Prayer (Salat

The Four Pillars you for God’s sake only; we seek of you neither recompense nor thanks: for we fear from our Lord a day of anguish and woe.” (76:9-10) 3. Whoever is given charity should not be reminded of it, nor should anything be said to hurt his self respect. “Those who give their wealth for the cause of God and do not follow their almsgiving with taunts and insults shall be rewarded by their Lord.” (2:262) 4. Givers should not consider their donations either a financial loss or a burden. They should “give away their wealth from a desire to please God and to strengthen their own souls.” (2:264) 5. According to the Quran it is better to give alms to the poor in private rather than in public. The Prophet’s companions, therefore, took special care to keep their almsgiving secret. There is the story of Abdur Rahman bin Sabit Jamhi who, when he received his stipend, would buy essential food for his family and give away the rest of his money in alms. If his wife asked him about the remainder of his earnings, he would reply that he had lent it to someone. Such actions often created many delicate situations in the household. How the Sahaba (followers of the Prophet) dealt with such situations is illustrated by the following incident. Hassan bin Atiya narrates that when Caliph Umar dispatched Saeed bin Amir to Syria as governor, the latter set out with his wife, a bright-faced Quraysh girl. But he was very soon in dire need of money. When Umar heard of this, he sent him one thousand dinars. Saeed brought the money home to his wife and said that Umar has sent it for them. His wife suggested that he had better store food and other necessities with that money. He offered a better suggestion, that they entrust the money to someone who should bring it to them when they were in great need, that is, in the Hereafter. (Abu Nuaim, Hilyatul Auliya, Vol. 1, p. 244) The narrator goes on to say that Saeed then quietly gave away all the money in charity. When the wife came to know of this, she