The New World Order of Islam — Page 9
New World Order 9 that she must be in need of money for the wedding of a son or daughter, but when at last I was able to persuade her to tell me what she needed, all she asked for was an eight Annas. I cannot forget the shock I experienced on that occasion. How long had she taken in coming to the point, how humble and hesitant had she been to put forward her demand, and how pitiful was the demand! Not more than eight Annas ! It may be that she thought that nobody with means would be prepared to spare even eight Annas for a poor woman. Or, perhaps she imagined there were few who possessed or could spare an eight Anna coin for her. Whatever the reason of her fear and hesitation, it was a terrible extreme of misery which this incident disclosed. If she felt in common with all others of her class that nobody would be prepared to spare even eight Annas to afford relief to a poor woman in distress, then no wonder, the poor hate the rich so bitterly. If the poor, immersed in privation and misery, imagine that nobody has even eight Annas to spare, and the one who has is lucky, what a commentary would that be on the depth to which vast sections of mankind have fallen!