In 2021—the circumstances evade me now—I returned and, unusually, felt as though I had never been away. Ordinarily one would expect of such a prolonged absence at least a modicum of awkwardness, a need to settle in, acclimatise, and yet there was no need for anything of the sort. In hindsight, I attribute it to the constancy—the fidelity—of the group, for which the work of Hizmet continues regardless of who is present and who is absent. The work, in other words, is bigger than any single one of us. New Age gurus may preach the virtues of ritual and routine, but they do so without any transcendent philosophy to sustain such practices. How, then, does one begin to account for the steadfastness—and staying power—of Hizmet, despite the traumas and difficulties experienced in recent years? How does one make sense of its awesome global appeal? And to where does one trace the wellspring of humility, sincerity, and generosity that is in evidence each time one sits in a Hizmet circle? These are questions that have percolated inside me for some time now, brought once more to the fore in these recent days of shared sadness.

I never had the honour of meeting Ustadh Fethullah Gülen, but the only answer to these questions that suggests itself is this: the faithfulness of the student is surely a reflection of the immeasurably greater faithfulness of the teacher. That is to say: the devotion of Hizmet to the life of spirit and mind is a testament to Hocaefendi’s own extraordinary devotion to the life of spirit and mind. And in these polarized times in which some lives clearly matter more than others, when the things we cannot tolerate about ourselves we project onto others who become, then, the victims of our paranoid, vengeful destructiveness, Fethullah Gülen’s message of interfaith dialogue and understanding has never seemed more vital for the survival of humankind, a reliable guide for the perplexed in the twenty-first century.

In this time of great sorrow and loss, and beyond, may Hizmet continue to lead through service, committed to gentleness and compassionate understanding, a place of refuge in this malevolent age.

Asceticism (zuhd), in essence, involves renouncing worldly pleasures and completely removing the desires for the material world from one’s heart. A person who practices asceticism is known as an ascetic (zahid). An ascetic defines their relationship with the world based on necessity and need. They only seek the strength and energy required to perform their worship, explore spiritual realms, and focus on their ultimate spiritual goals. Their main aim is to achieve the pleasure of God and eternal happiness in the afterlife. However, they also understand that maintaining a balanced approach to these goals requires addressing basic physical needs such as rest, food, drink, and natural desires. Therefore, they do not follow a path that contradicts human nature.

Not in action but in the heart

Asceticism can also be approached from Bediuzzaman’s perspective as “renouncing the world not in action but in the heart.” A person who has renounced the world in their heart still actively engages in necessary tasks and responsibilities, doing their best in all they undertake. Whatever their task, they work diligently and strive to achieve the desired outcome. They use their thinking and reasoning powers, talents, and abilities to their fullest extent. However, they are not attached to the outcome. Even if they do not receive the fruits of their labor, they do not experience disappointment. They neither grieve over what they have lost nor rejoice over what they have gained in the world. When facing the loss of wealth, life, children, or health, the words that come from their lips are: “Praise be to God who had given all these and has now taken them back.” This is the attitude of a person who has attained the grace of asceticism in every positive or negative situation they encounter.

As for the relationship between asceticism and generosity, it is inconceivable for a person who has severed their emotional attachment to the world to be stingy. They do not hesitate to spend their resources in the way of God. From this perspective, asceticism naturally brings about generosity. Conversely, for a person to embrace asceticism, they must be able to spend what God has granted them comfortably in His way and, even more so, develop a spirit of altruism to the extent that they prefer their brothers and sisters over themselves, even if they are in need.

The Most Generous

One of the beautiful names of God is the Most Generous (al-Jawad). Although this name is not mentioned in the famous Prophetic saying listing God’s 99 names, it is stated in another one: “God is generous, He loves generosity” (Tirmidhi, Adab 41). Additionally, in the Jawshan al-Kabir, this name appears three times as “the Possessor of Generosity” and once as “the Most Generous of the Generous.” Some scholars use the intensified form (Jawwad) to emphasize the extent of God’s generosity, as His treasures are vast, and His giving knows no bounds. Therefore, a person who adopts generosity as a moral trait is essentially emulating the attributes of God.

Generosity should not be understood solely as providing food, drink, or financial assistance. The scope of generosity is much broader, encompassing all forms of giving, good wishes, and goodwill towards others. For example, when a person prays for sincerity, divine pleasure, and passionate longing for God, saying, “O God, bestow all these upon my brothers and sisters as well,” this is a form of generosity. Similarly, all behaviors required by a high spirit of altruism can be considered acts of generosity. A person with such noble character may even act generously towards their brothers and sisters in the afterlife, wishing for them to cross the Bridge (Sirat) first, enter Paradise first, and attain God’s pleasure first.

