As if I ate

Amal Al-Sibai In the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul, there was a man who led a simple life. Every day on his walk to work in the morning and on his way back home in the evening after work, he passed by a sweets shop. Every day he gazed at the sweets, the sugary syrup dripping from the thin sheets of pastry, and he wished he could have just a bite. However, he could not afford such treats with the wages he earned, so he just kept walking. After some time, this man started earning more money, and he even had some savings. He finally had enough money to buy some sweets, but as he stood at the window of the shop, he asked himself, “If I had been able to resist the urge to buy and eat these sweets before when I had no money, then can I still resist the urge for sweet indulgences now that I do have the money?” This question gave him an idea. He rushed home and crafted a small wooden box. Every time he laid eyes on some sweet treat or other luxury that he wanted but did not really need, he refused to give in to his desires for such fine things. Instead, he put the amount of money that he would have otherwise used to purchase the treats and he placed the money safely in the little wooden box. He used to say to himself, “It’s as if I ate”, in Turkish “Sanki yedim”. He would put the money in the box rather than purchasing the luxuries that he saw in the market. He continued this habit all his life. After he died, his wife opened the little treasure box and found a great sum of money. With this money that he had collected over the years by depriving himself of small luxuries, she built a mosque for her husband. The mosque still stands in Istanbul to this day.    The mosque built with his money will pile up his good deeds and rewards from Allah while he lies in his grave, until the last day on Earth. This is a continuous charity, meaning the rewards from Allah will continue even after the person’s death. Other examples of continuous charity are building a well in a community that suffers water shortages, writing a beneficial book, teaching others beneficial knowledge, helping to build a school or a hospital or an orphanage, or planting trees. How many times have you gone to the grocery store with a shopping list in hand? You found everything you need but then you stroll down the chocolate and biscuits aisle and you see these new biscuits coated in chocolate. You start loading tasty sweets into your cart, even though you do not need them and you hadn’t written them down on your list. Have you dined out a restaurant and enjoyed a delicious, filling meal, and then the waiter brings the dessert menu and asks if you would like dessert?  Although you are so full you can barely breathe, the picture of the hot brownie with chocolate chips topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup looks so tempting. How can you say “no”? It has probably happened to all of us. Often, we see something that looks appetizing and we want it, but what we are unaware of is that the strong desire for that food or treat is actually quite fleeting and short-lived. If we do not give in to that craving at that particular moment, and if we distract ourselves with something else, it is likely that our interest and cravings for that particular food will diminish. Aliaa Isam Algamri, inspired by the Turkish man who used to say “as if I ate”, is bringing that story back to life. In Sudan, she was able to motivate hundreds of people to keep a box for themselves with the label on it: “as if I ate”. They succeeded in funding amazing charitable projects simply from the money that they had saved up instead of buying an extra sweet or treat. Algamri says that it’s easy. The next time you are at the mall and you pass by the ice cream vendor, ask yourself, “Do I really need this?” Before buying yourself an expensive frappuccino drink loaded with whipped cream, sugar, and caramel, ask yourself, “Do I really need this?” If you choose not to buy that drink, save that amount of money in your little box and say, “It’s as if I ate.” The desire for a sweet food is temporary. The typical cycle for a food you desire is: from the store to your mouth to your stomach and then it is excreted through the gut. Algamri is proposing a whole new cycle that is more long lasting: the sweet food stays in the store your money goes into the savings box, then it goes to a school or a healthcare clinic in a poverty stricken area, and your rewards stack high up towards the sky. “When you eat something sweet, only you can taste it and enjoy it, and that joy is short lived. But when you save up that money and give it to others, you are spreading the joy, you are giving a child an education or medicine, your charity lasts longer, and it continues to benefit you, even after your death,” says Algamri. In Sudan, her campaign “As If I Ate” was so successful that they purchased school books for children in a rural area, where typically five students would share one book. Their campaign also funded school breakfast sandwiches served to school children because their families were poor and it was probably the only meal the children got all day. The campaign does not call for going hungry or depriving yourself or your family. Her message was that only when there is an excess, or an extravagant luxury, you can resist the extra luxury and give the money to provide someone else with an important necessity. And for the fun of it, don’t forget to say, “As if I ate.”