Blog Action Day Post: Poverty 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 As part of Blog Action Day's campaign against poverty, ProductiveMuslim.com wants to add its bit to the blogosphere in raising awareness about the global fight against poverty.
I'm going to take a different approach to this campaign and ask you to Imagine a time where poverty did not exist. Where everyone was well-off and you couldn't give charity to anyone. If you tried to give somebody money, they'd turn around and say, "no thank you. I have more than enough!" Hard to imagine, right? Well, guess what? Such a period did exist, and it was a time when Islamic economic principles were established and the Zakaat system was being implemented.
"The era of Umar bin Abdul-Aziz, who was spiritually though not chronologically regarded as the fifth pious caliph, provided a period where Zakaat (Alms charity) recipients ceased to exist, the ultimate result of the brilliant and thorough application of this institution. This was an exemplary time in history, in fact, miraculously heralded by the Prophet (Peace be upon him) decades ago: "Offer alms; as there will soon come a time when a person, carrying his zakaat in his hand, will roam around in futlity, in pursuit of a recipient as the intended recipient will refuse and say 'If you offered this yesterday, I would have accepted, but now I'm in no need of it." "A time will come when a man carrying his sadaqa (charity) of gold, will roaom around to find someone to give it but in vain." (Source: Charity in Islam: A Comprehensive Guide to Zakat, by Omer Faruk Senturk).
Imagine this brothers/sisters. We've the solution for mankind's oldest problem in our hands? Yet, who's ready to take it to the world?




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