We can also relate generosity to the spirit of “so others may live.” A person who devotes his or her life so that others may thrive, who endures all kinds of sacrifices so that others can connect with God, and to remove barriers between hearts and God is someone who represents both generosity and asceticism at the highest level. This selfless dedication ensures the spiritual well-being and growth of others, embodying the true essence of generosity. For someone devoted to such lofty goals, what connection could they possibly have to the material world?

True freedom through asceticism

It should be noted that the path to experiencing true freedom also lies in asceticism. A person who does not attach their heart to worldly possessions or pleasures does not bow or bend before anyone. They do not flatter others, nor do they obey anyone unconditionally. Since they consider servitude to God as the highest honor, they see servitude to others as a form of associating partners with God. Even if the entire world were laid before them, they would not change their principles, because their path is not one that can be altered by worldly things. Let others change their course for a few mansions or flatter others for promised positions! Those dedicated to an eternal life should not be deceived by the behaviors of those who live only for today and ignore the Hereafter.

Let us conclude this section with the following poetic verses:

Begging from people has always been a burden to us,
For those whose sanctuary is God, such burdens are torment.
We have never tasted a favor tainted with servitude,
For those with a free conscience, such favor is torment.

Question: Why are forgiveness, generosity, chastity, and speaking up for truth said to be the four virtues very difficult to accomplish?

The following is related in Al-Munabbihat (The Counsel) with reference to Ali ibn Abi Talib, may God be pleased with him: “The following four virtues are the most difficult of deeds: Being able to forgive while enraged, showing generosity during hardship, remaining chaste in the face of temptation while in private, always speaking up for truth in the face of another whom one fears or from whom one expects a benefit.”

Considering the linguistic conditions of the time, one tends to think that the sayings attributed to noble Ali in Nahj al-Balaga (The Peak of Eloquence) may have actually originated in the third or fourth Islamic centuries when scholarly disciplines had been developed. However, when we consider his unique spiritual qualities and his position as the father of a chain of saintly people, then it is highly possible that he was inspired to have said these words. It is also possible for those people from a later period to have rephrased his original statements by enriching them with the meanings and concepts of their own period.

Every deed has a difficult aspect of its own. Making ablutions every day, observing the prescribed prayers, fasting throughout the day particularly on long, hot days, donating from lawful gains, observing the pilgrimage, observing the rights of parents without any complaint near them… When such acts of worship and responsibilities are viewed, it will be seen that each of them has certain difficulties of its own. However, Ali, may God be pleased with him, particularly draws attention to four issues that he sees as the most difficult among deeds.

Forgiveness while enraged

Swallowing one’s rage and showing forgiveness at the moment when a one’s rage overflows like magma is a deed the Qur’an praises and encourages people to do. For example: “They spend (out of what God has provided for them) both in ease and hardship, ever-restraining their rage (even when provoked and able to retaliate), and pardoning people (their offenses)…” (Al Imran 3:134). With this Divine verse, God states that swallowing one’s rage and pardoning others is a quality of God-revering and pious ones (those with taqwa). He brings to our attention that swallowing one’s rage is as difficult a task as swallowing a thorny cactus. Surely, the reward for a person who accomplishes such a deed will be greater accordingly.

Forgiving is easy for a person who is not disturbed by anyone, who is in a good mood, who is shown appreciation and love by others. What really matters is a person’s giving his willpower its due at a time when he is bothered and troubled by others, and is in a rage because of that—to not respond in the same way and show forgiveness.

In fact, a human being is not a creature that has to react in the same way when some others touch him with their horns. God Almighty, may His glory be exalted, left no gap in human abilities. He endowed humanity with the way to perfection and created them as perfect beings. He granted them such a willpower that, when a person is able to harness its full potential, he can carry out the most difficult deeds and subjugate his feelings of anger and rage by taking them under control.

The word for forgiveness in Arabic is afw, and it means “erasing something.” That is to say, you deliberately ignore some of the attitudes and behaviors displayed by others which disturb and enrage you, and virtually white them out in your mind. You do not even allow all of these negativities to take a place in your mind or leave a trace in your neurons. Even if they pressurize you to the degree of affecting your health, you erase them from your cortex.  This truly is a difficult deed to fulfill. However, once a person is able to accomplish that, namely, build a character predisposed for forgetting others’ evils, then the rewards in the afterlife will be very different. It is likely that in response to this forgiving attitude, the Divine punishment due for certain wrongs and sins committed by that person will be erased and he will be blessed with Divine forgiveness in return for having forgiven others.

Showing generosity in times of hardship

It is easy for a person with a substantial fortune to be generous because it will not seriously diminish by giving some of it away. What will a person who has a thousand dollars lose if he gives away one dollar of it? What really matters is being able to give for God’s sake during hardship. As forgiveness during rage is an invitation for Divine forgiveness, generosity during times of hardship is an invitation for Divine generosity.

Ali, may God be pleased with him, draws attention to the altruistic virtue of ithar, preferring others over oneself; ithar is a person’s giving his food to another while he himself is hungry and thirsty. God Almighty states the following in relation to this issue: “…and in their hearts do not begrudge what they (other believers) have been given, and (indeed) they prefer them over themselves, even though poverty be their own lot” (al-Hashr 59:9).

