Alms giving is enjoined as a duty by the great
religions, all of which exalt charity as one of the chief virtues. And, apart
from the idea of religious duty, all naturally kind-hear ted people find true
joy in helping those whose distress moves their pity. They learn the truth of
the saying. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” But alms given merely
from a coldness of duty without any real sympathy, alms given with the selfish
object of gaining popularity or increasing one’s religious merit, however,
welcome they may be to the poor, are worthless, because their motive is wrong.
And alms given thoughtlessly may do more harm than good.
indiscriminate charity encourages idleness and
hypocrisy, and pauperizes the poor. To give a few paisleys to a beggar may ease
one’s conscience, but it leaves the problem of poverty unsolved. To do any real
good to the poor, we must know them and their circumstances, and try to reeve
them in such a way as would really help them, without rendering their miserable
state worse. But to find out the really. deserving cases, to decide whether
money, or food, or work, or medicine, is the kind help needed, requires a lot
of time, toil and patience, — an amount of trouble which we are rarely prepared
to take It is easier to throw the beggar a corn, and with the feeling that we
have done our duty, go on our way and forget all about him.
In Pakistan begging is so wide-spread, and so
strongly entrenched in religious custom, that it forms a very, serious social
problem. A large number of the Pakistan Fakirs, or professional beggars, are
able-bodied men who could support themselves by work if they liked to do so.
But they find it much easier to live idle lives, depending on the charity of
those who have to work for a living. The number of these able-bodied beggars is
new so great that a large proportion of the population of the country is
producing nothing, and feeding like drones on the wealth produced by the rest.
So long as promiscuous and thoughtless alms giving
is continued, such able-bodied idleness will persist and increase. The problem
of poverty is complicated and difficult, and will never be solved by
thoughtless charity. Wise laws, a reform of social customs, and a greet deal
more thought and trouble on the part of the charitable, will be necessary,
before the problem can even be touched,
‘At last, one thing must be kept in the mind that
alms giving is not bad but the way we give is bad. Before giving anything we
must see whether the receiver is deserving or not. Alms must be give only to a
deserving person.