I have to reflect on the nature of charity and kindness. So often this seems to imply that the poor will always be with us and that we need the poor for our own purification. Connected to this is another curious fact. Many scholars, and certainly many socially aware Muslims, often say that one of the reasons we fast, is to empathize with the poor and the hungry. Does it mean that we think of Muslims as wealthy or, at least, self-sufficient? Who shapes this discourse whereby the wealthy are the subjects of religion and poor its objects and we, even if unwittingly, suggest that they do not fast or do not have to fast?
— Farid Esack, On Being a Muslim