Muslims and Charity

     How come Muslims only are suppose to give to other Muslims when giving to charity or at least they think of them first? I have been extremely interested in Islam and have been reading about it alot and I notice on one Islamic website a Muslim asked if they could give to a non-Muslim charity, however, the answer said the person should give to other Muslims. I also notice while reading forums and articles written by Muslims they often suggest ppl can do good by donating to a good Muslim charity or they should help Muslim orphans. This seems prejudice to me. Is there a reason why this is done or am I misguided?

     I was raised as a Christian even though I dont consider myself a Christian any longer. I remember when I was little our pastor would often urge ppl to give to charity, but they never said anything about only caring ppl of a certain religion. When my family sponsored a orphan thru our church nobody cared that the child was a Muslim, Christian, Hindu or what religion the child was born into.

This all seems strange to me can somenone explain why this is done to me.

  

 

Bi ismillahir rahmanir raheem

Zakkat is a religious tax not general charity and its use is limited. Other than that there are no restrictions on who to give or aid with other types of donations. Where i live there is a feed the homeless program run by muslims, most homelss in my community are not muslim.

However looking around the world there are many poor muslim countires with no one to look after them except there muslim brothers so there is more benefit in helping and raising the muslim ummah who we are responsible for in the sight of allah beffore we can get a chance to help other people.

So there is no actual restrictions on who to help but we are responsible for the poor of our community and will be held to account and asked why we didnt help them when allah gave us wealth.

when muslims where still under a khalifah [islamic ruler] he was responsible for the welfare of all people in his land muslim and non muslim, but now there is no such khalifah in place and muslims are in a bad state, the motivation behind this is to help our Ummah [muslim people] get out of this state we are in.

The Inner Dimensions of Zakat


Edited by rami

Kelsey

It is true unfortunately that many Muslims think that charity is only for Muslims. I agree with the information posted by other members above. Hopefully, when you come across ignorant Muslims withholding charity from non-Muslims you can clarify to them that their views are correct only to the extent of zakat.

There are some very good charitable organisations without any religious affiliation which Muslims can support and one notable amongst them is Medecins Sans Frontieres. Most of their workers are volunteers and they are truly dedicated and without any political affilitation too.