Maulana Wahiduddin Khan I The Sunday Guardian I 12th May 2013 I Page 12

To give shelter to those who have nowhere to go in society is an act of worship of the highest excellence. Every human being is liable to fall into need at some time: a mother and father reach the end of their life; a child becomes an orphan; a traveller falls into difficulties far from his native land; at times such as these a person is completely dependent on others.

To come to his or her rescue at such times of crisis is a deed highly pleasing to God. God will not let such action go unrewarded. There are countless verses of the Quran, and sayings of the Prophet of Islam, which emphasise the importance of being charitable to those in need.

The reason that offering help to the helpless is so pleasing to God is that it is a practical acknowledgement that every man is inherently helpless before the Lord.

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It is not only those who are being helped who are helpless.

Those who are helping them are in the same position, for everything is in God's hands: He gives and takes as He pleases. To realise this fact is to believe in God, and to express this realisation in the form of actions pleasing to God is to worship Him.

The only way of telling if a person is true in his faith and his worship is to see how he deals with a weak and helpless human being.

If we are kind to a needy person, while praying to God that He should be kind to us when we come before Him in a state of need and destitution, then there is hope that God will look with favour upon our actions and our prayers.

One who really feels his own helplessness before God feels like giving everything he has away to the helpless.