It is a common assumption that political ruptures, such as the one followed by the uprising in Egypt in 2011, can lead to new political subjectivities among youth and that it might also influence them to become more conscious of themselves as a generation (Mannheim 1952, Edmunds and Turner 2002). The current paper nuances this assumption by pointing to the importance of viewing the situation of youth after political rupture in the light of their situation before. Focusing on the time both before and after the Egyptian uprising, this paper explores the formation of a specific subjectivity and generational consciousness among a group of young middle class Egyptians engaged in social service activities for the benefit of Egypt’s poor. The approach is experience-near, and in particular, my focus is on the relation between bodily practices of engagement in actual activities and influence of a specific and contemporary religious discourse on charity, voluntarism and giving. The study is based on one year of ethnographic fieldwork in the Islamic youth-based charity organization Resala in the period 2007 to 2011, and the data includes participant observation in various activities as well as interviews and life story interviews with volunteers, their parents and a wide range of activists within the field of social and political activism in Egypt. I argue that already before the uprising, the volunteers together with other young people in similar organizations were in the process of developing a historical and political consciousness of themselves as a generation. Further helped along by the Egyptian uprising and the upheaval that followed, this consciousness is the product of a specific subjectivity of bodily practices, collective narratives and intergenerational relations. Resala can be seen both as a place to engage in and learn about both moral and socioeconomic aspects of society and a way to hold on to one’s middle class status. Through practices and interaction related to the encounter with poor beneficiaries as well as socialization into a specific middle class discourse on poverty and need, the volunteers achieve a new understanding of Egyptian society and hence a better understanding of themselves and their place within it.