My brother and I attended Friday prayers in a Riyadh district recently. After the prayer, a young fair-skinned man with a fine beard and who appeared to look sick stood in front of the crowd. He started begging for money claiming to be paralyzed and that he has a large family to feed.
He had a letter of recommendation from well-known scholars and was walking slowly and heavily across the mosque until he reached the end. While walking he swung from one side to another while one of his hands was in a permanent twist.
When I finished praying I stayed outside the mosque waiting for my older brother to show up. Suddenly, the beggar, who had earlier been trying to gain people’s compassion, ran outside the mosque like a wild horse. He even dropped the hat he was wearing. I then realized he was trying to escape the anti-beggary authorities. A minivan had arrived and the police were rounding up beggars. They arrested the beggar.
My brother came out wondering about what happened to the “poor guy.” He searched for him inside the mosque and could not find him. He wanted to give him some money and so I said to him, “Do you see that minivan parked at the roundabout?” He nodded and I told him the man was inside.
Begging is against Islamic ethics. It humiliates an individual and deprives him of his dignity. The Prophet (peace be upon him) warned against the practice. His story with the beggar is very well known. The prophet told him to gather firewood to sell and earn a living.
The reasons that force beggars to ask for money are related to the beggars themselves. These relate to a lack of willpower, low self-esteem, and a desire to live as a burden asking others for money instead of working to earn a living. Others might be forced into that situation but they end up taking the easy moneymaking route to better their situation. They lose their self-respect and work to continue to earn people’s compassion to get more money. Some of them even develop strange skills like pretending to cry to earn people’s sympathy.
Society is contributing to this problem. People like to help and give to others. However, we need to be sure that the person we give to is definitely needy. There are many charitable institutions and organizations that collect donations for the poor. Imams in mosques can also be trusted in giving money to needy people living in their localities.
Begging has many disadvantages. It paralyzes a person’s energies that could otherwise be used to work and benefit the wider society. People who are really in need lose the opportunity to receive donations because of the many fraudulent beggars, who seem to be increasing in numbers daily.
