成人快手

Last week as I was coming out of Edinburgh train station, a young man sat outside with a tattered duvet barely covering him in the freezing frost of a November morning. He looked exhausted. Walking towards him, I saw a woman bring him a sandwich and a warm drink; she spoke and laughed with him for a few seconds and then went on her way. It seemed like a moment of simple kindness, no questions asked, no expectations, no wondering about the complexities of the relationship between charity and need.

Because the question of what we mean by charity, how we give and to whom we give, has become a more sensitive issue. It鈥檚 been debated as we mark the 40th anniversary of the 80s Band Aid hit single, 鈥榙o they know it鈥檚 Christmas.鈥� This was a record which saw some of the biggest musicians of the era come together to raise awareness and money in response to the horrific images of the famine in northern Ethiopia.

The criticism lies in the morality of depicting an entire continent based on the original lyrics, as a place "where nothing ever grows; no rain nor rivers flow" - the manner in which African countries are often portrayed as places that need saving, where emaciated adults and children live with conflict and disease and no agency of their own. The concern that charity has become a substitute for real justice, for really seeing and understanding another nation, is valid but I also think that Bob Geldof is right when he says `This little pop song has kept hundreds of thousands if not millions of people alive.鈥�

Whether it鈥檚 the money we donate to help or misunderstandings in our personal relationships, it can be difficult even painful to see the gap between how our words and actions are meant and how they鈥檙e actually received. Charity carries various meanings in islam, and prayer, kindness and charity are often grouped together as if they have the same moral and spiritual worth. The repeated Qur鈥檃nic command to `speak fairly to people; be steadfast in prayer; and practice regular giving鈥� reminds us that charity isn鈥檛 only about the morality of giving from our wealth, but also our attitude to each other.

In the end we can鈥檛 wish away poverty or conflict or the hurt caused by broken relationships, we can only continue to act on the basis of our conscience, knowing that even when we mean well, doing what is right and doing what is good aren鈥檛 always the same thing.

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