Musings: Giving Aid To The Poor......one of the five pillars of Islam

Extracted from:

“Kishing the Persian Gulf – The journey back home”

(http://www.datadubai.com/kish_backhome.htm)

At the airport I met a Pakistani gentleman. He had a long beard signifying a religious bent of mind. I had seen him with a woman in Farabi Business Centre and remembered him because the woman was crying. I asked him about it. He looked at me for a while and then finally told me that the woman, who was around 50 years old, was a maid from Indonesia. She had come to Kish thinking that she would get her visa in a few days and her employer had given her money enough for a week's stay. However, due to some complication with her visa, she was able to get it only after ten days. By that time she had run out of money. The next few days had been spent pleading with her employer to send money but to no avail. Finally she had broken down and in desperation had screamed "Is there no Muslim here who can help me?" This Pakistani gentleman had hurried forward and asked her what was the matter and she had told him her tale. She told him that she was scared as she had no money and no one to help her. He immediately settled her accounts with the hotel, got her a ticket and escorted her to the airport, When I asked him what he did in Dubai he told me that he was a taxi driver and was returning to Dubai on the visa of Dubai Transport Corporation. "She has promised to return the money" he told me "but I really don't care if I do not get the money back. We spend so much on trivial things - I was glad to be able to be of help to this lady".

Giving aid to the needy is one of the five pillars of Islam. This gentleman, though a humble taxi driver, was a true Muslim.