What Does Feeding the Poor Actually Mean?

Alhamdulillah.

[Silence]

Continuing in, we have discussed thus far and have researched the types of people and the and the points of criteria that make fasting obligated on an individual. We've also discussed the exemptions from that travel, illness, old age, unusual hardship, breastfeeding, and pregnancy, etc. We've discussed all of these things. Now we will discuss a very important point and I really want everyone to pay close attention to this issue and that is when we say feed a poor person for each day that you miss or the experation of feeding a poor person. What is meant by that and what are the parameters of that? The author says the amount of the amount of food that a person must feed a poor person in order for it to act as an expeation. He cites just one narration here for us. He says, This narration has been collected by his. So in this narration was narrated that in his lifetime he was unable to fast one year. As we know Malik is one of the last companions to pass away, right? Do you guys remember how old he was when he passed away? 120. Yes. And so he was very old. And here we have as he was getting up there in age, one year he was unable to fast. And so he gathered 30 poor people and made for them a dish called the and he had them eat their fill. Okay, this is the narration. We need to look into a couple of things here to unpack. Number one, he gathered 30 poor people. He didn't feed the same one 30 times. He gathered 30. Number two, he didn't give them money. He made food for them and fed them. Number three, he fed them a dish called and this is important and will come into play in a moment inshallah. Number four, did he do this at the beginning of Ramadan or at the end of Ramadan? These questions are what we need to take from this narration. Number one, he gathered 30 poor people because the this is most most this is most or this is the closest to the the the exact ruling that is mentioned by Allah in the verse we mentioned. mentioned that the verse is verse 184 in that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala says these three words that the experation is feeding of a poor person. the feeding of a poor person. So what the companions understood from that is feeding here is feeding a meal. It's not just giving them a you know a date. It is feeding them a full meal, an average meal. Number two, he says mskin in the singular and this is for each day that a person misses. In another recitation of this same verse, feeding of poor people in the plural. So the companions understood from this that for each day is feeding one poor person and for multiple days feeding poor people. Another thing is that he made for them a dish called is essentially meat usually it's not chicken or poultry it's meat. So it is usually lamb or goat meat and bread, right? And when we look at the diet or when we look at the dishes that the Arabs and specifically the companions ate and we were to categorize this dish at what is this a delicacy? Is this like our caviar or is this, you know, run-of-the-mill French fries for us? The answer is it's right in the middle. It's neither a delicacy nor is it the food of the poor or a lowerend food. This is a respectable meal that is an average meal. As a matter of fact, it is probably above average. The prophet Sam compared to a he said he says and the virtue that is holds over the rest of women all the other women is the virtue that this dish at holds over all the other types of food. So it is not just in the middle but it is of the higher end. This is important because if I were to come and implement that today, would it be sufficient for me to give someone a pound of rice? Just rice. Just a bag of rice. And give them a bag of rice. Is that good enough? Not even close. This is not miskin. What about give them a half pound of of of lentils? Just dry lentils. Here you go. Right. Or what about if I just gave him 10 bucks? I had a guy ask me last night that the kaf is supposed to be $3. Tell me what you can buy for $3 here in America. What meal is $3? Can you buy a candy bar for your son for $3? No. This is some kind of skimping cheapkate fet, you know, thing that's from like 1970s. It it was $3. What happened? Yeah. Well, 50 years passed by, right? No, the kaf is not just the companions had money. They had physical money. They had currency. They could who could have given some money to a poor person and let him go. It's not their time and our time is dissimilar in the sense that at that time they gave each other food and in our time we have money and they didn't have money. They had currency. As a matter of fact, their currency was much more valuable and much more plentiful than our currency. Right? So this is not considered to be a kaf a kaf as the verse clearly states and as the companions clearly understood and this is just one evidence because the name of the book is what el wajis the the summary it's a book that is a summarized book there are dozens of evidences for this. But this is a very clear evidence. So the author mentions it and that is that the companions understood the verse. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam understood the verse that you are to feed a poor person a full meal. Now it doesn't specify the age of the poor person. And children take the ruling of their parents in in social status. They take the ruling of their parents. So let's say you have an impoverished family of five, right, with little kids that eat solid food. The com the the scholars mention that the child has to be at least of age to eat solid food. and you were to have them for dinner and have them eat that is five days experation. The point is a full meal. That is as Allah mentions elsewhere in all experations from the median of what you feed your own family. Whatever your median is, the medium status meal that you would feed your own family, that is what is done for expeation. It is your responsibility to feed these poor people. One of the big problems that we face today is taking away and hollowing out the connections that Islam made between the wealthy and the poor. So for instance, I will go online, I will find some mega website that does kaf. I'll put in my, you know, person will put in his credit card number and then just forget about it. This does not help our community. The point of this command of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is that the rich and the poor interact with each other. Interact with each other in good will and this sews seeds of good will. The essence of this is that each one of us is responsible to either fast or pay his kafar. not pay his kafar or perform his kafar and if we are unable to fast then we will know a poor person or poor people that are Muslim because all obligatory this is a principle you could take it as a general rule all obligatory feeding or all obligatory charity zak anything that is obligate atory it is for a Muslim non-Muslim can get that which is which is nonobligatory right but zak freeing a slave whatever any of these things that you find in the Quran experations recourse this is always for a believer the the poor person must be a Muslim and that you personally feed this poor person had time as a governor and was one of the most major of figures in Iraq. Yet he even though he was in essentially a position of royalty when he did not fast he personally brought 30 poor people to eat his food that he made for them. That is the point of these kinds of experations. It is to make bonds of goodwill between the rich and the poor. the strong and the weak in order that we all share common experiences of goodwill with one another. Not just putting in a number in a computer and and and forgetting about it. Right? Now if you could imagine for instance here in our community if we wanted to implement this we say for instance well let's say the masid were to have a program where if you give the kafar to us and specify that it is a kafar then we will ensure that it's final , it arrives at its final destination in the form of food for a poor person of the same community. Would it be permissible to do that? Yes. In this case, it would be permissible for us to use that kind of medium. And this would this would fall into the realm of alwa, right? you're entrusting the masid or whatever to do that and that goes the same goes for and the same goes for zak but the essence of these things is that the personally do it right and if a person were to say well I don't know any poor people it doesn't mean a poor person that is living in rags in a a cardboard box under the bridge. That is not what is meant by a poor person necessarily. A mskin in the language of the Quran is anyone who does not make enough money in his year to cover all of his expenses. This is a poor person, right? if we were to take their entire income for the year, their entire salary, and just going off of that, they're unable in the society in which they live to complete that with that income for a year. They fall short a month. They fall short they have to they have to make do from other places, right? from other avenues in order to make do whether they need to sell things, they need to find extra work, they need to whatever it is, this is considered to be a poor person, right? And I would wager that a good 20 30% of many Americans today in general are living that. They're having that difficulty. They need additional help whether it's government help or they need and so if any person is on welfare, if any person is on food stamps, if any this person is eligible for zaka, this person is eligible for alaf. You feed them a meal. The simplest form of this would get a takeout meal of 10 $15 and hand it to the person. The best form of it is to invite those who are your neighbors, those who are your friends, those who you know from the masid to your home to eat in this, right? Or for instance our here there will be a percentage of those who attend who will fit the fit the definition of a mskim whether it be one family or two or three. probably if if you were to do onear or a part of anar half or a quarter, this would probably be enough for your kaf for the entire month. But the point is is that these things are to be practiced personally. That's the whole idea. It's not just to give money away. Giving money, anybody can do that. That's the easiest thing for people who are living in excess. The difficult thing is giving time, giving energy, you know, making food yourself or going out of your way or reaching out of your comfort zone of of people that you're familiar with in order to in order to bridge those gaps and sew those seeds of goodwill within the same community. And always charities are spent in the person's community, their immediate community and most importantly within their family if at all possible. So if you have family members that fit this criteria of moss, they are the first person that you would that you would feed before going out. And when we say family members, meaning those that live with you here. If you have family members overseas, but you have people that are not family members that fit that bill here, the ones here take precedence over the ones overseas. Why? Why is that? To sew seeds of good will between the rich and the poor. That's the whole point of this is that we are all one. We're all the same. Yes, Allah has given virtue to some over others. That's how the world works. That doesn't mean one is better than the other, the other is less than the other. But it does mean that if we leave too many gaps, shan will always fill in the.

[Arabic recitation]

I'm doing that. How are you?