During the Battle of Yarmuk, a Companion with dried-up lips, on the verge of death, was about to drink the water they brought for him. On hearing another dying Companion asking for water, he beckoned for the water to be taken to him instead. When the second Companion received the water, he heard the same moan from a third and beckoned for the water to be taken to him instead. This repeated until the water was taken to seven different people. In the end, all of them were martyred and none of those altruistic souls was able to drink the water. It is one of the most striking and beautiful examples of the virtue of ithar, preferring others over oneself, as an outward reflection of living for the sake of others in the true sense and remaining loyal to real human values.

Being able to remain chaste in the face of temptation when in private

The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, referred to the seven categories of people who will be provided with shade by the Divine Throne on the Day of Judgment when no other shade exists. He revealed that one of these is someone who rejects the indecent invitation of a woman of status and beauty by responding to her by saying, “I fear God.” [1]

In a way, it is easy to appear decent in others’ sight. It is not easy for people to commit sin while others’ eyes are on them. However, when someone finds himself in the vortex of such a tempting opportunity, when someone immoral is attempting to seduce him, it is very difficult for him to master his willpower and become an example of chastity; refusing temptation by exclaiming as Prophet Joseph, peace be upon him, did: “God forbid!” (Yusuf 12:23), and thus taking a clear stance against that temptation. In such situations where one is pushed toward negative things, it truly takes a willpower of steel to stand perfectly upright with the soundness of a mountain without being shaken at all. Undoubtedly, the reward for a person who withstands such temptation will be as great in the same degree.

During the caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, a seductive woman laid her eyes on a handsome young man and set a trap for him. One day, she somehow managed to make him take one step in through her door. However, the young man found himself reciting the verse with the following meaning: “Those who keep from disobedience to God in reverence for Him and piety: when a suggestion from Satan touches them—they are alert and remember God, and then they have clear discernment” (al-A’raf 7:201). Upon this, the young man’s heart stopped and he passed away right there. The Companions did not wish to inform the caliph about it; they took the body, which was found in front of that immoral woman’s house, and buried him quietly. On realizing the absence of this devout youth, who would normally take his place in the first rank of the Prayers, Umar ibn al-Khattab asked where he was. The Companions told him about the situation. After this, the caliph ran to the grave of the young man and recited the verse meaning, “But for him who lives in awe of his Lord and of the standing before his Lord (in the Hereafter), there will be two Gardens…” (al-Rahman 55:46) in address to him. It is reported that a voice from the grave replied with the following words: “O leader of the believers! I have been granted twice more than that.”

Speaking up for truth when this is difficult

He explained the final good deed he thought to be difficult as “speaking out against another whom one fears or from whom one expects some benefit.” In situations where one fears someone or is promised some benefits by them, if a person cannot be morally upright and speak up for truth but instead agrees to engage in a deal, then the holders of power virtually shackle him and bring him under total control. They then make him do everything they want. As it can be seen in different circles in our time, fear is a factor that restrains, paralyzes and totally disables a person while running on the righteous path. Likewise, cherishing expectations of certain benefits puts a person in the position of a “mute devil” who cannot speak out against oppressive rulers. It causes that person to knowingly distort realities, speak wrongly and commit wrongs. As we witness its very bitter examples, so many people today are saying just the opposite of what they said yesterday because of certain opportunities laid before them, some expectation they cherish, or due to being paralyzed by fear and anxiety. Like a chameleon, they change from one hue to another with the changing conditions and thus—may God protect—they commit successive wrongs in a way that will ruin their life in both worlds. By means of different engagements of benefits, they virtually live like slaves and cannot manage to break free. So it is true heroism to speak up for truth during a time when fear and benefits prevail. Such a heroic act will surely be rewarded accordingly in the next world.

In short, rewards for deeds will differ according to the time and conditions in which they were realized. However, one point should not be missed here. Receiving a much greater reward for having fulfilled a difficult deed depends on keeping the sincerity of intention and not making any overt or covert complaints. In other words, in order to gain a greater reward in accordance with the difficulty of a certain deed, one must not complain about the difficulties. One should show patience against all odds, not dare to criticize Divine destiny and fulfill that deed in a willing and voluntary fashion.

Note

[1] Sahih al-Bukhari, Zakah, 16; Sahih Muslim, Zakah, 91.

Cooperstone JL et al. Tomatoes protect against development of UV-induced keratinocyte carcinoma via metabolomic alterations. Scientific Reports, July 2017

Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. A new study suggests that nutrient rich tomatoes may be an effective tool in the fight against skin cancer. Tomatoes are already known to be a good remedy for sunburn. Dietary carotenoids are pigmenting compounds that give tomatoes their color. Lycopene, the primary carotenoid in tomatoes, has been shown to be the most effective antioxidant of these pigments. In the study, the researchers fed a group of mice a daily diet made up of 10% tomato powder for 35 weeks. They then exposed these mice to ultraviolet light. In comparison to those mice not given tomato powder, the male mice given tomato powder showed a 50% decrease in skin cancer tumors. Interestingly, there was no significant reduction in tumors for the female mice.

