There is a story in the Bible that reminded me that you as a Muslim are doing a better job of practicing the faith taught by Jesus than many who claim to be Christians.
Luke 10: 25-37 tells the story o f a man with a different religion who stopped to help a Jew when others had passed him by. Your action perfectly encapsulate the story Jesus was trying to teach a lawyer who asked him "Who is my neighbor?"
In this case it was a Muslim lawyer who has received much public hate from so-called Christians.
Thank you for teaching with your life what most of us should have learned in Sunday School as children.
You are a good man. And there are so many people like that old man in this country. I had a conversation with a homeless individual last weekend from which I drove away sobbing. He was at an intersection where I stopped at a light. I gave him some money, apparently more than he usually receives based on how effusively he thanked me, and he continued chatting as I waited at the light. I would not have cared what he did with the money I gave him. He had clearly had a tough life. But he was talkative and told me that he would take the money to buy a bunch of hand warmers - you know, the kind you shake and put in your gloves to keep your hands warm. He then told me that he had discovered that throwing a bunch of those hand warmers in his sleeping bag at night made him feel like he was “sleeping at the Hyatt.” Yet, somehow, he did not seem bitter. He smiled; he seemed excited. And I drove away with tears streaming down my cheeks because in his life the prospect of more hand warmers for his sleeping bag was a luxury. I have thought about that man every day since. It is just wrong that anyone should have to live like that in a country as wealthy as ours.
thank you Qasim... may your act of kindness be the first domino in a massive chain of good deeds that help change this country in the coming years... it has to start somewhere, and this seems like a good place ❤️🍸
100% agreed. Your story reminded me of the time that someone in my community posted on Facebook that they had a GoFundMe for their upcoming eye surgery. They were going blind. They were an otherwise healthy working adult. All these people were responding about how great it is that this person had a community to support them. Could I really have been the only person who wanted to respond, Why do we live in a country where we would let an otherwise healthy adult go blind? How can we call this a so-called free country when we aren't free to live basically healthy lives? Americans have got to get our priorities straight.
While I was out standing witness to the plight of the Palestinians, I noticed a man and a woman with two grocery carts filled with non-grocery items. The man kept rushing back and forth while the woman stayed with the carts. They were obviously needy. Eventually they moved along and disappeared down a sidewalk.
When I left for the day, I noticed the two of them a few blocks away, stopped my car, got out and went up to the woman. I told her I had seen them, that they looked like they needed help and I gave her some money for which she thanked me.
Back in the car, I had hardly driven three blocks when there was a man standing with a cardboard sign "HOMELESS, NEED HELP". These people are everywhere as Jeff Bezos enjoys his $500 million yacht. It's obscene and it is only because we allow it.
It has been said that every American feels he (she) is a frustrated millionaire, that given the chance he, too, could be rich so nobody should touch a dollar "owned" by the ultra-wealthy. What is left out of this thought is that one could far more likely be homeless than ultra-wealthy, just as a dollar spent on the lottery will most likely leave one not a winner but with one less dollar.
Our society built on unrestricted capitalism is inevitably unjust and immoral. Marx saw this, communism surged and turned into deadening oppression. We are at the opposite extreme. A strongly progressive income tax needs to return. Joe American in his life of material acquisition is aping the ultra-wealthy who prove there is no limit to material desire. We know we are like this and must design our laws to counteract it yet are under the direction of an administration intent on destroying the community for the sake of unrestrained individualism (read consumption).
Without change we are doomed to the wealthiest always pulling away from the needy, using the national wealth to buy islands, yachts and airplanes as the homeless search for a warm place to sleep.
Unlimited consumption will not last as it is rapidly changing our physical environment. We must change the way we live before the matter is taken out of our hands by Mother Nature. I act on this in my personal life using as little as possible while thinking of the community even to the trivial act of picking up litter, but I see little hope that others will do likewise.
