Epigraph: Did He (Allah) not find thee (Muhammad) an orphan and give thee shelter? And He found thee wandering in search for Him and guided thee unto Himself. And He found thee in want and enriched thee. So the orphan, oppress not, And him who seeks thy help, chide not. (Al Quran 93:7-11)

Visitors waited for long hours outside the Buckingham Palace for announcement of the arrival of the new prince

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD

The whole of last week, national media and all the newspapers in many parts of the world obsessed over the birth of a child.

On Wednesday, a regal name, George Alexander Louis, was bestowed on Britain’s 2-day-old royal baby by his parents, Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton.

I am happy for the royal family and congratulate them on their blessing and wish the new Prince a successful, productive and healthy long life.

But, I would also like to translate and transfer some of the jubilation, celebration, empathy and love to the 151 million suffering and ignored orphans.

Almost all the Muslims remember that the Prophet Muhammad, may peace be on him, was born an orphan.  His father Abdullah had died before his birth and his mother died, when he was only six years of age.  So, concern for orphans should be near and dear to every Muslim, especially in the blessed month of Ramadan, which is about spirituality and human compassion.

It is estimated that 151 million children worldwide, ranging from infants to teenagers, have lost one or both parents (UNICEF).

SOS Children’s Village, website catalogs some of the suffering of our children in different parts of our global village

• HIV/AIDS has orphaned 17.9 million children, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (UNICEF).
• Over 7 million children are in institutional care worldwide (Save).
• One in five children living in developing countries is severely underweight (World Bank, UN).
• Over 1 billion children suffer from at least one form of severe deprivation of basic needs like water, food, and sanitation.
• 19,000 children under the age of five died every day in 2011 (UNICEF).
• 22 million children are refugees or internally displaced, forced to flee their homes due to violence or natural disaster (UNHCR).
• Over 1 billion children live in countries affected by armed conflict (UNICEF).
• 67 million children of primary school age do not go to school (UNESCO).

There are at least 30 mentions of orphans in the Bible and at least 23 in the Holy Quran, all urging the Abrahamic family to be kind and compassionate to the suffering children.

I would like to quote a few verses from the Abrahamic scriptures today.

The Holy Quran documents the tradition of compassion in the Abrahamic faiths in the following words:

And remember the time when We took a covenant from the children of Israel: ‘You shall worship nothing but Allah and show kindness to parents and to kindred and orphans and the poor, and speak to men kindly and observe Prayer, and pay the Zakat;’ then you turned away in aversion, except a few of you. (Al Quran 2:84) 

The Holy Quran stresses that righteousness is not merely in following the rituals with precision, but it lies in compassionate living: 

It is not righteousness that you turn your faces to the East or the West, but truly righteous is he who believes in Allah and the Last Day and the angels and the Book and the Prophets, and spends his money for love of Him, on the kindred and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and those who ask for charity, and for ransoming the captives.  (Al Quran 2:178) 

The loving and merciful God wants to transform our concern for our own children into compassion for the orphans and underprivileged: 

And when other relations and orphans and the poor are present at the division of heritage, give them something therefrom and speak to them words of kindness. And let those fear God who, if they should leave behind them their own weak offspring, would be anxious for them. Let them, therefore, fear Allah and let them say the right word.  Surely, they who devour the property of orphans unjustly, only swallow fire into their bellies, and they shall burn in a blazing fire. 

I know in recent years Prince Charles has shown some interest in Islam and Lady Diana was close to a Muslim family.  I hope and pray that these verses inspire the royal family to start some large initiatives for the 151 million orphans in the world.

To show that on this subject the Holy Quran and the Holy Bible are in complete harmony with each other, let me present a few quotes from the Bible also.

In the Old Testament we read:

Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless. (Exodus 22:22-24)

In the New Testament we read:

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. (James 1:27)

More than half the population of our planet belongs to the Abrahamic traditions, in one way or the other and they still run the world, despite increasing influence of China and India.

We hope and pray that the children of Abraham are able to take care of their own and other children in the world.  Amen!