This study emphasizes once more the importance of sex when designing preventive strategies for cancer. In addition, lycopene administered from a whole tomato appears more effective in preventing redness after UV exposure than the synthesized supplement, suggesting other unknown compounds in tomatoes may also play a role. Finally, researchers underline the simple fact that foods are not drugs, but they can possibly, over a lifetime of consumption, impact the development of certain diseases.

New wearable sensor worn like a second skin

Miyamoto A et al. Inflammation-free, gas-permeable, lightweight, stretchable on-skin electronics with nanomeshes. Nature Nanotechnology, July 2017.

Wearable electronics are smart electronic devices that are designed to provide humans with digital assistance about everyday tasks. These devices are rapidly increasing, and it is estimated that within five years there could be half a billion devices strapped onto, or even embedded in, human bodies. Today, the most popular devices are health/fitness trackers and smart watches, which monitor health and provide ready access to online health services. These technologies promise to transform medicine, as these wearables can manage care and ultimately treat symptoms of various diseases.

The current technology is pushing hard to replace bulky health sensors with super-thin wearables that can record data through skin. The first generation of devices for skin monitoring have been bulky and impractical, restricting natural movement. Now a group of researchers have developed an innovative solution, one that seems almost out of a science-fiction movie. They demonstrated that a flexible, mesh-like structure of metallic nanofilaments successfully integrates with the skin on human fingers without irritation or interruption. Each nanofilament is about 300-500 nm in diameter and coated in a thin layer of gold. The mesh-like film sticks to the skin thanks to an ultra-thin layer of polyvinyl alchohol (PVA), a reagent commonly used in contact lenses and artificial cartilage. PVA showed exceptional performance in hypoallergenic tests when compared to conventional plastic and elastomer films. 

This newly designed device allows for very precise, long-term monitoring with minimal disruption to the carrier, facilitating active, body-worn sensors sensitive to touch, temperature, and pressure. These next-generation wearables greatly exceed those of traditional wristband-mounted devices and the technology could even have potential applications on internal organs.  In the near future, there will be devices that alert people with epilepsy to incipient seizures, help prevent anxiety attacks, and enable blind people to navigate.

Generosity sparks happiness in the brain

Park SQ et al. A neural link between generosity and happiness. Nature Communications, July 2017.

Philosophers, psychologists, and economists have spent hundreds of years contemplating what drives or inspires humans to perform acts of generosity.
In attempts to answer this question, some have speculated that giving satisfies a desire to boost one’s social standing in a group. Others have suggested it promotes tribal cooperation and cohesion, a key element in human survival. Another group of researchers claimed that we give only because we expect to receive something in return. The real answer, a new study suggests, may be much simpler: Giving makes us happy. To explore the connection between generosity and happiness, researchers divided 50 participants into two groups – experimental and control – who were each told they would be given 25 Swiss francs ($26)  per week for four weeks.

While the experimental group were asked to commit to spending their money on other people by buying gifts or taking them to dinner, the control group were told to spend the money to spoil themselves. After committing to spending, the participants were asked to answer a questionnaire while their brains were being scanned with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Participants in the experimental group were found to make more generous choices in an independent decision-making task and showed greater increases in self-reported happiness when compared to the control group. In addition, brain scans revealed that generous decisions engaged the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) in the experimental group, and the TPJ subsequently activated neurons in the ventral striatum, which is associated with happiness.

This study provides behavioral and neural evidence that supports the link between generosity and happiness, and it has implications for education, politics, economics, and public health. But many interesting questions remain to be explored: Can communication between these brain regions be trained and strengthened? Does the effect last when it is used deliberately – that is, if a person only behaves generously in order to feel happier? Can a lack of generosity have the opposite effect, stimulating negative brain processes?

Nearly forty years ago, a posh Texas department store sent her a catalogue of items totally unnecessary for a young Minnesota wife and mother. She had dreamed her way through that glossy book, looking for something she could afford, looking for something unique, glamorous, and new. She wanted something to make her feel special and valuable. There was little in that catalogue that she really could afford to buy. But there was something that looked like it might meet the rest of her needs: a watermelon towel! To her it seemed cheap at any price, but that towel cost more than forty toddler tee-shirts from the Nearly New Thrift Store. It cost more than twenty sticky sweets from Bob’s Corner Dairy Dip. It cost more than ten of the small recipe magazines she thumbed through at the grocery store. It was twenty dollars.

Yet, despite the cost, the towel was ordered, it came in the mail, and it was huge! It was a bold graphic print of a slice of juicy hot pink and cool green watermelon. It felt like velvet. It was hers and no one else could touch it!