Thank goodness for you. That man may have met his end out there in the cold. As I was reading about the high speed rail statistics it dawned on me that a lot of us don't know what we're missing--what we could have if all that defense and ICE money was spent on helping each other instead of blowing up people in foreign lands and seas. Of course, we need a healthy defense, but we've gone way overboard. Plenty of money to punish people and to make a few of us unimaginably wealthy, but no money to help the people who actually earned it in the first place. There is so much that needs to be changed, but we need to know what's actually possible instead of being told that all good things are impossible.
What is largely missing from our society is the principle of the common good. It is no longer (if ever) taught to our children, it is rarely to be seen in our politicians, it is being stripped from our economy, and is even lacking in much of our religion. Instead it is being replaced by a concept of "freedom" -- to do what we want, to get what we want, to be who we want no matter the price to others, and blind to the price we pay ourselves. True freedom encompasses a harmony of action and intention that embraces the well-being of all aspects of life -- self, family, associations, mankind and the planet. You are one of those rare individuals who does abide by the law of the common good -- we need many more like you.
Thank you for your noble action and you are so right. This nation has ignored its basic citizens and it will be going down if that neglect continues. As I read the other comments it is obvious you struck a chord and I agree with them all.
And yet...all the people in this country who NEED to hear this cover their ears. I am so angry at all legislators who do nothing or next to nothing. Then. Someone like Zohran Mamdani comes along and those same legislators are HORRIFIED! By f-ing what???? That he wants to HELP PEOPLE!? Which convinces me that, with a few exceptions, legislators do not want their apple cart of greed overturned. Every time I see Bernie I think, does this man have to kill HIMSELF WORKING to change this inequality!!
I'm not saying the man was a fraud. I'm saying that we're missing some information here. The logical thing to do would have been to ask someone nearby for help. Why didn't he?
Paula, it's always possible to rationalize. I was disappointed when lifelong friends of mine started talking about people begging. One of them said it was a sham and that he had seen a Cadillac drive up and the coins a beggar was collecting were handed over to someone who got out of the Cadillac. Another friend said he can't understand how a beggar can have a smartphone as he begs. Far from joining in this condemnation of beggars as a category, I was disturbed by the thinking of my friends.
One can always reason one's way into ignoring a plea for money (or food, etc.). It allows one to avoid giving while at the same time feeling confident (unjustifiably) that one is doing the right thing by not doing the right thing. One should give freely if one is not in need. Sure, one might be duped from time to time but where is the injury? If someone is deliberately deceiving the pubic that is the problem of the person doing it. Routine giving is a good thing, particularly with regard to the tiny slight of being taken from time to time. I'd love to see Bezos given away his millions (billions) as his former wife is doing, but we all have an obligation to do what we can.
As I have gotten older, I have grown increasingly angry with the mismanagement of my federal and state tax dollars. To know there are countless lobbyists pushing to keep funding in place for things that don’t serve the interests of everyday people is also infuriating.
Societies that don’t care for one another don’t last. The US has chosen not to care for its citizens, and unfortunately we can only do so much as every day citizens to shoulder the burden of that neglect.
Kindness matters. Our fear and disdain politically of helping is embarrassing and ultimately tragic. Eventually, there have to be cracks in this cruel foundation to allow light and love and generosity to flourish.
The detail about medical debt and medical bankruptcy being terms unique to the US really underscores how normalized dysfunction has become. Watching an 83-year-old risk hypothermia for internet access while we funnel trillions into defense contractors and tax cuts isnt just bad policy, its a moral grotesque. The RAND study figure of $79 trillion transferred upward since the 70s should be front-page news constantly, but its treated like an obscure economic footnote. I remember working in healthcare admin and seeing families choosing between prescriptions and rent because out system treats healtcare as a luxury good instead of a basic right.
Thank you, Mr. Rashid.
There is a story in the Bible that reminded me that you as a Muslim are doing a better job of practicing the faith taught by Jesus than many who claim to be Christians.
