What Muslims believe about poverty and human dignity

One rainy and cold morning, driving on my way to work, I am waiting at a red light. I look across the intersection and notice an older gentleman, carrying a garbage bag, wearing no coat, carrying no umbrella and getting soaking wet in the rain. He’s walking in shoes that are completely ripped apart at the soles. Panic rips across my heart and a sudden rush of overwhelming sadness takes over.

With tears streaming down my face, I make the split second decision to turn my car around away from the direction I need to go and follow this gentleman and try hard not to appear too creepy as I pull up to where he is walking. I empty out my wallet, and I roll down the window and make my humble offer politely, not knowing at all how he’d respond.

He looks at me with tears in his eyes and tells me I am an angel sent to help him and thanks me over and over again.

I mention this story not to tout this instance of help I gave but rather because I’ll never forget the look of despondency in his eyes, and I think about that moment often. I often wondered why that particular moment stays with me given that I’ve seen worse and have engaged with those in even more trying circumstances, like the refugee I spoke with this morning fleeing from war-torn areas.

They both relayed, through his look and her story, that their fundamental need of human dignity wasn’t being met. This one gentleman – on the street, under those circumstances, in an arguably nice neighborhood – truly looked and acted like he had lost his dignity.

That poverty, strife, and hunger targets our very human dignity. That suffering, that not knowing, that lack of security – seeing it so up close made it clear to me that often we don’t look closely at those facing hunger and poverty because on some primal level it ignites fear in us about our very human
condition.

Being human entitles us to the basic conditions of food, shelter and clothing which are basic to our human dignity. And seeing our notions of security challenged in our own backyard makes it real and palpable, something we can grasp at.

Our Declaration of Independence declared that we are given certain inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But, as a member of the human species, we are born with even more basic rights, the primary one being the right to human dignity – to which food, clothing and shelter are fundamental.

Just Harvest works to do just that – elevate human dignity through their work in poverty alleviation.

Islam’s Five Pillars of Faith

Islam promotes the elevation of human dignity through its practices. As a Muslim, we have five pillars of faith. One is giving mandatory charity specifically to help the poor with these basic needs of human dignity – food, shelter, clothing and education.

Every year we are required to calculate our wealth and take a percentage of it to contribute to the poor only. This mandatory support of the poor provides them with a social safety net – and societies from the very beginning of Islam implemented this system to support the poor.

We believe that this giving, called zakat, is actually the right of the poor and not just something that’s nice for us to do. This zakat acts as a means of purifying our wealth and promoting a balancing of wealth to give it to those who need it.

For Muslims, we are not fulfilling a commandment of God if we do not pay zakat. We aren’t doing a favor to the poor, but rather they are doing us a favor in helping to fulfill our obligation.

Muslims, as part of our religious teachings, are also told that our neighbors have rights upon us. That if a neighbor is sick or is in need, that again, it is their right that we must fulfill by helping them. If we don’t do this, we consider it a sin.

These two key practices, when put together, literally establish the fundamental paradigm that poverty isn’t something to look down upon; rather it is something to proactively address. It forces us to realize that our fellow brothers and sisters in humanity across the world and in our neighborhoods, cannot be left alone to deal with it.

It also challenges us to come to the realization that at any time, it could affect us. These tenets aren’t just about poverty alleviation, they are about human dignity elevation.

Poverty isn’t something for us to be desensitized to or ignore. Proactive and sustainable systems are necessary to address it.

Just Harvest is a wonderful example of an organization that is working hard to do to just that – elevating human dignity through their work in alleviating poverty by connecting those in need with the resources available. Just Harvest’s work speaks to our most basic needs in life – in our very own backyard and neighborhood.

I look forward to supporting Just Harvest in helping our neighbors in Western Pennsylvania.

Nadia Khawaja delivered these remarks as the opening invocation of our 2016 Harvest Celebration Dinner.