Not much of anything else was all hers in those years of new marriage, old house, and young kids. Her children climbed in the bathtub with her because it was so much fun. When she closed the door and sat down on the toilet they cried because they were lonesome. They scribbled in her books. They tried on her shoes. They played with her car keys and lost them. They pulled on her arm when she talked on the phone because they were impatient. They ate from her plate because they were hungry. If she was sleeping, they woke her up when they were awake and ready to start their day. In general, her children invaded her body, occupied her mind, and stole her heart. Mostly it was normal and natural. It made her happy. But her life was often tiring, even exhausting. And then she felt used, and used up.

One cold Minnesota morning, she watched her five year old daughter and three year old son playing in the snow outside while she folded laundry near the window. Suddenly the back door flew open and both of them rushed toward her, red-cheeked and wet. They smiled at her and she beamed back at them. Then one put her icy hands under her mother’s shirt, on her warm stomach, to thaw them. The other leaned forward affectionately, she thought, and then wiped his runny nose on her shoulder. Out they ran. She sighed and pulled the watermelon towel from the wash basket. Because her children couldn’t have it, the watermelon towel was very attractive to them. After a bath, or after a swim in the lake, they asked for it. Later, going to a sleepover or away to camp, they pleaded for it. When all the other towels in the house were dirty, they demanded it. But she never shared her watermelon towel.

Politely but firmly, she refused all requests for it, no matter what the circumstances. She would simply state, “This towel is mine and it is very special to me. I like it very much. It is just not something I want to share.” That answer eventually satisfied them. Little by little they came to accept, to respect, and to understand her need for the watermelon towel. She was reasonable and generous. She knew that. They knew that. She would not be moved and she never felt guilty, not when it came to the watermelon towel.

The watermelon towel was carefully packed and moved with the family from Minnesota to Massachusetts to Wisconsin. It moved with the woman through forty years of change and growth in a marriage, in a family, in a community. Sometimes the watermelon towel was used often, sometimes hardly at all. It became a little worn, a little stiff, and perhaps just a little less colorful. It acquired blotches and bleach spots in the laundry room during the years when teenagers were alternately dyeing or fading their clothes. It went to the bottom of a big raggedy stack of beach towels.

Once when her son and daughter were in college and her husband was working, the woman treated herself to a professional conference before beginning a new job. She sat by herself at the hotel pool after the business part of the day was over.  She sat by herself on her watermelon towel, watching and thinking about the young families all around her.

“This watermelon towel has stood for an important part of who and what I am, and what it means to me to live in a family,” she thought. “It has stood for that part of myself which is uniquely mine. In a warm, close, and loving family, especially when children are young, it can be hard not to give all of yourself away,” she thought. “It can be desperately hard to see and to hang on to what you need for yourself when others need so much from you.”

When children are growing up they have to see and to separate what is uniquely their own and what belongs to everyone else. They need some of what everyone needs. If parents can hold them close and still keep a little distance, children will learn to do this, too. The woman’s children grew up able to respect who they were and what they must do with their lives. Her son and her daughter married and each had four children of their own. They both have kept their own “watermelon towels”: his is the old tenderly cared for Jeep he fusses with; hers is the quiet yoga classes she never misses. 

The woman’s days are mostly peaceful now, and she doesn’t need to protect her space, her belongings, or even her time. That doesn’t feel strange or unsettling to her; it feels comfortable. She’s not sure where the towel is these days and thinks she might have given it to a young neighbor who was expecting twins. The woman is glad she has had some preparation and practice for this stage of her life, and that she has learned to be generous to herself as well as to others. Her days are full of both contentment and anticipation. She is looking forward to the next visit of her grandchildren and thinks she must remember to tell them about the watermelon towel.

The opposite of altruism is the stinginess and selfishness that arise from avarice and attachment to this world. Both stinginess and selfishness are regarded as reasons for becoming distanced from the Creator, the created, and Paradise.^[1] While stinginess arises from avarice and attachment to the world, generosity, benevolence, and perfect goodness arise from altruism.

Generosity means that believers give some of their belongings to others without feeling any unease in the heart. Benevolence means considering one’s own happiness as dependent on the happiness of others and, more than that, putting the welfare of others ahead of one’s own happiness. As for perfect goodness or excellence (ihsan), it means preferring others, even when one is in need oneself. The Qur’an points to such excellence or the highest degree of altruism in this verse (59:9): They feel in their hearts no displeasure because of whatever the others are given, but rather give them preference over themselves, even though poverty be their own lot.

Altruism is valuable when one attains and follows it freely; it has no value if one is forced or if one performs such an act not out of one’s own free will.

