GOD's System: Voluntary Charity

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while those assigned to a “prosocial spending” group were told to use the money on a charitable donation or gift for someone else. At day’s end, the participants were asked to rate their happiness. Those who had spent as little as $5 on another person or cause reported being happier than those who had spent it on themselves.

Feeling Like a Million Bucks

Why does giving money to a worthy cause or a friend in need lift your spirits? First, it may foster a sense of social connectedness. One theory posits that the more modest your means, the more you and your close family and friends may need to rely on one another to get by; hence, the greater focus on generosity.

Second, donating money gives you a sense of making a difference. That’s a welcome antidote to the feeling of helplessness that can come from watching wild stock market gyrations ...

Third, sharing even a little money may reduce your body’s stress response. Elizabeth Dunn, PhD, the same University of British Columbia psychologist behind the $5 spending study, also led another study that looked at how monetary stinginess affects cortisol, a stress hormone. In the study, college

students played an economic game, for which they were paid $10. Students had the option of donating some of this payment to another player. Those who kept more of the money for themselves reported feeling more shame. And greater shame, in turn, predicted higher levels of postgame cortisol.

So, we see charity has benefits for the body when done on its own. But the benefits are far greater when we do it for God—because it causes the soul to grow. A well-developed nourished soul is happy. Happiness is Submission to God.

To conclude, we see that giving to please God, whether it’s the obligatory charity, Zakat, or any charity we do to please God with a reverent heart (23:60) is for our own good. Charity helps remit our sins and helps us attain righteousness (3:92) and happiness. God loves the charitable (2:195, 3:134). 

[23:60] As they give their charities, their hearts are fully reverent. ...

[3:134] who give to charity during the good times, as well as the bad times. They are suppressors of anger, and pardoners of the people. GOD loves the charitable.

We pray that God accepts our worship and our charity and allows us to be among the righteous.

Faiz