One thing I’ve never understood is the idea of ‘competition’ in charity and community work. When the stated purpose is helping people, serving communities and addressing need, what exactly are we competing for?

I understand competition in business. Businesses are built to win customers, grow market share, protect their model and outperform rivals. That is how the system is designed. Charity is supposed to be different. In charity, the point is public benefit, not private victory. A charity’s purposes must benefit the public, and any personal benefit must be no more than incidental. That is why the language of rivalry sounds so wrong in charity and community work. If the work is genuinely about people, then the question should not be, “How do we beat the other organisation?” It should be, “Are people being served well?” or, “How can we work together?”

What My Faith Taught Me About This

Islam does contain the idea of striving to do more good. The Qur’an says, “So compete with one another in doing good” [2:148] and also says, “Cooperate with one another in goodness and righteousness” [5:2]. It describes believers as ‘one brotherhood’ and calls on them to make peace among themselves. The point is clear: excel in service, but do not turn service into hostility. 

There is a huge difference between striving to feed more people, support more families, or teach more students – and trying to undermine someone else’s good work because it makes you feel insecure. The Prophet ﷺ taught us to channel envy into aspiration, not sabotage. That principle has stayed with me, especially when I’ve seen the opposite play out in real life.

Surah al-Ma’un goes even deeper. It links religious insincerity with neglect of those in need, and it condemns those who perform outward displays while withholding basic assistance. I’ve seen how easily charity work can slip into that territory – where image, branding and personality overshadow the widow, the orphan, the struggling family or the hungry neighbour. When competition enters charity in the wrong way, beneficiaries stop being people and start becoming numbers, footfall, mailing lists and ‘reach’.

If You’re a Business, Just Say You’re a Business

Another thing I’ve learned is that honesty matters. If someone is running a business with a social mission, that’s fine, but say it plainly. A charity is not just ‘something that does good’. It is a structure bound to public-benefit purposes, strict rules on personal benefit and clear governance expectations.

Public trust depends on that clarity. If the real drivers are profile, influence, contracts or income, then it is better to be honest about that than to wrap ambition in the language of selfless service. I’ve seen too many situations where the right words were used, but the underlying motives told a different story.

The Moments That Shaped My View

These reflections aren’t theoretical for me. They come from experiences that were difficult to forget.

I remember running an Islamic course, excited that more people would have access to learning. Instead of celebrating that, another organisation treated it as a threat. They actively discouraged people from attending. That wasn’t concern for the community, it was insecurity dressed up as concern. When teaching sacred knowledge becomes a brand war, something has gone very wrong.

I’ve seen it in community partnerships too. Organisations that speak warmly about collaboration, only for the moment of delivery to reveal their true intentions. We once agreed to work together on an event, but the event was effectively hijacked. The credit was taken elsewhere, despite most of the work and funding coming from us. The academic term for this is ‘rhetorical partnership’. The plain language is simpler: it destroys trust.

I saw it again when we opened our food hub. Instead of asking what need it was meeting, some questioned why it should exist at all. “Why? We already do it. You shouldn’t need to.” But hunger doesn’t care about organisational ego. If people are in need, another sincere effort should be welcomed, not treated as encroachment.

These experiences taught me that distrust doesn’t appear out of nowhere. It is learned. Built slowly, every time credit is grabbed, every time someone protects their turf, every time a new project is viewed through the lens of status rather than need.

Communities Are Bigger Than Any One Organisation

The truth is simple: communities are far bigger than any single organisation. A family struggling to put food on the table doesn’t care whose logo is on the parcel. A young person seeking guidance doesn’t care who gets the publicity. Someone facing hardship isn’t concerned with which organisation gets the credit. They just need help.

Yes, organisations need funding, sustainability and recognition. There is nothing wrong with that. But there is a difference between wanting sustainability and becoming so obsessed with profile and influence that every new initiative feels like a threat.

Putting People First, Always

Not every charity is like this. Not every masjid committee behaves this way. Not every community organisation is driven by ego. But the warning still stands.

If the work is truly for God, for people, for the vulnerable and the forgotten, then ego must be kept on a leash. Structures need to be honest, credit needs to be shared, agreements need to be clear and collaboration must mean actual mutuality, not rhetoric.

Imagine what could be achieved if we spent less time worrying about who gets the credit and more time focusing on the outcome. Imagine if we celebrated good work regardless of who was doing it. Imagine if we viewed every successful project, every family helped and every young person supported as a victory for the community rather than a loss for ourselves.

And if what someone really wants is a business, a platform, a profile, a revenue stream or influence with a charitable gloss, then they should simply say so clearly. There is at least honesty in that.

Community work was never meant to be about building empires. It was meant to be about building people. And if we cannot put people before our own egos, then we need to ask ourselves why we started this work in the first place.

People must always come first. Community must always come first. Need must always come first.

Otherwise, charity and community work is not for you.