Notes from Stephen, Wan, Kweilin, and Li

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Mr. M

From Kweilin:

   We got home around 4:00 p.m. and talked with some interesting MSH
   people.  One of the Afghans that Daddy works closely with came to
   visit.  His name is Mr. M (I forgot his full name).  He is Muslim and
   had a really interesting story.  He is the first one in his family to
   go to university and now he has an MSH job ....  He is in
   business with his brothers who sell colorful cloth and other women's
   items in three different shops in Peshawar, Pakistan and Herat and
   Kabul, Afghanistan.  He is obviously quite well off, but when he gets
   his pay check, it goes directly into the three brothers' family fund.
   He can spend whenever he needs to (i.e. if he is paying his child's
   school bill, it will come from his account).  At the end of the year,
   they tally who gets how much of their one-third share.  If they have
   spent more during the year on differen! t purchases, they will get
   less at the end of the year when the business shares are settled.  We
   asked him whether there was any suspicion or anything of other
   brothers, and he said: "No.  Because Islam teaches that whether or not
   somebody knows, you should never take something that doesn't belong to
   you.  Allah will always see."  He is a really honest guy, because he's
   worked for the UN and other places like MSH a lot, and there have been
   rampant opportunities to take money for his own personal use.  He's
   always refused.
   He also told us that he folllows the Islamic teaching that you should
   donate 2.5% of the money that you are not using (or the jewelry or the
   cows or the wheat-- however you store your wealth) to the poor.  He
   actually records it when he pays the rent of a relative or helps a
   beggar on the street.  If he gets $100 this year for his family and he
   needs $60 to live, he will give 2.5% of the the remaining $40 to
   others as! alms.  If that same $40 (or whatever is left of it) remains
   in s avings and is not used the next year, he will also give 2.5% of
   it again-- it is an ongoing thing every year.  It was an interesting
   practice.  I think most religions teach their believer's to do good
   and give to others, but I liked the idea that it was so specific in
   Islam (what to give was written in the Quran and some scholars did the
   calculations and it came out to about 2.5% of what you're not using,
   so that is widely used now).  Of course Mommy was fascinated and
   thought it was a great idea.

posted by Li at 1:15 PM