With the poverty of so much of the world who might be listening to these Words of Faith, contrasting starkly with the comparative wealth of anyone lucky enough to have been born in the land of the BBC, I thought it only right to say something about the obvious financial disparity between us, of which so many of the listeners must be painfully aware. After all, the beggars of the third world don't depend on tourists for a living. It is charitable giving from their own community that keeps them all alive.

Some of the earliest verses of the Qur'an to be revealed deal with a subject that is central to most people's lives, the acquisition of wealth, and how to spend it.

[ From the Qur'an, the chapter called The Night,  vv 1-21 ]

By the night enshrouding, and the day in splendour and That which created the male and the female, surely your striving is to diverse ends. As for him who gives, and is godfearing, and confirms the reward most fair, We will surely ease him to ultimate Ease. But as for him who is a miser, self-sufficient, crying lies to the reward most fair, We shall surely ease him to ultimate Hardship. His wealth will not avail him when he sinks into his grave. Surely upon Us rests the guidance, and to Us belong the Last and the First.

Now I have warned you of a Fire that blazes, which none must endure but the hapless wretch who cried lies to the Truth and turned away; but from which the godfearing shall be removed, he who spends his wealth to grow in purity, not as payment for favours received, only seeking the Face of his Lord the Most High; and he will surely be satisfied.

"Of course, you'll have to learn to kick the beggars", my friend said, when he discovered that I was to travel through South East Asia, to which, in horrified disbelief, I reacted with vehement denial. After all, we like to think that such behaviour just isn't British.

We may also have people begging on our streets, but we know that they can usually be ignored, slightly quickening the pace while looking intently straight ahead, or perhaps even crossing the road to avoid the confrontation. We know how to pretend that the poor and hungry are not there. In Britain, I am far from rich, yet compared to those sleeping on the streets of Delhi (or a thousand other places) I clearly was, even if the difference was not as great as they presumed.

But thousands of miles away from home, drifting on a sea of culture shock, interpreting people's behaviour, and predicting your own, becomes much more difficult. So I remember on one occasion trying to run for a bus with a more than usually aggressive beggar fiercely clinging to my leg, when my friend's words came true and I could hear him laughing at me from a continent away.

Our response to beggars also depends on our feeling that we can distinguish them from thieves, and that applies in the rich parts of the world as much as the poor. Perhaps even more so, for the man asking you for money on a street in New York may well have had enough spare change to have bought himself a gun. And there lies the crux of the matter, because if we don't find an acceptable way of transferring money from the rich to the poor, they will surely decide to take it for themselves.

The problem is defining how much to give, and who is rich and who is poor. Some things that benefit mankind require wealth to be gathered and invested, while mankind also requires a certain essential minimum of distribution. We have to find the balance between giving and using wealth, and when we look to the Prophet's community we can see how this was expressed in principle as well as defined as a legal requirement.

The redistribution of wealth is so important that it is considered a religious duty, and each year a small percentage of a muslim's wealth must be given to purify what remains. But that is a minimum, and Qur'an makes it clear that it is the giver who should be the more grateful in the situation. It is the giving, not the receiving, that brings the greater reward.

So the Companions of the Prophet vied with each other in works of charity, and the Prophet, the unchallenged leader of his community, gave to whoever asked, even though it meant that he frequently went hungry, being penniless himself. At the end, he had only a few small coins which he gave away in the hours before he died. He knew that you can't take it with you, and the wealth of this world is as nothing compared to the rewards of the hereafter.