings has an essential influence in enabling an individual to be a subject at all.
This matches with system theory that says that all elements of this world are tied to one another in an inner connection. It enables nature to heal and correct damages as long as they are not too severe, recycling broken components to become a part of a new complete entity. Human beings are no exception there.
The psychological, social and spiritual atmosphere in society can thus heal a conflict or crisis and promote creativity unless it is damaged beyond repair by the behaviour of the majority of its members.
Charity protects this atmosphere from being damaged beyond repair: individuals are systematically guided to think about that interconnectedness of human beings and their destiny. This reflection would then awaken the individual’s sense of responsibility for the whole.
This awareness of being inter-connected causes human beings to love others as they love themselves.
In the end our purpose is social and communal harmony and well being. Ubunto does not say: like ……, I think therefore I am; it rather says: I am human because I belong, I participate, I share.[1]
If all are ready to commit themselves to the well-being of others, we will have a healthy atmosphere that enables us to breathe deeply and freely.
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[1] “Ubunto really means that I am because you are. We belong together. Our humanity is bound up with one another. We say in our languages, a person is a person through other persons. A solitary human being is a contradiction in terms. I learn how to become a human being through association with other human beings.” – Desmond Tutu as quoted by Hallencreutz and Palmberg in “Religion and Politics in South Africa“ p72