What It Means - Day 304

"Charity is the duty of every Muslim. He who has not the means thereto, let him do a good act or abstain from an evil one. That is his charity."
Muhammad, Hadith

And here's another hadith, saying of the Prophet, dealing with charity and giving back. We've talked before about the fact that in Islam good deeds count for more than bad deeds. There are actually different theories on how much more the good deeds "weight" than the bad deeds. I've made the point, too many times, doubtless, that this reflects a more positive religion that emphasizes doing the right thing as compared to making you feel absolutely terrible about doing the wrong thing. As we've discussed, in Islam we don't believe in original sin so humans are assumed to be born good, and not the other way around. What's interesting about the hadith above is the notion that Muhammad is telling people to either "do a good act or abstain from an evil act." That is, simply not doing a bad thing counts for something. We are told to always return the worse with the better, and in this case it's almost enough that you're at the very least not making things worse.