Luke 10: 25-37 tells the story o f a man with a different religion who stopped to help a Jew when others had passed him by. Your action perfectly encapsulate the story Jesus was trying to teach a lawyer who asked him "Who is my neighbor?"
In this case it was a Muslim lawyer who has received much public hate from so-called Christians.
Thank you for teaching with your life what most of us should have learned in Sunday School as children.
You are a good man. And there are so many people like that old man in this country. I had a conversation with a homeless individual last weekend from which I drove away sobbing. He was at an intersection where I stopped at a light. I gave him some money, apparently more than he usually receives based on how effusively he thanked me, and he continued chatting as I waited at the light. I would not have cared what he did with the money I gave him. He had clearly had a tough life. But he was talkative and told me that he would take the money to buy a bunch of hand warmers - you know, the kind you shake and put in your gloves to keep your hands warm. He then told me that he had discovered that throwing a bunch of those hand warmers in his sleeping bag at night made him feel like he was “sleeping at the Hyatt.” Yet, somehow, he did not seem bitter. He smiled; he seemed excited. And I drove away with tears streaming down my cheeks because in his life the prospect of more hand warmers for his sleeping bag was a luxury. I have thought about that man every day since. It is just wrong that anyone should have to live like that in a country as wealthy as ours.
Thank you.
thank you Qasim... may your act of kindness be the first domino in a massive chain of good deeds that help change this country in the coming years... it has to start somewhere, and this seems like a good place ❤️🍸
100% agreed. Your story reminded me of the time that someone in my community posted on Facebook that they had a GoFundMe for their upcoming eye surgery. They were going blind. They were an otherwise healthy working adult. All these people were responding about how great it is that this person had a community to support them. Could I really have been the only person who wanted to respond, Why do we live in a country where we would let an otherwise healthy adult go blind? How can we call this a so-called free country when we aren't free to live basically healthy lives? Americans have got to get our priorities straight.
While I was out standing witness to the plight of the Palestinians, I noticed a man and a woman with two grocery carts filled with non-grocery items. The man kept rushing back and forth while the woman stayed with the carts. They were obviously needy. Eventually they moved along and disappeared down a sidewalk.
When I left for the day, I noticed the two of them a few blocks away, stopped my car, got out and went up to the woman. I told her I had seen them, that they looked like they needed help and I gave her some money for which she thanked me.
Back in the car, I had hardly driven three blocks when there was a man standing with a cardboard sign "HOMELESS, NEED HELP". These people are everywhere as Jeff Bezos enjoys his $500 million yacht. It's obscene and it is only because we allow it.
It has been said that every American feels he (she) is a frustrated millionaire, that given the chance he, too, could be rich so nobody should touch a dollar "owned" by the ultra-wealthy. What is left out of this thought is that one could far more likely be homeless than ultra-wealthy, just as a dollar spent on the lottery will most likely leave one not a winner but with one less dollar.
Our society built on unrestricted capitalism is inevitably unjust and immoral. Marx saw this, communism surged and turned into deadening oppression. We are at the opposite extreme. A strongly progressive income tax needs to return. Joe American in his life of material acquisition is aping the ultra-wealthy who prove there is no limit to material desire. We know we are like this and must design our laws to counteract it yet are under the direction of an administration intent on destroying the community for the sake of unrestrained individualism (read consumption).
Without change we are doomed to the wealthiest always pulling away from the needy, using the national wealth to buy islands, yachts and airplanes as the homeless search for a warm place to sleep.
Unlimited consumption will not last as it is rapidly changing our physical environment. We must change the way we live before the matter is taken out of our hands by Mother Nature. I act on this in my personal life using as little as possible while thinking of the community even to the trivial act of picking up litter, but I see little hope that others will do likewise.
