A Fight against Pandemic: How Charity Can Lead to Prosperity

Calamity or natural disaster is one of the signs of Allah’s displeasure towards what goes on in the world. Not as a punishments, a Muslim should think that it is a form of warning from Him that there are too much evil and sins done by human. In such conditions, we should retrospect, remember, and go back to Him. This is how we practice husnudzan (positive thought) towards Him.

To alleviate His anger and displeasure, we should flourish good deeds on earth. The good deeds can be from a single little thing like being nice to other people, giving advice to others, intensifying our prayer, reciting more shalawat, and many other things as performed by our Prophets and predecessors.

Besides those that have already mentioned, there is one thing is the most mustahabb (recommended). It is no other than giving sadaqah (charity). It is a benevolent act to show compassion to the poor and needy. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, “Those who show mercy will be shown mercy by The Most Merciful. Show mercy to those who are on earth and The One Who is in heaven will show mercy to you.” (Al-Tirmidhi)

In another time, he also said, “The one who does not show mercy will not be shown mercy.” (Al-Bukhari)

Another hadith narrated by Al-Tirmidhi also has the similar gist “Give charity without delay, for it stands in the way of calamity.” (Al-Tirmidhi)

This is the reason why when there was an earthquake in Umar bin Abdul Aziz’s reign, he asked his people to give as much as they can for charity. He said, “Get out and he who can give to charity, let him do so.” Another time when there was Tha’un (a pandemic) in Samarkand and Balkh, the people also give lots of their wealth to the charity. (Badzl Al-Ma’aun, page 366)

This is how charity is suggested to be done in order to prevent calamity and natural disasters. Not to mention, during the pandemic like this, many people are in desperate conditions. Being fired from their jobs, losing customers, and the plunging income is too hard to overcome alone. Therefore, in this kind of situation, other human’s kindness will surely help them a lot. May Allah always guide us, lift the calamity from this earth, and shower His blessing upon us all.