The Qur'an on Charitable Giving and Contemporary Social Values

ABSTRACT. The Qur'an has clear directives on what an individual should do for the sake of welfare of others, i.e., charity. It has established priorities similar to what a rational person may be expected to assign on his own, assuming that utility functions are interdependent. One finds striking resemblance between the Islamic approach to redistribution and the contemporary social values implicit in redistribution in a democratic society. This raises interesting questions for Muslims living in Western welfare societies, which are for the Shari'ah scholars to consider. Islamic emphasis on charity for the sake of Allah and the discretion allowed to the giver in the disposal of charitable spending can make significant improvement in the performance of welfare programs. I A Muslim living in North America is often faced with a dilemma: on the one hand, he does not fail to get impressed by the general living standard, the social security system and the scientific and technological achievements within his surroundings; on the other hand, he has a deep-rooted conviction that the fundamental principles of Islam can provide a solid foundation for mankind to make progress, both spiritual and material which, to his great disappointment, has not been made in most Muslim nations of to-day. In this paper * we will talk about the deed of charitable giving. Our main task here is to demonstrate that the system of income redistribution that Western nations have developed over a considerably long period of time comes very close to Islamic ideology