A Blank Pillar

Posted on December 21, 2002 in Morals & Ethics

I keep a guarded open mind about other religions and have often discovered customs that I like. For example, one of the Five Pillars of Islam is that you must give alms to the poor. Ideal Muslim practice goes a step farther: when you give, you give anonymously. No Carnegie Libraries. No 3-Com Parks. No Moe’s Kitchen. As Christ says in the New Testament, you tell someone else about it, it doesn’t count. Charity isn’t another form of glory or advertising.

Once on IRC I got into a discussion about religious differences with a Pakistani Muslim. I declared my admiration of this principle. “I wish,” I said, “that Christians and Jews would follow it.”

My friend laughed. “I wish Muslims would, too!”