Tariq Ramadan – Ramadan Chronicles #18 Poverty

Among the phenomenon that we can find in

all societies, wherever we go you will find

poor people, needy people.

And this is the reality of our societies.

Poverty is everywhere.

Yet, what we need to understand when it

comes to Islam is that we have to

struggle against poverty, and poverty could be a

natural state. It's not an acceptable state. And

we have to struggle and we have to

fight against poverty, which is one of our

when it comes to resisting poverty and trying

to change,

the situation.

Knowing that from the very beginning, if you

come to the starting,

point of all the revelations in the Quran,

2 things were there. The first was to

help the prophet, peace be upon him, and

all the believers to change the perception of

the real and nature and creation that is

full of signs.

So look at what was invisible before, and

you will see the signs of the invisible,

meaning the creator. At the same time, when

you look at your society, what he said

is that look at the invisible people because

for the rich people, the poor people are

useless. They are invisible. They are not important.

When it comes to to to to come

back to the first,

he's

asking you to look at the last, the

last one, the people who are useless within

the society, and this is why you will

get the dignity.

So as much as they have no dignity

because in social terms, they are apparently useless,

in spiritual term, this is where you will

get your dignity because you look at them

and you see them. You make them visible

into,

within the invisible dimension of life. And this

is what we have in the Quran.

For those people who are not getting this

faith and not getting this closeness to god,

you don't give and you don't respect the

dignity of the poor people. Why it's so

important?

This is what we have to start with.

And within zakat,

the, purifying social tax, you have to pay

it, which is the right of the poor.

You have to pay this. This is a

a a duty. This is an obligation for

you, and it's not a gift that they

don't have to say thank you for that

because this is their right. So the the

the the the right of the poor, it's

essential in our tradition. So you have to

pray. This is the the vertical

relationship to god, and then the horizontal

relationship to humanity and to our brothers and

sisters in humanity out of, this dignified way

of dealing with justice and acknowledging the right

of the poor.

Having said that, you have to go beyond

that and to understand that even if you

are involved in this, don't expect

reward

or thanks coming from the people.

We are in fact, giving you food

for the face for the the the the

sake of god, for his face. We are

not expecting from you reward,

or, thanks. This is the way we have

to do, and we have to be involved

with parties. So it's our local level. It's

at the national level. Somebody or anyone who

is trying to come close to god has

to be and has to feel this concern

about poverty and the struggle and jihad against

poverty

at the local level, at the

international

level between the global,

north and the global south, these are concerns

that are so essential in our way of

dealing with

our faith. Faith is about

no

acceptance for poverty.

Faith means jihad against poverty.

And while it's everywhere, we have to change

it wherever we are.

Remember,

not do do not forget to tell the

people you love that you love them. Life

is fragile.