The holy month of Ramadan is the most blessed of the year, when charity and acts of righteousness and benevolence are abundant.
It is also known as the month of compassion for the poor and the needy.
It is the month of good and worship, and of generosity and tender feelings. It is when the soul manifests and when we are merciful and forgiving.
A few days ago, I received an unusual request from my son, who is studying in the United States.
He asked me to withdraw from his personal account a large sum of money to give to an expatriate worker who has been doing cleaning work at our home for more than 20 years!
He is a man of good character, honest, conscientious and is doing his job perfectly, but when I saw the sum of money was rather large, I suggested to my son it should be distributed to more than one person.
I impressed upon him that he is a student without income so he should think again.
However, he insisted the money be handed over to only this man in recognition of his services, his honesty and his sincerity.
Despite my reservations, I was very happy at his magnanimity and his love for the simple and the poor.
A sense of humanity in giving without hesitation and is real service to Allah.
While I am not praising my son, I wish to point out to some simple practices and initiatives that deserve to be encouraged, especially when it comes to giving and supporting humanitarian solidarity and standing by the weak and the needy.
The odd thing about all this is that I had intended to send my son a sum of money to reward him for his excellence and his honourable grades in all the subjects at university.
I was very impressed by this attitude which confirmed and reinforced my conviction, which I had long believed.
We, as parents, must always strive to encourage our children to do good not only in this holy month, but all the time.
We have to cultivate in our children good qualities and good character, which is more important than all the money in the world.
One can imagine how our society would be if all of us would be like this.
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