Giving to God

• Verfasst von: Mittermaier, Amira [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Giving to God
• Titelzusatz: Islamic charity in revolutionary times
• Verf.angabe: Amira Mittermaier
• Verlagsort: Oakland, California
• Verlag: University of California Press
• E-Jahr: 2019
• Jahr: [2019]
• Umfang: xiv, 233 Seiten
• Illustrationen: Illustrationen
• Format: 23 cm
• ISBN: 978-0-520-30083-5
• ISBN: 978-0-520-30082-8
• Schlagwörter: (g)Ägypten / (s)Islam / (s)Ethik / (s)Almosen
• Sprache: eng
• Bibliogr. Hinweis: Erscheint auch als : Online-Ausgabe: Mittermaier, Amira, 1974- author: Giving to God. - Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2019] |(DLC)2018045798
• RVK-Notation: LC 38495
• RVK-Notation: BE 8620
• K10plus-PPN: 1031355871

Abstract

"During the 2011 uprising, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets to call for social justice. Three years later, President el-Sisi promoted economic growth, mega projects, hard work, and citizens' sacrifices. What many of the activists and el-Sisi have in common, despite their radically different visions, is an objection to charity and handouts--to 'giving a man a fish.' Set against this drastically shifting historical backdrop, this book describes an alternative vision of justice: an Islamic ethics of giving that is enacted in Cairo's alleys, mosque courtyards, saint shrines, and slums. It tells the story of a range of pious Muslims--housewives, Sufi devotees, and Salafi volunteers--who, day after day, hand out meals to the poor, and it tells the story of people at the receiving end--beggars, single-parent families, and dervishes. This form of giving is not grounded in compassion, the desire to end poverty, or the hope for a better world, but rather it is understood as a duty and a way to interact with God. By initiating an unlikely conversation between such lived understandings of Islam and the revolutionary moment, this book invites a reimagining of justice and ethics beyond 'the human.' It ethnographically disrupts the entrenched claim that handouts are outdated, shortsighted, and damaging--that they inherently and necessarily stand in the way of social justice"