Feel What I Feel

Actually, solving the problem starts by comprehending the feeling of others. Poor families exist the whole year round, not only in Ramadan, and they need a helping aid both financially and emotionally. If young Muslims think for a minute that they might have been poor themselves and facing the same kind of situation that is being faced by others, then they would feel their problems.

There is another question: why are we rich and others are poor and do not have even money to buy something to eat? The answer is simple; it is a test from Allah the Almighty to see whether we are going to help others and act as real brothers and sisters or not. Moreover, Allah the Almighty wants to see what we will do with our money; how will we spend it?

Helping the poor does not only mean saving them from starvation, it also means preventing them from doing various bad deeds because poverty which often drives people to do things that would normally be unacceptable. For instance, people might be forced to lie or steal. Therefore, by helping people to escape poverty you are also saving your society in general.

Surely, most of you are asking yourselves, "What is the first step? What can we do to help the poor people?" Actually, you cannot do this alone. It is best to gather two or three of your friends and sit down and think of ways to help poor people. You could also join a charity organization and see how you can be of assistance.

If you are thinking of taking on active role; your efforts should be divided into two parts: First, you should think of specific poor areas and start to conduct several researches into it though visiting it, reading about it and talking to people who live there. Second, after knowing their problems, you should then think of ways to solve these problems, for instance, you could collect donations or establish small projects for them.

Finally, I believe that the key for solving this problem is in feeling others' problems and putting yourself in the same position as the poor people. Don't forget the Wisdom of Allah the Almighty for bringing you wealth in your life. If you have wealth, it is not because you are better than the others. Most of all, do not forget after visiting the poor to say Alhumdulillah for all the blessings you have.

Shiam EL-Bassiouni is editor & staff writer at youth for the future. A graduate of the American University in Cairo, she holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communicationwith minor psychology. She is interested in the issues of youth and community development. She has worked with a number of voluntary organizations and charities. She can be contacted at youth_campaign@iolteam.com