Resumo de Charity In Different Religions

CHARITY AND HOSPITALITY

CHARITY AND HOSPITALITY Giving alms to the poor and hospitality to strangers are traditional virtues encouraged by all religions. A relationship to the Highest Good naturally builds a bond among all members of the community--for all people are as brothers and sisters with the absolute value of (potential) Enlightened Beings or God's children. Giving alms and charity is a concrete expression of this spiritual bond. Along with admonitions to practice charity, texts such as the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats from the New Testament, liken helping a poor man to giving offerings to God or the highest saints. Charity is not excused even for the poorest giver according to several texts. Finally we have passages on hospitality, including two texts lauding exemplary acts of charity, by a companion of the Prophet Muhammad and the Hindu householder Rantideva who gave food and water to guests even though it meant that they would have to go without. Blessed is he who considers the poor the Lord delivers him in the day of trouble. Judaism and Christianity. They feed with food the needy wretch, the orphan and the prisoner for love of Him saying We wish for no reward nor thanks from you. Islam. Quran 76.8-9 Charity--to be moved at the sight of the thirsty, the hungry, and the miserable and to offer relief to them out of pity--is the spring of virtue. Jainism. Kundakunda Pancastikaya 137. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God [Deuteronomy 13.4]. But how can a man walk after God who is a devouring fire? [Deuteronomy 4.24]. It means walk after His attributes: clothe the naked visit the sick comfort the mourner, bury the dead. Judaism. Talmud, Sota 14a Relieve people in distress as speedily as you must release a fish from a dry rill [lest he die]. Deliver people from danger as quickly as you must free a sparrow from a tight noose. Be compassionate to orphans and relieve widows. Respect the old and help the poor.Taoism. Tract of the Quiet Way Every person's every joint must perform a charity every day the sun comes up: to act justly between two people is a charity; to help a man with his mount, lifting him onto it or hoisting up his belongings onto it is a charity; a good word is a charity; every step you take in prayers is a charity; and removing a harmful thing from the road is a charity. Islam. Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 26. Be kind to parents, and the near kinsman, and to orphans and to the needy, and to the neighbor who is of kin, and to the neighbor who is a stranger and to the companion at your side, and to the traveller and to [slaves] that your right hands own. Surely God loves not the proud and boastful such as are niggardly, and bid other men to be niggardly and themselves conceal the bounty that God has given them.Islam.Qur'an 4.36-37. If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him, and lend him sufficient for his need whatever it may be.... You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him; because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and the poor, in the land. Judaism and Christianity. Deuteronomy 15.7-11. The gods have not ordained that humans die of hunger even to the well-fed man death comes in many shapes. The wealth of the generous man never wastes away but the niggard has none to console him. He who, possessed of food, hardens his heart against the weak man, hungry and suffering, who comes to him for help, though of old he helped him--surely he finds none to console him. He is liberal who gives to anyone who asks for alms, to the homeless, distresd man who seeks food.

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