A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO PRACTICING RELIGION - PART 14

 The third way of helping people is of course through money, though one does not have to be a millionaire to help other people. Hazrat Thanvi RE used to say that the reward for a person who gives one rupee out of his total possession of 100 rupees to a poor person is exactly the same as that of the rich person who gives 1,000 rupees out of his wealth of 100,000 rupees to someone poor. In fact, the first person may get much greater reward because his need for that one rupee might have been much greater than that of the wealthy person’s need for his thousand rupees.

Wise elders taught us that the easiest way of getting into a habit of sharing what we have with others, is to specify a percentage of our income we will give to others with every salary/income. When I started giving my children pocket money I suggested that they should donate 5 % of every pocket money to a charity of their choice. Someone might ask what is the point of doing it as this was my money and I could have done it myself. The point is that my children could have spent that 5 % on themselves anyway. But by spending it on charity each month, hopefully they will develop a lifelong habit of sharing what they have with others less fortunate than themselves.