Introduction
Poverty is a social problem ththe at has both political and religious implications on the lives of the people, and has existed since time immemorial and is perpetuating into the future. Although the poverty has been a historical feature and is still a present-day social phenomena that are affecting the majority of the people; the minority have lived in luxury oblivious of abject poverty the poor are experiencing.
Hindu and Islam are two of the major world religions that are in their divine beliefs and roles are trying to address the issue of poverty, because it is the major issue affecting the spiritual and physical health of their congregation. Although the two religions have different religious beliefs and views on the issue of poverty, both share the same objective of eliminating or alleviating poverty.
Similarities
Both Hindu and Islam believe in the existence of the supreme God, the creator. God chooses how to give blessings to his people according to his will. In Hindu, God decides the caste class where one can be born while in Islam God decides on the amount of blessings to give to the faithful Muslim. Both religions also believe in the moral responsibility of helping the needy and practicing charity (Jayaram, 2010). These beliefs shape the approaches used in the elimination and alleviation of poverty in the society.
Differences
The caste system is the division of the society into social and economic classes in terms of occupation and family lineage. According to the Jayaram (2010) there are four main classes of people in the Hindu caste system, namely Priestly class (Brahmins), Warrior class (Kshatriyas), Merchant and peasant class (Vaishyas), Labor class (Shudras), and impure class (Chandalas) which is the minor class within the Shudras.
The caste system is based on the rigid code of conduct in the law book called Manusmriti and is enforced successful by the religious and political authorities coupled with the fear of punishment, religious beliefs and traditions (Jayaram, 2010).
The caste system originated from the Vedic society where there was flexibility of changing the class but with the increasing pressure from the foreigners, Vedic scholars created a strict and rigid caste system that do not allow anyone to shift classes.
The Hindu believed that it is the will of God to separate people into their respective classes. The caste system leads to the isolation and exploitation of the weak classes of the society by the upper privileged classes, since the Hindu religion and traditions view poverty and their respective social classes as the will of God.
On contrary, Muslims view poverty as a critical social problem that needs immediate redress. In the hadith, Prophet Muhammad viewed poverty as a danger and threat that enslave people (Guner, 2005). In order to eliminate or alleviate poverty, Muslims give special offering called Zakat. Zakat offering is based on the fundamental belief that all things belong to Allah, the creator (Zial, 2010).
The Allah entrusts Muslims to take care of the wealth. The amount of Zakat to give depends on the accumulated amount of wealth in a year. “The money collected as Zakat is shared among the needy and the poor” (Siddiqui, 2010). The giving of Zakat as an extra wealth of the rich helps in the redistribution of the unequal distribution of wealth in the society thus alleviating poverty.
Conclusion
Hindu and Islam approach on the problem of poverty and poorer social classes greatly differ. Muslims strongly believe in helping the needy social classes, and they demonstrate this by donating their extra wealth as an offering called Zakat. Hindu, on the other hand, has developed caste system which classifies people according to their work status and lineage of the family to avoid haphazard socialization of the lower and upper social class because to them poverty is relative.
References
Guner, O. (2005). Poverty in Traditional Islamic Thought: Is it Virtue or Captivity? Studies in Islam and the Middle East journal 2(1) Web.
Jayaram, V. (2010). The Hindu Caste System. Hindu Website. Web.
Siddiqui, S. (2010). Islam Solves World Poverty and Hunger. Al-Islami. Web.
Zial, I. (2010). Zakat – A solution for Muslim Poverty. Contact Pakistan. Web.