{"id":1890,"date":"2020-05-01T16:47:25","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T20:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pa.cair.com\/pitt\/?p=1890"},"modified":"2020-05-01T17:28:29","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T21:28:29","slug":"youth-essay-contest-round-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pa.cair.com\/pitt\/youth-essay-contest-round-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth Essay Winner- Ariana Hoosein"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Islamic teachings of Mercy and how it helps others<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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by Ariana Hoosein<\/h4>


In Islam, mercy is one of Allah\u2019s most principal attributes. Allah is very merciful to all of his creations. He continues to grant us with life, resources, and goodness even when we are not always remembering him. He is also the most forgiving. Allah is so forgiving and merciful, he has names like, Ar Raheem, The Merciful and Al Ghaffar, The Ever Forgiving. Mercy means showing compassion to people even if you don\u2019t know them. It means to forgive others who have wronged us and responding to hate with love, praying to Allah for their forgiveness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Islam teaches mercy by showing us that we should not take for granted the<\/span> blessings and bounties that God has bestowed on us. Instead, we should be grateful for everything we have, and be mindful that these are indications of the mercy of Allah. It causes Muslims to be humble and grateful for what they have. Mercy allows us to swallow our pride and ego.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Islam\u2019s teachings of mercy helps others by setting a good example. When we exhibit compassion and mercy, it causes a chain reaction. It causes the recipient to be motivated to pass it on and show mercy to someone else.\u00a0 It also helps us because when we do a good deed, we also derive the blessing of God Almighty. It is further demonstrated in the fact that\u00a0 Allah is merciful to us, his creation who he owes nothing, then we should be merciful to others. This lesson of mercy prompts us as human beings to help others as illustrated in my personal experiences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

On my way home from school every day, I usually see a tall man resting\u00a0upon a wooden chair on the sidewalk, asking for help. He has a pleasant personality despite having only one leg. Sometimes people give him money, but\u00a0they\u00a0<\/span>often\u00a0i<\/span>gnore him.\u00a0Nonetheless, he is always persistent, <\/span>struggling to<\/span> survive even on bitter winter or blistering summer days.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Having to experience a senior citizen worry about his next meal, I was bothered by it and felt anxious, wanting\u00a0to make a difference in his life. I came home and started to make\u00a0posters. I drew a picture of the man, wrote his location and\u00a0provided\u00a0a short description of him. Then I distributed them to my family and friends. Soon after, I\u00a0was able to gather almost $50 in\u00a0donations,\u00a0which I put\u00a0into\u00a0a box labeled \u201cAri\u2019s Donation Foundation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span>Surprisingly, since I started my\u00a0foundation\u00a0two years\u00a0ago, my box has never been empty. It is as if giving does not diminish my\u00a0collection but increases it,\u00a0 <\/span>Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said<\/span>, \u201c<\/b>Charity does not decrease wealth\u2026\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Whenever I contribute to the man with one leg\u00a0or\u00a0the other less fortunate, they always thank me and wish me well.\u00a0Giving charity\u00a0 and being merciful reminds me of the verse of the Quran, \u201cWhich of the favors of your lord will you deny?\u201d<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span>This entire experience has made me realize tha<\/span>t\u00a0<\/span>poor people are no different from us, they are humans too, just with less <\/span>wealth. <\/span>This allows us to be merciful to them in their difficult situations.<\/span><\/p>

Islam\u2019s teaching of mercy was further demonstrated last summer, after I graduate from elementary school,\u00a0I\u00a0embarked on a mission to Guyana, hoping to make it an annual event. I focused my efforts\u00a0on all\u00a0the orphanages in Guyana – both boys and girls as well as poor communities where\u00a0female\u00a0education\u00a0is\u00a0often neglected because of poverty. Care packages were distributed. I\u00a0firmly believe that\u00a0if I can help a few girls in these communities to attend school, grow up and find jobs, then they will act as role models\u00a0to other girls who will strive to do the same. I feel that the simple act of showing mercy and compassion can help them to achieve some form of success in their lives and in turn bestow it on others. During this trip, I was able to gain a<\/span> first-hand experience of what being merciful means. It was heart-warming to see the look of appreciate among the faces of the little recipients, some were my age and or younger. That moment made me realize how fortunate I am and how merciful Allah has been to me and what it mean to help others.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Islamic teachings of Mercy and how it helps others by Ariana Hoosein In Islam, mercy is one of Allah\u2019s most principal attributes. Allah is very merciful to all of his creations. He continues to grant us with life, resources, and goodness even when we are not always remembering him. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay-contest"],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pa.cair.com\/pitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pa.cair.com\/pitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pa.cair.com\/pitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pa.cair.com\/pitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pa.cair.com\/pitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1890"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pa.cair.com\/pitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1904,"href":"https:\/\/pa.cair.com\/pitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions\/1904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pa.cair.com\/pitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pa.cair.com\/pitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pa.cair.com\/pitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pa.cair.com\/pitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}