Tariq Ramadan – Ramadan Chronicles #18 Poverty
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of acknowledging the power of the people and their influence in society. They emphasize the need to fight poverty and change the perception of reality, and to pray for the right of the poor. They also emphasize the importance of local and international levels of acceptance for the people and their values.
AI: Summary ©
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.