CHARITY :50% OF THE SAVINGS ?

Fahad1

peace idolfree.

You shall not keep your hand stingily tied to your neck, nor shall you foolishly open it up, lest you end up blamed and sorry.

i.e u shall neither give too much away , nor too less . neither too much ,nor too less = 50%. thats how . please tell me what u think .

peace .

unknownuser

Peace be upon you,

I understand your sense of balance and can see why you might check the idea of 50%, but the God has no difficulty in saying percentages. As he has stated in (841) with 20%, or one/fifth.

I do not think that all people can give 50%, only the excess. A man with $10 cannot be expected to give $5 of his money.

Please give me your thoughts on that.

Fahad1

peace idolfree.
i meant 50% of the excess .

unknownuser

Peace be upon you Saladin,

i meant 50% of the excess .

Okay, I did not understand that. Still, not sure if I agree. I don't really see it as that rigid.

Idris

peace be upon you,

sorry to interrupt the convo like this but in 2219 The God did not say, half the excess or 1/4th of the excess but all of the excess, therefore we should keep our wealth and resources open for the good of society

http//www.quranicteachings.co.uk/keep-your-resources-open.htm

Fahad1

peace .

... in 2219 The God did not say, half the excess or 1/4th of the excess but all of the excess, therefore we should keep our wealth and resources open for the good of society

http//www.quranicteachings.co.uk/keep-your-resources-open.htm

but in 1729 God says
You shall not keep your hand stingily tied to your neck, nor shall you foolishly open it up, lest you end up blamed and sorry.

i.e to save something for (i think)future needs . if we do not want to end up blamed and sorry .

1729 and 2567 further explain 2219 (God knows best) . just like there are verses commanding us to fight ,without stating the conditions . but there are other verses explaining the conditions for fighting .

looking forward to ur reply .
peace be upon u .

Idris

peace be upon you,

but in 1729 God says
You shall not keep your hand stingily tied to your neck, nor shall you foolishly open it up, lest you end up blamed and sorry.

i.e to save something for (i think)future needs . if we do not want to end up blamed and sorry .

1729 and 2567 further explain 2219 (God knows best) . just like there are verses commanding us to fight ,without stating the conditions . but there are other verses explaining the conditions for fighting .

looking forward to ur reply .
peace be upon u .

lets look at the verse

You shall not keep your hand stingily tied to your neck, nor shall you foolishly open it up, lest you end up blamed and sorry.

I think this verse is saying though we should give up the excess (2219) we shouldn't go crazy and start giving money to society that we have to buy what we need to live (our basic needs), which is very foolish because we need to eat and drink and have shelter

unknownuser

Peace be upon you Idris and Saladin,

Very good points by both of you. After taking another look at it I agree with Idris. I think that we are to give the excess, but in deciding what our excess is, the human mind will tend to make excuses to keep more of the money "just in case", or on the other side of the fence, we might give too much money, which we thought was excess, but a problem comes down the line and we need extra money. I think all these verses together just teach us to be very careful with our resources and whenever possible to give to those in need because they are really in a bad situation.

Fahad1

peace .

We thus put Solomon to the test; we blessed him with vast material wealth, but he steadfastly submitted.

so where did Solomon get his wealth from , if he used to give 100% of the excess money to charity ,and did not save anything ? if he had not saved any money then he would have ended up blamed and sorry .

he did not hoard his wealth greedily . it was purified by being charitable .

God knows best .

looking forward to your opinion .
peace .

Idris

peace be upon you saladin,

When, during early twilight, well trained horses were displayed before him.
He said ?I enjoyed the good of materialism more than I enjoyed remembering my Lord, until it has become totally dark.?
?Send them back.? He then rubbed their legs and necks. (3831-33)

khalifa's translation of 3834 is wrong, verify it cause i dont wanna get into a lingual argument under here

http//www.tolueislam.com/Parwez/QL/QL_14.htm check this, I agree with Parwez's views on the economic principles of the reading, he has written so much on this topic but this is a sample

progod

I like the 50 % of the excess idea, but it is not rigid or fixed in the Koran.
Excess is what you do not need. If you are planng for your future or some future event it would be foolish to spend that money on someone else, because you would then harm yourself.