The generosity and benevolence that arise from and are dimensions of altruism have degrees, as follows:

• Sacrificing one’s soul in God’s way (for God’s cause), therefore for the sake of belief and for the good of the believers, is considered the highest degree of nobility.
• Being able, when it is necessary, to renounce a (rightful) claim to leadership or similar high position for the well-being and unity of society, is seen as altruism one step below the first degree.
• Preferring the (economic) welfare of others over one’s own, is a third degree of nobility.
• Allowing others to benefit from one’s knowledge and ideas without expecting anything in return, is a virtue not quite as noble as the previous ones.
• Giving to others out of one’s income – this includes responsibilities for the giving of the prescribed and voluntary alms (zakah and sadaqa).
• Showing warmth, speaking soft and kind words, being of use to others, and being the means of various instances of good – these are examples of altruism that almost anyone can strive for in any situation.

The first of these degrees of generosity and benevolence is a profound and fundamental dimension of altruism that not everyone can achieve. Mawlana Jami’,^[2] the author of Baharistan (The Land of Spring), expresses it most memorably:

It is easy to show generosity with gold and silver
Worthy of respect is he who shows generosity with his soul.

Among the characteristics and degrees of those who practice altruism are:

• Offering food and feeding others at the cost of one’s own hunger and thirst, and neglecting oneself in the provision of others. Provided that no one’s rights are violated, this is a virtue characteristic of truly pious, saintly people.
• Despite all adversities, spending whatever one has as a favor from God in God’s way and purely for His good pleasure, and in such a disinterested manner that one forgets what good one has done. This virtue is particular to those with considerable nearness to God, who take far greater pleasure in giving than receiving.
• Attributing to God exclusively all the accomplishments with which one is favored without seeing oneself as the agent of any good and, without expecting any return, even in the form of spiritual pleasures, for all that one does for God’s sake, always being aware of Him and experiencing oneself as the shadow of the light of His existence.

This last one is the attitude and practice of those nearest to God, including primarily the noblest of humankind and the greatest of all times and places, upon him be peace and God’s blessings. His Ascension is a demonstration of his being accorded the highest honor and being sought after (by all the angels and many among human beings and jinn) as a reward for his incessant efforts for perfect knowledge of God. His return from the realms beyond the heavens to be among people in this world is such a great degree of altruism that nobody else has ever been able to achieve it. His emerging from Paradise and letting his profuse tears fall into the pits of Hell for the salvation of humankind expresses the greatest possible altruism.

O God! For the sake of your chosen Prophet, Muhammad, make us of those who do not begrudge what has been given to their brothers-in-religion, but prefer them to themselves, even though poverty be their lot, and may Your blessings and peace be on our master Muhammad and on His family and Companions.

^[1] Sunan al-Tirmidhi, “Birr,” 40.

^[2] Mawlana Nur al-Din ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad al-Jami’ (1414-1492), commonly called the last great classical poet of Persia, and saint, composed numerous lyrics and idylls, as well as many works in prose. His Salaman and Absal is an allegory of profane and sacred love. Some of his other works include Haft Awrang, Tuhfat al-Ahrar, Layla wu Majnun, Fatihat al-Shabab, Lawa’ih, al-Durrah. (Trans.)

Combining sports and education, and motivated by faith, Hassan Fofana is helping dreams come true for students in West Africa.

I first met Hassan Fofana in 2006, at a friend’s house in Baltimore, Maryland. Hassan was studying at Loyola College and I was at Temple University. The two of us were an unusual pair. Hassan, who was born in Guinea and grew up in Togo, is nearly seven feet tall; he was a center on Loyola’s basketball team. On my good days, I’m five feet, eight inches tall.

Despite the humor that ensued when the two of us stood side by side, we became fast friends, united by a shared passion for social justice. At the time, my experiences with the larger world were minimal, but at only 21, Hassan was already a worldly man. At the age of 14, when Hassan was still living in Togo, he’d been one of 55 kids to try out for an American basketball coach. The coach was offering one scholarship to a prep school in Massachusetts. It was, Hassan once told me, a hopelessly long shot. And yet, at the end of the try out, Hassan was chosen. Barely a teenager, he left his family and home to enroll at Hargrave Military Academy in Boston. He didn’t speak a word of English.

Despite being so far from home, and in a strange country, Hassan embraced the opportunity. He won a scholarship to play basketball at the University of Maryland, under hall of fame coach Gary Williams, and after that he transferred to Loyola College, where he earned a degree in International Relations and Philosophy.

Throughout his journey, Hassan was shocked by the kindness of people he met along the way – especially the Gibbons family and his mentor, Mike Zona. Generosity wasn’t unusual for Hassan, of course. He grew up with devout Muslim parents, who taught him both the value of an education and the generosity that their faith preached.

“For as long as I can remember, my parents ha(d) always ha(d) 1 to 3 guests in our home. They w(ould) stay there for as long as they like(d) for free housing and food,” Hassan told me.

These lessons, and the continual generosity he encountered, left a deep mark on Hassan. While he was at Loyola, he began to have an inkling that he wanted to spend his life serving others.

