"What did you give him money for? Anyone can tell he's just pretending. He'll only spend the money on drugs." How many times has a friend said those words to you when you gave a few coins to a person begging on the street?
Chances are that if you are reading this article on the Internet, you probably had breakfast this morning. Chances are that if you are reading it in the evening, you had lunch and dinner, too. Or if you didn't have breakfast, lunch, or dinner today, it might have been your choice. You could have had orange juice for breakfast if you had wanted, followed by either tea or coffee. Before breakfast, you probably got out of a cozy bed where you slept well all night, having watched TV or gone out with friends the evening before.
Imagine things were a bit different (well, actually, a lot different), and at the end of the day yesterday, you didn't go to bed, because you had no bed and no home to go to. Where would you have gone? Can you possibly imagine, just for a moment, if you had nowhere to sleep tonight? What would you do? Where would you go? Worse than that, imagine you had no mobile phone or money in your pocket. Nothing! What would you do?
Many, many young people find themselves in this dilemma every single day. They have nowhere to stay, no money to spend, and nothing to do for the whole day ahead of them. In every big city in the world, just around the corner from those high streets where millions of pounds are spent every day in fancy shops and restaurants, young men and women sit begging on the street. It is one of the most shameful things of our modern age that while many live in comfort, lacking nothing, many more live lives of total despair, not knowing where the next meal will come from or how they can manage to find a place to lay down their heads in safety for the night.
What makes the problem of homelessness even worse is that when people find themselves in such a situation, that is when the trouble really starts. Circumstances lead them to meet characters who are perhaps not the best people to have as friends. Maybe crime or even prostitution are the only ways of getting access to any money. People you thought you could rely on, let you down and steal what little you have. The situation keeps going from bad to worse.
Now, just before we go on, we need to admit that there are causes for this situation. Some people say that young people in this situation don't try hard enough to get jobs or look for adequate shelters offered by the many charities that exist to look after them. Some blame drugs or alcohol. Others say that those young people themselves didn't try hard enough to make it work at home, and they left too hastily. We can come back to all of that. Just for now, though, let's admit that the situation exists. Blaming someone is not going to solve the problem. Many people your age have nowhere to live. That is the fact of it. No fingers to point. No one to blame. Just a fact.
So what are we, as Muslims, to do about this? Do we condemn the homeless to their lives of misery because they have not managed to keep up with the demands of modern life? Maybe a row at home was the cause of the young persons' leaving the family home and setting off to the big city. Maybe there was some kind of abuse at home, either physical or sexual, which led them to leave. Maybe they were just too headstrong to stay in a family where parents were making quite ordinary demands of them. The situation is, of course, very complex. What, though, can we do?
First of all, like our beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), we ought to thank Almighty Allah whenever we see someone less fortunate than ourselves, that we have not been given that particular trial in our lives. We need to thank Allah each day for the comforts we enjoy and take for granted. Even though we might, at times, argue with parents, we thank Allah that they are there for us when we need them. We should thank Allah, too, that we really lack for nothing in life. Sure we moan and complain when we don't get quite the right brand that we asked for or when things don't go perfectly according to plan, but we really lack for nothing. As Muslims, we should be ever grateful for the good things we enjoy in life, saying al-hamdu lillah for them.
We need to be proactive, too. In other words, instead of just shaking our heads and saying how terrible it is that there are homeless young people on our streets, we should do something about it. We can look up many of the charities who work in this field. Do they need help? Do we have talents that could be offered? It need not be something big, but could be something as simple as writing a letter to an MP or a short article for a school or college magazine, highlighting the plight of the homeless and suggesting things such as affordable housing as ways out of the problem.
During Ramadan in particular, we turn our thoughts to those who are less fortunate than us. Maybe next Ramadan we could team up with others to offer help to the homeless. We could look for youth outreach programs, which try to give help and support where needed. We could even suggest to mosque leaders that the mosque might get involved in running a soup kitchen or collecting clothes and blankets. Apart from the help this would give where it is needed, it would also show the local community that Muslims care — not just about themselves, but also for any who are in need. It might even make those going to the mosque spare a thought for others too.
Knowledge is power. We can empower ourselves and others by finding out more about this terrible problem. Islamic societies at university might like to get involved to show their student friends what Islam is really about. It is easy to give a talk or hand out a few leaflets. Helping the homeless would really make people sit up and think.
And, next time, when someone asks you on the street to "spare the price of a cup of tea" or to "give any spare change," instead of making moral judgments, perhaps you should simply help. If some of those homeless are not telling the truth and are not really in need, they will have Allah to answer for. If you give some help for Allah's sake, out of a genuine care for someone less well-off than you, then you, too, will be rewarded by Allah for your good intention. In sha' Allah, young Muslims working together can make a difference to the lives of people who have nothing. Even if we can help just one person, we will have indeed made a big difference.
