Almsgiving, prayer, and fasting were the three cardinal disciplines which the synagogue transmitted to both the Christian Church and the Muhammedan mosque.[211] According to Islam, the duty next in importance to prayer is that of giving alms.[212] Muhammed repeatedly announces that the path which leads to God is the helping of the orphans and the relieving of the poor.[213] “Ye cannot attain to righteousness until ye expend in alms of what ye love.”[214] “Those who expend their wealth by night and day, secretly and openly, they shall have their hire with their lord.”[215] It is said that “prayer carries us half-way to God, fasting brings us to the door of His palace, and alms procure us admission.”[216] Certain alms, called Zakât, are prescribed by law; it is an indispensable duty for every Muhammedan of full age to bestow in charity about one-fortieth of all such property as has been a year in his possession, provided that he has sufficient for his subsistence and has an income equivalent to about £5 per annum.[217] Other charitable gifts are voluntary, and confer merit upon the giver.
[211] Cf. Tobit, xii. 8; Kohler, in Jewish Encyclopedia, i. 435.
[212] See Sale’s ‘Preliminary Discourse,’ in Wherry, Commentary on the Qurán, i. 172; Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, p. 105.
[213] Koran, ii. 267, 269, 275; viii. 42; ix. 60; xc. 12, 14 sq.; xciii. 6 sqq.; &c.
[214] Ibid. iii. 86.
[215] Ibid. ii. 275
[216] Sell, Faith of Islám, p. 284.
[217] Ibid. p. 283. Palmer, ‘Introduction’ to his translation of The Qur’án, i. p. lxxiii. Ameer Ali, Life and Teaching of Mohammed, p. 268.
By Christianity charity of the religious type which we find in the East was introduced into Europe. We have certainly no reason to blame the ancient Greeks and Romans for neglecting their poor. Among them slavery in a great measure replaced pauperism; and what slavery did for the very poor, the Roman system of clientage did for those of a somewhat higher rank.[218] Moreover, the relief of the indigent was an important function of the State.[219] The Areopagus provided public works for the poor.[220] At Rome gratuitous distribution of corn was the rule for many centuries;[221] agrarian laws furnished free homesteads to the landless, on conquered or public territory;[222] since the days of Nerva a systematic support of poor children was enjoined in all the cities of Italy.[223] A few examples of private charity, also, have descended to us already from early times, such as Epaminondas collecting dowers for poor girls,[224] and Cimon feeding and clothing the poor;[225] and from the days of the Pagan Empire there are recorded several cases of individual beneficence. Charitable bequests are alluded to in the burial inscriptions; when some great catastrophe happened, relief was willingly given to the sufferers; private infirmaries were established for slaves.[226] The duty of charity was forcibly enjoined by some of the moralists. The wise man, says Seneca, “will dry the tears of others, but will not mingle his own with them; he will stretch out his hand to the shipwrecked mariner, will offer hospitality to the exile, and alms to the needy.”[227] But his alms are not thrown away by chance; his purse will open easily, but never leak. He will choose out the worthiest with the utmost care, and never give without sufficient reason; for unwise gifts must be reckoned among foolish extravagances.[228] So also Cicero, whilst styling beneficence and liberality “virtues that are the most agreeable to the nature of man,” is anxious to warn his readers against imprudence in practising them, “lest our kindness should hurt both those whom it is meant to assist, and others.”[229]
[218] See Lecky, History of European Morals, ii. 73.