The Hadith is comprised of passages of Muhammad’s own beliefs and thoughts that are not found in the Qur’an. The Qur’an itself is God’s word spoken through Muhammad, but the Hadith is Muhammad’s own words. My favorite verse from the reading was, “Every good deed is charity, and it is a good deed that thou meet thy brother with a cheerful countenance and that thou pour water from thy bucket into the vessel of thy brother.” As we have previously discussed, one of the five pillars of Islam is zakat, or giving. Muslims are required to donate 2.5% of their wealth annually to those in need, but Muhammad points out that charity isn’t always about giving money. Every good deed that a person does can be seen as charity. For example, helping an elderly person carry their groceries up the stairs can be seen as charity. The reading also pointed out that charity doesn’t always have to involve giving or the act of giving, but instead can be about removing something that is in the way. For example, if an individual has so many tasks to accomplish that they are overwhelmed, helping them complete those tasks can be seen as charity.
Fiqh can be described as the understanding of the Islamic law. Of the ten articles we read, the third article was the one that stood out to me. It reads, “What reaches you could not possibly have missed you; and what misses you could not possibly have reached you.” In other words, if something happened to you, God wanted it to happen. God doesn’t give an explanation as to why things happen to people, but they are to trust that he has a reason for the things he does. This is another instance where I see a parallel between Christianity and Islam. At my Presbyterian church, when someone becomes ill with cancer or some other disease and God takes them from earth sooner than we attended, we don’t become angry or upset with God. We pray and say that we don’t know why he did what he did, but we know that he had other plans for that individual and we trust that he took them for reasons that are beyond our understanding. We then thank the Lord that he took their pain away and pray that they may find peace in Heaven. Therefore, I believe that this article is telling Muslims that whatever happens to them, whether it be for better or worse, was planned and meant to happen.