Thank goodness for you. That man may have met his end out there in the cold. As I was reading about the high speed rail statistics it dawned on me that a lot of us don't know what we're missing--what we could have if all that defense and ICE money was spent on helping each other instead of blowing up people in foreign lands and seas. Of course, we need a healthy defense, but we've gone way overboard. Plenty of money to punish people and to make a few of us unimaginably wealthy, but no money to help the people who actually earned it in the first place. There is so much that needs to be changed, but we need to know what's actually possible instead of being told that all good things are impossible.
What is largely missing from our society is the principle of the common good. It is no longer (if ever) taught to our children, it is rarely to be seen in our politicians, it is being stripped from our economy, and is even lacking in much of our religion. Instead it is being replaced by a concept of "freedom" -- to do what we want, to get what we want, to be who we want no matter the price to others, and blind to the price we pay ourselves. True freedom encompasses a harmony of action and intention that embraces the well-being of all aspects of life -- self, family, associations, mankind and the planet. You are one of those rare individuals who does abide by the law of the common good -- we need many more like you.
Thank you for your noble action and you are so right. This nation has ignored its basic citizens and it will be going down if that neglect continues. As I read the other comments it is obvious you struck a chord and I agree with them all.
And yet...all the people in this country who NEED to hear this cover their ears. I am so angry at all legislators who do nothing or next to nothing. Then. Someone like Zohran Mamdani comes along and those same legislators are HORRIFIED! By f-ing what???? That he wants to HELP PEOPLE!? Which convinces me that, with a few exceptions, legislators do not want their apple cart of greed overturned. Every time I see Bernie I think, does this man have to kill HIMSELF WORKING to change this inequality!!
This is outrageous and I'm so glad you helped him. But couldn't he have gone to a neighbor for help? Something sounds very wrong here.
I'm not saying the man was a fraud. I'm saying that we're missing some information here. The logical thing to do would have been to ask someone nearby for help. Why didn't he?
Paula, it's always possible to rationalize. I was disappointed when lifelong friends of mine started talking about people begging. One of them said it was a sham and that he had seen a Cadillac drive up and the coins a beggar was collecting were handed over to someone who got out of the Cadillac. Another friend said he can't understand how a beggar can have a smartphone as he begs. Far from joining in this condemnation of beggars as a category, I was disturbed by the thinking of my friends.
One can always reason one's way into ignoring a plea for money (or food, etc.). It allows one to avoid giving while at the same time feeling confident (unjustifiably) that one is doing the right thing by not doing the right thing. One should give freely if one is not in need. Sure, one might be duped from time to time but where is the injury? If someone is deliberately deceiving the pubic that is the problem of the person doing it. Routine giving is a good thing, particularly with regard to the tiny slight of being taken from time to time. I'd love to see Bezos given away his millions (billions) as his former wife is doing, but we all have an obligation to do what we can.
As I have gotten older, I have grown increasingly angry with the mismanagement of my federal and state tax dollars. To know there are countless lobbyists pushing to keep funding in place for things that don’t serve the interests of everyday people is also infuriating.
Societies that don’t care for one another don’t last. The US has chosen not to care for its citizens, and unfortunately we can only do so much as every day citizens to shoulder the burden of that neglect.
Kindness matters. Our fear and disdain politically of helping is embarrassing and ultimately tragic. Eventually, there have to be cracks in this cruel foundation to allow light and love and generosity to flourish.
The detail about medical debt and medical bankruptcy being terms unique to the US really underscores how normalized dysfunction has become. Watching an 83-year-old risk hypothermia for internet access while we funnel trillions into defense contractors and tax cuts isnt just bad policy, its a moral grotesque. The RAND study figure of $79 trillion transferred upward since the 70s should be front-page news constantly, but its treated like an obscure economic footnote. I remember working in healthcare admin and seeing families choosing between prescriptions and rent because out system treats healtcare as a luxury good instead of a basic right.
You've told a powerful, terrible story beautifully. Thank you. Get this picked up somewhere - maybe an op ed in the Chi. Daily News?
Thank you for all you do Happy New Year