Giving 50% of your savings to charity is a very good way for a person to reconcile their savings with God and ensure their future, when they see no immediate goal in sight. But take into account that you might be saving to give to some charity, in which case you would keep all of the money to effect some future goal.

Something about this 50% sits very well with me and I cannot explain it yet. Maybe Saladin can come up with why this sounds so good and right to me.

Saladin has left alot of issues unsaid, like the payment of debts or maybe some circumstance that I cannot think of now, but I think that this is very good for the following reason

Whatever the bill or expense it must fall either under need or charity.
It allows for preparation of future catastrophes, etc.

What it does not include is whether charity includes betterment (zakaat) for oneself, one's family etc, the promotion of beneficial things (in teh meaing of Salat) or other plans that may not fall under charity but that do fall under the divine command of bettering ourselves and upholding what God wants us to uphold.

But I like it Saladin. I just can't state exactly why as of yet.

Godbless,
Anwar

unknownuser

Peace be upon you Saladin,

I think we are not on the same page. When I think of excess, it would be after all is taken care of. I think that putting something aside does not have to be part of excess. When we design our budgets, we pretty much know in advance what we expect to come. WHat ever is left, we can put a bit aside for emergency and the rest would be excess. I think the discussion we are having now involves how much to put aside just in case. It is logical to do so so I don't think we would be blamed for doing that. But I do not think that the God would enslave us to 50%. For some that is no problem, for others that is back breaking.

Fahad1

It is logical to do so so I don't think we would be blamed for doing that. But I do not think that the God would enslave us to 50%. For some that is no problem, for others that is back breaking.

peace dear idolfree1.
even if it is back breaking than back breaking is good

God's Tests Are Never Unreasonable

Had we decreed for them "You must offer your lives," or "Give up your homes," they would not have done it, except for a few of them. (Even if such a command was issued,) had they done what they were commanded to do, it would have been better for them, and would prove the strength of their faith.

And we would have granted them a great recompense.

And we would have guided them in the right path.

by the way ,giving 50% of excess away would be less back breaking than giving it all away .

peace .

Fahad1

It is logical to do so so I don't think we would be blamed for doing that. But I do not think that the God would enslave us to 50%. For some that is no problem, for others that is back breaking.

peace dear idolfree1.
even if it is back breaking than back breaking is good for us

God's Tests Are Never Unreasonable

Had we decreed for them "You must offer your lives," or "Give up your homes," they would not have done it, except for a few of them. (Even if such a command was issued,) had they done what they were commanded to do, it would have been better for them, and would prove the strength of their faith.

And we would have granted them a great recompense.

And we would have guided them in the right path.

by the way ,giving 50% of excess away would be less back breaking than giving it all away .

peace .

unknownuser

Peace be upon you Saladin,

I think we are not really saying anything different. I recall a verse that states we should not critisize people for giving too much or too little, so I will back away from this topic. If you are familiar with the verse, please post it so I can recall where it is.

unknownuser

Salaamun alaikum everyone,

1727 And give the relative his due, and the poor, and the wayfarer; and do not waste excessively.
1728 Those who waste excessively are brothers to the devils, and the devil was to his Lord a rejecter.
1729 And if you turn away from them to seek a mercy from your Lord which you desire, then say to them a gentle saying.
1730 And do not make your hand stingy by holding it to your neck, nor shall you lay it fully open so you become in despair and regret.
1731 Your Lord lays out openly the provision for whom He wishes, and He is able to do so. He is Expert and Watcher to His servants.

IMO making your hand stingy by holding it to your neck means not giving anything (0 %) and lay it fully open means 100 % (of the excess of course). I think that here Allah is asking us to make our own judgement and the amount of charity could be any reasonable figure between those two extremes depending on our individual judgement or situation; for example it could be 25 % or 40 % or 65 % or 80 % of the excess. I dont think the above ayat implies 50 % exactly.

Peace,

Tanveer