Charity is a Duty

Charity is a Duty According to the Quranic concept, the have-nots have their rights. The haves must give the have-nots their due, otherwise the haves shall have to pay a heavy price for their negligence in discharging their duties. Philanthropy is a duty rather than simply a charity. An event narrated in the Quran in the chapter Al-Qalam (The Pen), is the best illustration of this concept: We tried them as we tried the owners of a certain orchard, who vowed to harvest all its fruits the next morning, without saying, ‘If it be God’s will.’ A calamity from your Lord befell the orchard as they slept. And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. So, they called out to each other at the break of dawn, saying, ‘Be quick to reach your orchard, if you want to gather all your fruits.’ So they went off, whispering to one another, ‘Be sure to stop any poor person from entering the orchard today.’ They set out early in the morning, thinking they had the power to prevent. But when they saw it, they said, ‘We must have lost our way. Indeed, we are utterly ruined!’ The more upright of the two said, ‘Did I not bid you to glorify God?’ They said, ‘Glory be to God, our Lord. We have surely done wrong.’ Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. They said, ‘Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the