Building a House in Heaven: Pious Neoliberalism and Islamic Charity in Egypt

5. Business with Allah

The ladies of the heliopolis sporting club raved about the food they purchased from Zahrawan.1 Zahrawan sells prepared foods that women could heat and serve for their families. Out of a small shop on Omar ibn el Khattab Street, they sold labor-intensive goods like stuffed grape leaves, moussaka, savory pies, and French cookies. The backroom shelves were filled with these foods while the side room displayed handmade jewelry; downstairs, home goods like pillowcases and tablecloths as well as gallabiyyat and veils were on display. Although my first encounter with Zahrawan was as a consumer, every mention of the place was accompanied by praise for the wonderful khayr these women had done. Zahrawan was engaged in business with Allah and yet it was not a business at all; it is a charitable and developmental foundation affiliated with Hagga Sherine , a beloved female daʿwa star who gave religious sermons and lessons to women in this upper-middle-class neighborhood. Once considered a suburbofCairo ,HeliopolishousestheBaronPalace(Qasr al-Baron);al-Korba, a busy commercial street with nineteenth-century belle-époque architecture and loads of trendy cafés, and the presidential palace. The foundation occupied three stories of a high-rise building, where they sold their goods and engaged in a variety of charitable activities (Figure 16). ZahrawanFoundation,establishedinJune2011,focusesondaʿwa,charity , and development. The foundation is run by a voluntary administrative team of six women and a salaried cleaning staff. A majority of the fifteen hundred volunteers are upper-middle-class women who participate in a variety of activities that include: zakat, takaful, productive families, prepared foods, Ramadan and Eid distributions, youth camps and after-school activities, street beautification, and social services for the illiterate, elderly, orphans, and others with special needs. Some women teach Quran memorization for youth from nine years through college age and the foundation is licensed to provide Quranic certification for daʿiya in the mosques. They also hold seminars on volunteerism and give moral lessons coupled • CHAPTER 5 • Business with Allah • 105 • with assistance to women in informal settlements. Zahrawan is an operating foundation rather than a grant-making one, but it is run like an association . Like many other foundations I had visited, it could establish itself as a foundation because it had the necessary capital (10,000 EGP) to do so. Foundations are subject to less government intervention and are able to sell goods without violating the stringent NGO law. Many charities had complained about their inability to sell anything during the Mubarak years. Since Zahrawan was established after the uprising, it was notsubject to government interference. I arranged to meet the chairwoman, Hagga Shahira, to find out more about this institution of privatized Islam. 106 BUSINESS WITH ALLAH Figure 16. The Zahrawan Foundation’s promotional materials for prepared foods cooked by women who receive assistance in addition to wages. When Zahrawan was established, it marketed itself as a women’s charitable foundation, a voluntary association, and a foundation for sustainable development at the same time. The foundation preached that faith and work are two sides of the same coin and its goal was to “translate faith into positive work.” The prepared-foods market and artisan crafts shop, initiatives that provide income opportunities to poor women, were the most well known of their projects. This model is a market-based solution to poverty and the women used a “systematic” approach to ensure quality control over the food. They had opened a factory that produces sheets and towels to employ women who also receive aid. In addition, the founders would soon open a for-profit school. Thus Zahrawan is an example of how some Islamic charities were engaging in business with Allah. As more businesspeople became involved in charitable work, I noticed they brought withthemadifferentapproachtocharitywork,onethatsoughtoutmarketbased solutions to poverty, relied upon a systematic approach, and created strict accountability parameters for aid recipients. Although only one association director described his work as “business with Allah,” I observed numerous other associations built on the idea of applying business expertise to the charitable sector. Don’t Give a Man a Fish Islamiccharityadministratorswithprivate-sectorbackgroundsdescribedthe poorinacommonmanner.AlloftheassociationsIvisitedcollectedanddistributedzakat ,buttheadministratorsofsomeorganizationsvoicedconcern that aid recipients were taking advantage of the system. For example, one charityadministratorsaid,“Peoplearenothonestabouttheirincome,assets, etc....whichmakesitdifficulttoreallyidentifytheneediestfamilies.Butwith experience, our research team learned who is telling the truth and who is not.”Severalcharityadministratorsbelievedthepoorwereinpursuitofinfiniteaid ,thattheypreferredtoreceive“handouts”ratherthanearntheirown income.Ayoungentrepreneurinvolvedincharitablework,echoedthisskepticism toward aid recipients, “These women go from committee to committeegettingaidratherthanworking .Someofthemmakeupwardsof1...