Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 272
272 and to guard them against attacks from outside, and to provide for all their intellectual and material needs—as for instance those relating to training, instruction, health, food, and shelter, etc. These are the general duties of a State. In particu- lar it is the duty of an Islamic State to provide for all its subjects the necessaries of life, viz. , food, clothing and shelter, for without these the very persons whom it is the duty of the State to protect cannot be preserved. In the absence of adequate food and shelter physical existence becomes impossible, and a moral or social existence is not possible without proper clothes. One or two illustrations will suffice to show how these general principles were interpreted and applied in practice by the early Muslims. I have stated that it is the duty of an Islamic State to provide the necessaries of life for people who are unable to provide them for themselves. This is well illustrated by an incident which occurred in the reign of Hadrat Umar ra , the second caliph. The caliph was one day going about incognito to find out whether the people had any grievance against anybody. At Sarar, a village about three miles from the capital, he heard someone crying. He followed the sound and presently came upon an old woman who was tending a pot on the fire and three children near her who were weeping. The caliph enquired of the old woman what their trouble was. She replied that they had had nothing to eat for two days, and as she could procure no food, she had put an empty pot on the fire to make them think that food would soon be ready; and thus to cajole them into sleep. The caliph thereupon returned to Me-