Billionaire Bill Gates Pledges to Give Away his Fortune to Charity

by Marah Bukai

American billionaire and founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, pledged to donate all of his wealth to charitable causes, following his already excessive spending on humanitarian relief undertakings across the globe.

He announced his intention to give away his fortune in an impressive tweet, he wrote: “I will move down and eventually off of the list of the world’s richest people.” “I have an obligation to return my resources to society in ways that have the greatest impact on reducing suffering and improving lives”.

Obviously, the top experts of finance and economics typically advise others to be very careful in their allocation of money to ensure the wealth does not leave the pocket faster than it arrived. However, Bill Gates has openly contradicted financial theory, insisting to spend his grand wealth at once, which will be his final goal!

Gates declared his donation of $20 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the international charitable organization he and his ex-wife Melinda Gates founded, which seeks to adopt the implementation of humanitarian and relief projects in all countries and human communities in need of support. For instance, in Syria, one of his projects purified and provided clean drinking water in the Syrian refugee and displacement camps.

In fact, Gates and Melinda have already contributed over $50 billion to the foundation since 1994. However, Gates’ new pledge to give up his entire fortune, which is estimated at $113 billion, expresses his desire to return this wealth to the members of society that were crucial to his success. Gates will need to implement huge charitable projects the world needs most at this time when millions across the earth are suffering from the scarcity of resources in food, medicine, and stability, either forming as a result of the Corona pandemic or the exploding wars and conflicts globally, the latest and most terrible of which is Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation not only seeks donations and charitable projects but also focuses on combating epidemics and communicable diseases and securing the necessary research avenues to devise methods and vaccines to eliminate them. Since its launch in 2000, this foundation has already grown to be one of the world’s largest charitable organizations, serving as a non-profit organization that focuses specifically on finding solutions to global issues such as disease, poverty, climate change, and access to health care and education.

However, the concept of philanthropic work is not strange to Islamic or Arab cultures. The Islamic faith honors charitable work and guides Muslims to adhere to it in the light of the noble Qur’anic verses and righteous prophetic hadiths that appreciate the value of charitable work. Most notably, in verse 177 of The Chapter of the Cow, or Surat Al-Baqarah, of the Quran, the Almighty reiterates: “It is not piety, that you turn your faces to the East and to the West. True piety is this: to believe in God, and the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the Prophets, to give of one’s substance, however, cherished, to kinsmen, and orphans, the needy, the traveler, beggars, and to ransom the slave, to perform the prayer, to pay the alms. And they who fulfill their covenant when they have engaged in a covenant, and endure with fortitude misfortune, hardship, and peril, these are they who are true in their faith, these are truly Godfearing”.

In ancient and contemporary Islamic history, one common valuable virtue is to encourage care and support for the needy as a response to the texts of the Noble Qur’an and the noble Prophetic call. The establishment of charitable societies parallel to the major financial institutions for individuals and businessmen has become a phenomenon that many wealthy people in the Arab world follow, a phenomenon that we call for expanding its spectrum and developing in the direction of the good of all humanity.

As the fourth richest person on the planet, Gates presents an exemplary example of the importance of “giving up” wealth in its utmost for the good of humanity and in order to support the less fortunate in this world, whose circumstances did not help them achieve a decent and just life as it should be on this earth.
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American businessman Gates wrote in his blog, soon to be retitled “Former Billionaire” to compensate for his vast removal of wealth to charity, that he does not see the act of giving up his wealth as a great sacrifice, as he elaborated, “I feel proud that I am participating in facing these great challenges, and, in fact, I enjoy what I do”.

Translated/Edited by Husam Ramadan