Charity and service
What the house receives, it also learns to give.
The formation received at Riad Al-Uns is measured by the hand that learns a craft and, with it, by the character that is forged there. A man capable of carving plaster or tracing a Kufic letter, but incapable of bending toward one who is hungry, has not fully understood what the house wishes to transmit to him. Service to the poor and to the young men in difficulty of the city is part of the ordinary rhythm of the community — not an occasional initiative. What this page describes in the present tense is the rule of the house from the day it opens: not what it promises to attempt, but what it does as soon as it stands.
A regular commitment
The weekly rhythm of service.
The hand that works
The craft put to service.
A door left ajar
The young men of Fez in the life of the house.
A RHYTHM, NOT AN EXCEPTION
A regular commitment
Periodically, a group of residents visits needy families of Fez to bring them food and assistance. This service follows the weekly rhythm of the house — linked in particular to the day of communal prayer — and intensifies during the periods of the Islamic calendar in which charity holds a central place, such as Ramadan. It is not a separate social project: it is a natural extension of the daily discipline that already sets the rhythm of the riad’s days.
THE CRAFT PUT TO SERVICE
The hand that works, the hand that gives
Part of the work produced at Dar al-Hiraf — a woven piece, a shaped object — is periodically destined to those in need, or the proceeds of the sale of such pieces are devoted to assisting the poorest. In this way the craft does not remain a knowledge closed in on itself, but also becomes a service. One learns to work with one’s hands for oneself, for the hearth one will one day found, and for the one who has nothing.
WELCOMING THE YOUNG MEN OF FEZ
A door left ajar
Beyond material assistance, the house periodically opens its doors to young men of Fez in difficulty, inviting them to share, for a day or a few days, the life and work of Dar al-Hiraf. It is not charity in the strict sense: it is a gesture of transmission, offering to one who would not otherwise have access the chance to touch an ancient craft, to sit at the same table, to measure himself against the same order and the same discipline.
These young men — for the most part the same age as the residents of the house — are received as brothers and friends, and never as social cases. Once past the threshold, nothing must set them apart from the others: they receive decent clothing, take their place at the common table, sleep in the same dormitories, wash in the same hammam, train in the same hall and, if they wish, touch the same workshops as the ṣāniʿ of Dar al-Hiraf. This sharing does not erase their history; it only spares them from carrying it alone, under the eyes of others.
Beyond the hospitality of the moment, the house seeks to open for them a way toward self-sufficiency: a craft learned, a discipline acquired, enough to stand on their own on the day of departure. Some, if they show a sincere and lasting commitment, may be chosen for the path of residence, according to the steps of How one enters — not as dependents, but as residents in their own right, in exchange for a real collaboration in the daily tasks of the house. Only one thing is then asked of them: to open themselves, little by little, to the spirit that dwells in Dar al-Hiraf — that benevolent spirit which tradition says watches over the house of crafts — and to conform to it, as every resident does.
مَا نَقَصَتْ صَدَقَةٌ مِنْ مَالٍ
“Charity never decreases wealth.”
— Narrated by Muslim (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 2588)
DISCRETION
A silent continuity
The riad does not seek resonance for these gestures. In the Islamic tradition, charity (ṣadaqa, صدقة) finds its value precisely in the discretion with which it is carried out. To support this dimension of the life of the house is to support not only the transmission of a craft knowledge, but the continuity of an ethic — that of the futuwwa (الفتوة) — in which a man’s character is measured as much by the care given to his craft as by the care given to the one standing beside him.
The weekly service to families, the reciprocal washing in the hot room and the common chest As-Sanduq are three manifestations of the same principle: a hand that is not paid is a hand one thanks.
WHO IS RECEIVED
Entering without means
Young men in difficulty are received with no condition other than their compatibility with the futuwwa and the furūsiyya. One is not judged by what one can buy, but by what one is.
SUPPORT THIS CONTINUITY
Write to us
Anyone wishing to join this dimension of the project — occasionally or over the long term — is invited to write to us.
The words of this page are in the common glossary; the works cited in the sources; the sister house is Al-Funduq aṣ-Ṣiqillī.