One group of pious men was known as «the bruised and bleeding Pharisees» because they closed their eyes when they saw a woman coming down the street, even if it meant walking into a wall and breaking their noses. (religion-online.org)
Its ritual absolutes and rules look legalistic, rubric - mad today: but they spoke with a sure confidence of the sacramentality of life, the rootedness of the sacred not in pious feelings of «spirituality,» not in our heads or even exclusively our hearts, but in the gritty and messy realities of life, birth, death, water and stone and fire, bread and wine.» (firstthings.com)
Again, speaking of alms, it says that it is a «precise and known» right of the needy to receive a share of the possessions of pious men (Surah LXX, 24 - 25). (religion-online.org)