Faith and Acts of Charity
Senior 4 · General and Religious Studies
Faith and Acts of Charity
Lesson 2 of 4
40 min
Read this illustrative case. In one village, three people help a boy whose parents have died. A businessman gives him 10,000 Frw in front of a crowd and a camera, and makes a speech about his own generosity. A widow quietly leaves a bag of beans at his door at night; he never learns who left it. A carpenter takes him on as an apprentice, and three years later the boy runs his own workshop.
All three acted. Which act was the greatest charity, and why? The answer depends on what charity means, on the motive behind it and on what it does for the person who receives it. This lesson defines charity in Christian, Islamic and Jewish teaching and gives you tools to judge it.
Definition
Charity: from the Latin caritas, love; in Christian teaching, self-giving love for God and neighbour (Greek agape). Older English Bibles translate agape as "charity".
Act of charity: a deed of love that meets another person's need, given freely and without seeking reward.
Almsgiving: giving money or goods to the poor. Sadaqah: voluntary charity in Islam; zakat is the obligatory almsgiving (Unit 10).
Tzedakah: Jewish charity; the word comes from the Hebrew for justice or righteousness.
Tithe: one tenth of income given to God's work, practised by many Christians (Malachi 3:10).
Human dignity: the worth of every person, which charity must respect, never humiliate.
For Christians, charity is first of all a quality of love: "Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud, doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way" (1 Corinthians 13:4–5). Paul ends: "But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love" (13:13). In Jesus' parable of the judgement, the righteous are those who met real needs, and the King says: "I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me" (Matthew 25:35–36).
The Qur'an defines righteousness not by outward ritual alone but by faith and giving: "righteous is he who believeth in Allah and the Last Day and the angels and the Scripture and the Prophets; and giveth his wealth, for love of Him, to kinsfolk and to orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and to those who ask, and to set slaves free" (Surah 2:177). The righteous "feed with food the needy wretch, the orphan and the prisoner, for love of Him, (Saying): We feed you, for the sake of Allah only. We wish for no reward nor thanks from you" (76:8–9).
| Form of charity | Example |
|---|---|
| Material | Food, clothes, school fees, money |
| Service | Repairing a widow's roof; tutoring a weaker student |
| Presence | Visiting the sick, prisoners and the lonely (Matthew 25:36) |
| Skills and work | Training someone in a trade so they can earn |
| Speaking up | Defending the rights of the poor and the weak |
Both traditions warn that the motive can spoil the gift. Jesus taught: "when you do merciful deeds, don't sound a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do … But when you do merciful deeds, don't let your left hand know what your right hand does, so that your merciful deeds may be in secret" (Matthew 6:2–3). The Qur'an warns: "O ye who believe! Render not vain your almsgiving by reproach and injury, like him who spendeth his wealth only to be seen of men" (Surah 2:264).
The twelfth-century rabbi Maimonides ranked eight levels of tzedakah (Figure 2). Lower levels give unwillingly or only when asked; higher levels protect the receiver's dignity by giving anonymously. The highest level helps the person no longer need charity at all.
Now return to the three gifts. The businessman gave publicly and for his own praise (Matthew 6:2; Surah 2:264). The widow gave anonymously and protected the boy's dignity. The carpenter reached the top of the ladder: he made the boy self-sufficient.
Worked example: a tithe and zakat compared
Mugabo, a Christian teacher, earns 150,000 Frw a month and gives a tithe of 10% of his income:
Aisha, a Muslim trader, has held savings of 1,200,000 Frw for a lunar year, above the nisab. Her zakat is 2.5% of those savings:
The two percentages cannot be compared directly, because they apply to different bases: the tithe to income, zakat to savings held for a year. A percentage only means something when you know what it is a percentage of. And neither number measures love: the widow's bag of beans may have cost her more than both.
Warning
Common mistakes
Important
Discuss. Many organisations post photos of the people they help in order to raise funds. Using Matthew 6:2–4, Surah 2:264 and Maimonides' ladder, decide when such photos are acceptable and when they harm the dignity of those helped.
BibleProject: "Agape - Love", about 5 minutes. Note how agape differs from other kinds of love and how it is shown in action.
Practice
Key points
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the three-gifts case, Figure 2, the tables, the worked example and the exercises.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Match each act to its form of charity.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