Chances are that if you are reading this article on the Internet, you probably had breakfast this morning. Chances are that if you are reading it in the evening, you had lunch and dinner, too. Or if you didn't have breakfast, lunch, or dinner today, it might have been your choice. You could have had orange juice for breakfast if you had wanted, followed by either tea or coffee. Before breakfast, you probably got out of a cozy bed where you slept well all night, having watched TV or gone out with friends the evening before.
Imagine things were a bit different (well, actually, a lot different), and at the end of the day yesterday, you didn't go to bed, because you had no bed and no home to go to. Where would you have gone? Can you possibly imagine, just for a moment, if you had nowhere to sleep tonight? What would you do? Where would you go? Worse than that, imagine you had no mobile phone or money in your pocket. Nothing! What would you do?
Many, many young people find themselves in this dilemma every single day. They have nowhere to stay, no money to spend, and nothing to do for the whole day ahead of them. In every big city in the world, just around the corner from those high streets where millions of pounds are spent every day in fancy shops and restaurants, young men and women sit begging on the street. It is one of the most shameful things of our modern age that while many live in comfort, lacking nothing, many more live lives of total despair, not knowing where the next meal will come from or how they can manage to find a place to lay down their heads in safety for the night.
What makes the problem of homelessness even worse is that when people find themselves in such a situation, that is when the trouble really starts. Circumstances lead them to meet characters who are perhaps not the best people to have as friends. Maybe crime or even prostitution are the only ways of getting access to any money. People you thought you could rely on, let you down and steal what little you have. The situation keeps going from bad to worse.
Now, just before we go on, we need to admit that there are causes for this situation. Some people say that young people in this situation don't try hard enough to get jobs or look for adequate shelters offered by the many charities that exist to look after them. Some blame drugs or alcohol. Others say that those young people themselves didn't try hard enough to make it work at home, and they left too hastily. We can come back to all of that. Just for now, though, let's admit that the situation exists. Blaming someone is not going to solve the problem. Many people your age have nowhere to live. That is the fact of it. No fingers to point. No one to blame. Just a fact.
So what are we, as Muslims, to do about this? Do we condemn the homeless to their lives of misery because they have not managed to keep up with the demands of modern life? Maybe a row at home was the cause of the young persons' leaving the family home and setting off to the big city. Maybe there was some kind of abuse at home, either physical or sexual, which led them to leave. Maybe they were just too headstrong to stay in a family where parents were making quite ordinary demands of them. The situation is, of course, very complex. What, though, can we do?
First of all, like our beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), we ought to thank Almighty Allah whenever we see someone less fortunate than ourselves, that we have not been given that particular trial in our lives. We need to thank Allah each day for the comforts we enjoy and take for granted. Even though we might, at times, argue with parents, we thank Allah that they are there for us when we need them. We should thank Allah, too, that we really lack for nothing in life. Sure we moan and complain when we don't get quite the right brand that we asked for or when things don't go perfectly according to plan, but we really lack for nothing. As Muslims, we should be ever grateful for the good things we enjoy in life, saying al-hamdu lillah for them.
We need to be proactive, too. In other words, instead of just shaking our heads and saying how terrible it is that there are homeless young people on our streets, we should do something about it. We can look up many of the charities who work in this field. Do they need help? Do we have talents that could be offered? It need not be something big, but could be something as simple as writing a letter to an MP or a short article for a school or college magazine, highlighting the plight of the homeless and suggesting things such as affordable housing as ways out of the problem.
During Ramadan in particular, we turn our thoughts to those who are less fortunate than us. Maybe next Ramadan we could team up with others to offer help to the homeless. We could look for youth outreach programs, which try to give help and support where needed. We could even suggest to mosque leaders that the mosque might get involved in running a soup kitchen or collecting clothes and blankets. Apart from the help this would give where it is needed, it would also show the local community that Muslims care — not just about themselves, but also for any who are in need. It might even make those going to the mosque spare a thought for others too.
Knowledge is power. We can empower ourselves and others by finding out more about this terrible problem. Islamic societies at university might like to get involved to show their student friends what Islam is really about. It is easy to give a talk or hand out a few leaflets. Helping the homeless would really make people sit up and think.
And, next time, when someone asks you on the street to "spare the price of a cup of tea" or to "give any spare change," instead of making moral judgments, perhaps you should simply help. If some of those homeless are not telling the truth and are not really in need, they will have Allah to answer for. If you give some help for Allah's sake, out of a genuine care for someone less well-off than you, then you, too, will be rewarded by Allah for your good intention. In sha' Allah, young Muslims working together can make a difference to the lives of people who have nothing. Even if we can help just one person, we will have indeed made a big difference.
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