Individual Requirement and Community Requirment

I am 20 hrs in. I have fasted (no food,no water) well over 360 days in my life from dawn to dusk. The first 20 hours passed very much the same way the first day of Ramadan passes, a little bit annoying, an afternoon headache, but overall not too bad.  Actually it has been easier because I have been drinking water throughout the day.

I am not sure what the definition of Fard is in English, perhaps requirement or mandate is the closest. I have chosen to go with requirement for the purposes of this post. In Islam there are two types of requirements Fard al nafs and Fard al Kifaya. Fard al nafs, is the requirements of the individual. These are things that God will hold each individual accountable for, and that can only be fulfilled by each individual. Examples are prayer, fasting, the giving of the required charity (Zakat). No one can fulfill another duty to pray five times a day.

The other requirement is the requirement of sufficiency. There are certain actions/responsibilities that the entire community carries but can be fulfilled by any member of the community. Hunger is a good example. If your neighbor goes to bed hungry, then everyone in the neighborhood incurs the sin of that persons hunger. If one person, however, feeds their hungry neighbor then everyone in the community is absolved. To me this concept has always balanced the responsibility that a community bears, and the power that every individual has to make a difference. A single action can absolve a whole community of sin. Some problems may seem too big to solve as individuals, but the mere effort of taking steps can cure a whole society of its ills.

I grew up in a community where I very much doubt anyone went to bed hungry. I am a product of the suburbanization of America where people are grouped off into towns and counties by their ability to afford property. I often wonder, if our lack of sympathy for the poor is because we simply don't interact with people from the lower quartile of society. Maybe we are so willing to forgo programs to help the neediest because we quite frankly don't see very many needy people. This is just conjecture but I think people who live in cities are probably more likely to appreciate public services, because they interact with those service more often, such as with public parks, and public transportation. My dad thinks we can solve issues of health, energy, happiness, and small business simply by committing to building walking friendly/ walking exclusive cities. The idea being that we would consume less energy if more people lived in cities where they could not drive their cars in the city, took public transit more often. The additional activity would reduce obesity, and therefore diabetes and associated healthcare costs. People would shop at fewer big box stores, and the need for convenience would help boost business for "round the corner" family owned shops.