ভূমিকা

“Give charity, even if it happens to be a (piece of) date.” [^2] Short Explanation Charity is of two kinds: The first being the “concealed charity” - one that had been the conduct of the Imams and which wards away poverty, lengthens the life, does away with seventy kinds of evil deaths and smothers the Divine wrath. The second being the “manifest charity” - one, that increases the sustenance and breaks Satan's back.

An important point in connection with charity is that quantity (with respect to money, clothes or food) is not the criterion for perfection; rather, it is the purity and sincerity of intention, which is the requisite for perfection.

At times when the Noble Prophet (s.a.w) did not possess any money, he would give his clothes in charity and would recommend: “Commence your day with charity, for it serves to insure you.” Auspicious and Inauspicious Times Once, Imam Sadiq (a.s) related: “There was a piece of land that I owned in partnership with an astrologer and it was mutually decided that it should be divided between us.

He made preparations so that his arrival should be in an auspicious hour while I should arrive in an inauspicious hour so that the better portion of the land fell in his hands. The land was divided but it so happened that the better portion came as my share of the land! The man slapped his right hand over his left in regret and said ruefully: “Oh!

Had I never lived to see such a day!” I said to him: “Why are you so upset today?” He said: “I am an astrologer and I brought you out of your house in an inauspicious hour while I myself came out in an auspicious hour.