Shortly before Hassan and I met in 2006, he returned to Togo for only the second time since leaving for the U.S. The trip, which would change his life, had been made possible by a dear friend and businessman who had asked Hassan what he missed most about his home. Hassan said he missed the sense of community – the way that everyone knew everyone else’s name, and how neighbors watched out for each other – and he missed his family. Hassan has many siblings, and he missed their large, sprawling family meals and the easy camaraderie that brothers and sisters have together.

While back in Togo, Hassan and a friend were watching a group of kids – most of them around twelve years old – play soccer. Hassan still knew most of the kids in his town, and was curious why some children weren’t out there with their friends. His friend told Hassan that many of the children had been taken out of school. Because their families were struggling for money, the boys’ fathers had decided that school was a waste of time. They weren’t playing soccer because they were working – many of them for less than five dollars a day.

Hassan was troubled by this. Sports and education had always been linked in his mind. After all, it was a sport that had allowed him to pursue a higher education in America. Watching that soccer game, Hassan began to get a sense of what he wanted to do with his life. When I met him that fall, he told me that, inspired by his trip back home, he wanted to open schools for athletes in Africa. He wanted to help young kids, just like himself, to get a real education.

“I was convinced that this was my mission on this earth,” he says.

Now, eight years later, Hassan is beginning to make his dream a reality. In 2012, after a few false starts, Hassan formed Time2Ball Foundation, which aims to connect student-athletes in West Africa with prep coaches in the United States and Europe. The hope is that these kids will use their athletics to get the kind of world class education they can’t get in Africa – and through education, open up all kinds of opportunities for themselves and their communities. With the help of donors, educators, coaches, and local community leaders, since 2012, Hassan has brought eleven teenagers from Africa to study at high schools in the United States and Europe.

Though Hassan lives and works in the U.S – and though all his student-athletes are coming to study in the U.S. and Europe – Hassan still has his gaze focused on Africa. He firmly believes that the continent can fix its problems through its young leaders getting better educations. Inspired by his own devout faith, Hassan stresses the need to give back to others. He encourages the student-athletes that he works with not just to pursue their own goals, but to be generous and to help others achieve their dreams, too. Through this intense focus on community and generosity, Hassan hopes that many of Time2Ball’s student-athletes will ultimately return to Africa to help open up more avenues of opportunity in local communities.

I recently spoke with Hassan and asked him what has been the best part of his work. He told me a story about a young man who had dropped out of school in Togo and had found work cleaning roads. Time2Ball was able to connect him with a basketball coach in the U.S., where he’s now a junior in high school, with a B+ grade average and possible college scholarships on the table. As Hassan told me, being able to help someone like this boy achieve his dream of a better life is “a true blessing.”

Despite its early success, Time2Ball still faces plenty of challenges going forward, such as funding and housing for its student-athletes. Because it’s still small, unfortunately, there are many student-athletes Time2Ball hasn’t been able to help. Hassan says that he’s constantly looking for new solutions to these problems. He’s hoping that, in the future, a stable network of donors and schools will allow him to focus more on finding student-athletes. But he’s not there yet, and is looking for all the help he can get.

Even with these challenges, Hassan has big dreams for Time2Ball. Within the next five years, he’d like to expand Time2Ball’s influence by helping athletes in many sports connect with coaches (for now, Time2Ball only works with basketball and soccer players). He’d also like to help aspiring artists in Africa find better opportunities to develop their talents.

The long term dream, though, is still the same as it was when Hassan and I met over eight years ago: he wants to open a series of schools in Togo and West Africa that will utilize kids’ love of sports to improve their access to a quality education. Driven by faith and the generosity of many people he has met along the way, Hassan Fofana is helping dreams come true, one education at a time.

Please feel free to contact Hassan if you have any questions or you would like to contribute to our effort in helping young men and women improve their lives through education and sport. Contact via email: Time2Ballinc@gmail.com or via skype: fhassan16.

Grace is a very significant feature of the Prophet’s character. In fact, whichever characteristic of him we may consider, he was able to make the best out of them so that all of his efforts paid back many times as much. Grace relates to his benevolence, generosity, and unselfishness. While these terms are differentiated from each other by tiny nuances, they all indicate the same point. The Prophet was taught by God, thus his character developed with the morals of the Divine, which he practiced so well that He did not waste even an iota of it. Then, God Almighty returned the results of that divine morality, but with a multiplied amount. The Prophet, as being the Pride of Humanity requires, has surpassed all people – and even the angels.

