“If you disclose your Sadaqaat (almsgiving), it is well; but if you conceal them and give them to the poor, that is better for you.” [Quran 2:271]
There are many reasons why a man like Prince should be remembered, if he did nothing but make the movie ‘Purple Rain’ and its accompanying album he would be remembered forever. His exceptional guitar skills, his continued impact on the music world, his eclectic style, his strong faith, his soft-spoken activism and his many albums after Purple Rain are reason enough to remember this amazing soul. But one thing we would not be able to know about him until his untimely death was his charity.
Because of his faith, humility, modesty, he gave innumerable charity to various causes out of the public eye. There is an Islamic saying about giving charity so secretively that the left-hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, Prince embodied this. When we die, the world has to reflect on our lives, what we meant to them and they get to choose how we are remembered, what is better than being remembered as one who made the world a better place? As Imam Al Ghazali quotes the prophet, peace to him, as saying “The earth itself weeps when it loses them”.
As a Jehovah’s Witness and Christian, Prince would have been interested in Allah’s respect for his generosity. High praise indeed. Not usually bestowed upon an infidel.
Jehovah’s blessings on you.