Principles – Generosity (1) «Generosity» – Saturday, 16th of November, 2013

“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” These words echoed in my mind during the celebration of Ola Ghabbour Award for Humanities and Cultural Studies. I wondered what makes inner beauty of person more reflected than another. What makes some people so great that their names become engraved on people’s hearts then steeped in history. They must have enjoyed one of the characteristics that made them truly memorable no matter how their departure was long time ago, extraordinary generosity.
Generosity is giving abundantly. When we say that person is generous, we mean that he enjoys giving without getting in return as his happiness springs from that of others.
Generosity is one of God’s attributes “who gives to all liberally and without reproach”. God is the source of our goodness for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. He takes care of all the creation and provides for us without our request. It is written,” Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” and ” Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God.” It is God who taught us generosity and we give people out of God’s gifts showered on us. I once read a story about caliph who was fond of poetry and poets that he opened a literary salon at his palace to listen to the poets. Poets were crowded at the door of his palace till they were permitted to enter. Once a man came and stood in the crowd waiting to enter the palace and when the guards asked him whether he is a poet r not? He said yes, so they let him pass. Poets started reciting their poem till his turn came. However, he remained silent, thus the caliph asked him to recite his poems, he answered that he is not a poet and he came to say hello to the caliph. The caliph laughed and welcomed him then he gave him some money. The man became so happy. As soon as he got out of the palace, he was throwing the money on the passersby. The caliph’s guards seized and brought him to the caliph who said, “I was generous to you and gave you money though you said no poem; but you took the money and threw it on people!”
Hence the man recited the most adorable lines hat were said on generosity:
The Generous upon us bestows lavishly
Openhanded we became out of their generosity
A generous person shows generosity of spirit too in so many ways that we are going to discuss consecutively.
Many tackled that issue. Gibran Khalil Gibran said, “Generosity is giving more than you can”, “Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.” It is not giving what you do not need; it is giving out of your necessities. Giving means putting the others first and the more I become openhanded the more I recognize happiness till my life turns into an unstoppable series of generous giving.
It is said that real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out. How tender-hearted the people who make others happy without waiting for a reward or a praise! That person knows that the way to real happiness is in generosity.
Should we talk abundantly about generosity to show generosity…