In fact, this is not something reserved to him exclusively. That is, whatever someone grants on the way to God’s contentment shall return to him/her a multiplied amount. Many of the verses of the Qur’an state this fact very clearly: “Whoever comes to God with a good deed will have ten times as much” (6:160). Yes, if a person does a unit of goodness, God Almighty shall multiply that goodness by ten and return it to him/her. This is the least degree of divine favor. God Almighty sometimes multiplies by hundred or thousand. It depends to a certain extent on one’s depth of sincerity. He may multiply even by thousands, in accordance with the depth that that particular person subjectively loads on that particular practice of worship. Still, depending on the particularity of certain days and nights, or on the degree of altruism and unselfishness of that person, and on the firmness of his/her association with God, God Almighty may grant him/her a million times more. In sum, something like that may happen to every single person. However, the Prophet, we can confidently argue, benefited from this potential in full and made the best out of it to the last drop.

Grace is one’s being locked on or knotted around benevolence, or that one’s nature is completely engaged in doing favors to others. Actually, this emotion is shared to a particular extent by any human being. However, some people dull this emotion, whereas some others enhance it by a life-long process of practice. When they do this, the path of grace becomes the main road for them. By this way, they live their life always as a devotee radiating around pearls of grace, without straying in any other direction.

Due to the heavy mission he was loaded with, God favored the Prophet immensely from the very beginning. Parallel to the magnitude of this load, his nature was equipped with kernels that were able to shoulder this weighty task and responsibility. Nonetheless, he improved those kernels and extended them beyond expectations. By means of His all-covering divine knowledge, God Almighty had taken into consideration that the Prophet was going to give his willpower its due in the future, and bestowed him, at the very beginning, grandeur exceeding all other creatures.

Grace covers his character of benevolence as well as his capacity to be blessed with wonders – as he gave away in charity, God bestowed upon him His favors. As each of these incidents also served to endorse his messengership, they can certainly be considered miracles. Indeed, miracle is defined as something wonderful created by God through the hands of a prophet, particularly aimed at the confirmation of his prophethood. The Prophet’s nature, peace be upon him, was already prepared to welcome such wonders.

Grace and generosity have been among the key features of praise throughout history. It is reported in a story that Prophet Abraham owned a herd of livestock, and he had shepherds and dogs to attend them. When some angels, according to the story, could not reconcile his mission with this extensive wealth he owned, God told them to test Abraham. Angels visited Abraham in human form, and when they came close, they praised God, saying, “You are All-Glorified, All-Holy, the Lord of angels and the Spirit,” and they made sure Abraham could hear their prayer.

Each single one of these words were chosen precisely in the name of the glorification and sanctification of God. The true value of chosen words in a poem can be appreciated by true poets and experts of oratory; similarly, the very fine selection of these words would certainly be appreciated by Abraham, whose conscience was able to perceive the situation. Therefore, once he heard the angels verbalizing that utterance of glorification, he almost lost himself and said: “what a beautiful expression! Please say it once more; I will give you one fourth of this herd in front of me!” And when they did so, he offered them half of it for one more utterance. And when said it once more, he declared “I am a slave of yours, together with my shepherds!” As you see, if wealth is firmly connected with that kind of feeling, it becomes a vital support, instead of opposing the post of prophethood.

Prophet Muhammad, too, peace and blessings be upon him, was blessed with wealth through Khadijah, his beloved wife, who was a reputable businesswoman. Nevertheless, by the second or third year following the advent of his call, they had nothing to eat. That huge fortune had almost melted for the sake of mission, spent on banquets to win the hearts of people, or to decrease the tension of conflict. But at the end, that huge fortune was used up. It was consumed to the point that the Pride of Humanity started to bind stones on His belly in order to rid himself of his hunger. You see, this generosity and grace inherited from Abraham was not something unfamiliar to the people of Mecca. And, any member of this city used to have a share from this grace, in accordance with their personal position. However, no single soul was in a position to compete with the grace of the Prophet – even before his prophethood. Indeed, God’s Messenger was the final and the most inclusive fruit of the tree of Abraham. He inherited almost the whole grace of Abraham. This grace increased after the prophethood, and God’s Messenger became an embodiment of grace and generosity.

Especially during Ramadan, as Aisha stated, God’s Messenger was like winds of grace and abundance; he used to give away everything he could to the people around him. For God’s Messenger, accomplishing the exalted mission God Almighty had loaded upon his shoulders was a blessed ideal, even an ambition. God Almighty modified and consoled him in the Qur’an by saying, “Yet, it may be that you will torment yourself to death with grief” (18:6). However, he never gave away his wealth in vain; in contrast, he appreciated doing so on the way to God’s contentment. He scattered whatever he was endowed with like seeds scattered on soil, and every single grain he scattered became an everblooming flower.

The devotees of today, who are striving for the good of all humanity “so that others may live,” are in no different a situation, as they may be considered as inheritors of the prophetic mission. These inheritors should behave in exactly the same way as the Prophet, who revived the character of generosity and grace in His own era and elevated it to its zenith. Taking him as a role model, we can invest all the resources God has given us in education, without wasting a penny. Yes, our generosity has brought about, and will bring about, results that are vitally important for the future of humanity, and so valuable as to be worth all sacrifices.