Charity Ethics in Islam with Special Reference to Sincerity and Ostentation

Abstract

The Qur’ān has made the attainment of accomplished piety (al-birr) essentially contingent on the spending of that which one loves and holds dear to his heart in the path of God (Al-Qur’ān 3: 92). Two significant characteristics of this concept stand out above all others: The first is the generality and extensiveness of the scope of charitable spending (infāq), which does not limit it to monetary spending alone; rather, this holistic term encompasses all types of spending – material, physical, moral, or emotional – that can be of any kind of benefit to those in need. Second, anything spent in the name of God should be something the giver/donor likes rather than something he/she despises or considers useless. Consequently, belief (īmān) is the primary criterion for the validity and acceptance of one’s charitable deeds (infāq). This belief must be supplemented by sincerity (ikhlāṣ), which is also a necessary corollary for the legitimacy (ṣiḥḥah) and preservation (baqā’) of charitable deeds. Another requirement for charitable acts to be accepted in the sight of God is that there be no verbal reminders of one’s favors or harming the recipients because of what one has done for or spent on them, believing that he/she has the right to do so. As a result, the charitable deeds of a hypocrite or one who brags about his generous deeds are rendered null and void due to a lack of belief and/or sincerity. The benevolent deeds of a person who verbally abuses or reminds the recipients of his/her generosity are also declared void because there is a lack of the condition of preservation (sharṭ al-baqā’) in his/her charitable deeds. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of charity ethics in Islam, with a particular emphasis on its two important aspects: sincerity and ostentation, in light of Maulānā Ashraf ‘Alī Thānavī’s works.