Allah the Exalted said:
٥٧ - باب القناعة والعفاف والاقتصاد في المعيشة والإنفاق وذم السؤال من غير ضرورة
Allah the Exalted said:
And there is no creature on earth but that upon Allāh is its provision, and He knows its place of dwelling and place of storage.1 All is in a clear register.
And He the Exalted said:
[Charity is] for the poor who have been restricted for the cause of Allāh, unable to move about in the land. An ignorant [person] would think them self-sufficient because of their restraint, but you will know them by their [characteristic] sign. They do not ask people persistently [or at all]. And whatever you spend of good - indeed, Allāh is Knowing of it.
And He the Exalted said:
And [they are] those who, when they spend, do so not excessively or sparingly but are ever, between that, [justly] moderate
And He the Exalted said:
And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.
As for the hadiths, most of them have already been mentioned in the two preceding chapters; among those not yet mentioned are:
From Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: "Richness is not in the abundance of worldly goods; rather, true richness is the richness of the soul." Agreed upon. "Al-ʿaraḍ" — with a fatḥa on the ʿayn and the rāʾ — means wealth.
From ʿAbdullah b. ʿAmr (may Allah be pleased with them both): that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Truly successful is the one who has accepted Islam, has been granted enough to suffice him, and whom Allah has made content with what He has given him." Narrated by Muslim.
From Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: I asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and he gave me; then I asked him and he gave me; then I asked him and he gave me; then he said: "O Ḥakīm, this wealth is green and sweet, so whoever takes it with a generous heart will be blessed in it, but whoever takes it with a craving soul will not be blessed in it — he is like one who eats but is never satisfied. The upper hand is better than the lower hand." Ḥakīm said: So I said: O Messenger of Allah, by the One who sent you with the truth, I shall never take anything from anyone after you until I depart this world. So Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) used to summon Ḥakīm to give him a grant, but he would refuse to accept anything from him; then ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) called him to give to him, but he refused to accept it. So he said: O company of Muslims, I call you to witness against Ḥakīm that I offer him his due which Allah has apportioned to him from this booty, yet he refuses to take it. So Ḥakīm took nothing from anyone after the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) until he died. Agreed upon. "Yarzaʾ" — with a rāʾ, then a zāy, then a hamza — that is, he took nothing from anyone; the root of al-ruzʾ is diminution, that is, he did not diminish anyone's wealth by taking from him. And "ishrāf al-nafs" is the soul's craving and coveting for a thing. And "sakhāwat al-nafs" is the absence of craving for a thing, of coveting it, of being preoccupied with it, and of greed.
From Abu Burda, from Abu Mūsā al-Ashʿarī (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: We went out with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) on a military expedition, and we were six men with a single camel between us which we took turns riding. Our feet became raw and blistered; my own feet were blistered and my toenails fell off, so we used to wrap rags around our feet. For that reason it was called the Expedition of Dhāt al-Riqāʿ ("of the patches"), because of the rags we bound around our feet. Abu Burda said: Abu Mūsā related this hadith and then disliked having done so, and said: "What did I gain by mentioning it!" — as though he disliked that he had disclosed something of his own deeds. Agreed upon.
From ʿAmr b. Taghlib — with a fatḥa on the tāʾ (the one with two dots above), a sukūn on the ghayn (the dotted one), and a kasra on the lām — (may Allah be pleased with him): that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was brought some wealth or captives, and he distributed it; he gave to some men and left out others. It reached him that those he had left out were displeased, so he praised Allah, then extolled Him, then said: "To proceed: by Allah, I give to one man and leave out another, and the one I leave out is dearer to me than the one I give to. But I give to certain people only because of the anxiety and impatience I see in their hearts, while I leave other people to the contentment and goodness Allah has placed in their hearts — among them is ʿAmr b. Taghlib." ʿAmr b. Taghlib said: By Allah, I would not wish to have the most prized red camels in place of the Messenger of Allah's words (peace and blessings be upon him). Narrated by al-Bukhārī. "Al-halaʿ" is the most intense form of anxiety; and it is said: restless vexation.
From Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām (may Allah be pleased with him): that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The upper hand is better than the lower hand; begin with those you are responsible for; the best charity is that given out of a surplus of wealth; whoever seeks to keep chaste from begging, Allah will keep him chaste; and whoever seeks to be self-sufficient, Allah will make him independent." Agreed upon. This is the wording of al-Bukhārī; the wording of Muslim is more concise.
From Abu ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do not be persistent in begging. By Allah, none of you asks me for anything, and his asking draws something out of me while I am reluctant to give it, but that there will be no blessing for him in what I have given him." Narrated by Muslim.
On the authority of Abu ʻAbd al-Rahman ʻAwf ibn Malik al-Ashjaʻi (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, nine or eight or seven, and he said: “Will you not pledge allegiance to the Messenger of Allah?” — and we had only recently given the pledge — so we said: “We have already pledged to you, O Messenger of Allah.” Then he said: “Will you not pledge allegiance to the Messenger of Allah?” So we stretched out our hands and said: “We have already pledged to you; on what shall we pledge to you?” He said: “That you worship Allah and associate nothing with Him, and the five prayers, and that you obey Allah” — and he lowered his voice softly — “and that you do not ask people for anything.” And indeed I saw some of those few men, the whip of one of them would fall and he would not ask anyone to hand it to him. Narrated by Muslim.
On the authority of Ibn ʻUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both): the Prophet ﷺ said: “Begging will not cease to cling to one of you until he meets Allah, the Exalted, with not a shred of flesh on his face.” Agreed upon. “Al-muzʻah” — with a ḍammah on the mim, a sukun on the zay, and an unpointed ʻayn — means: the piece.
And on his authority: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, while he was upon the pulpit mentioning charity and abstaining from begging: “The upper hand is better than the lower hand; the upper hand is the one that spends, and the lower is the one that asks.” Agreed upon.
On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever asks people in order to amass wealth is only asking for live coals; so let him ask for little or let him ask for much.” Narrated by Muslim.
On the authority of Samurah ibn Jundub (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Begging is a scratch with which a man scratches his own face, except that a man asks a ruler, or [asks] in a matter from which there is no escape.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, who said: “A good and sound hadith.” “Al-kadd” means: scratching and the like.
On the authority of Ibn Masʻud (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever is struck by need and brings it down upon the people, his need will not be relieved; but whoever brings it down upon Allah, Allah will soon grant him provision, whether soon or later.” Narrated by Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi, who said: “A good hadith.” “Yushiku” — with a kasrah on the shin — means: he hastens.
On the authority of Thawban (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Who will guarantee me that he will not ask people for anything, and I will guarantee him Paradise?” I said: “I will.” So he never asked anyone for anything. Narrated by Abu Dawud with a sound chain.
On the authority of Abu Bishr Qabisah ibn al-Mukhariq (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: I took on a financial obligation, so I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to ask him concerning it. He said: “Stay until the charity comes to us, and we will order it given to you.” Then he said: “O Qabisah, begging is not lawful except for one of three: a man who has taken on a financial obligation — begging is lawful for him until he obtains it, then he desists; a man whom a calamity has struck that has destroyed his wealth — begging is lawful for him until he obtains a means of subsistence (or he said: a sufficiency of livelihood); and a man whom poverty has struck, until three of the sensible people of his community say: ‘So-and-so has indeed been struck by poverty’ — begging is lawful for him until he obtains a means of subsistence (or he said: a sufficiency of livelihood). Anything other than these, O Qabisah, of begging, is unlawful gain; the one who takes it consumes it as unlawful gain.” Narrated by Muslim. “Al-hamalah” — with a fathah on the haʾ — is that fighting or the like occurs between two factions, and a person reconciles between them by [pledging] wealth that he takes upon himself and binds himself to. “Al-jaʾiḥah” is the calamity that strikes a person’s wealth. “Al-qawam” — with a kasrah or a fathah on the qaf — is that by which a person’s affairs are sustained, of wealth and the like. “Al-sidad” — with a kasrah on the sin — is that which meets the need of the destitute and suffices him. “Al-faqah” is poverty. “Al-hija” is the intellect.
On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him): the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The poor person is not the one who goes around among the people, turned away by a morsel or two, or a date or two; rather, the poor person is the one who does not find sufficiency to suffice him, yet is not noticed so as to be given charity, nor does he stand up to beg from people.” Agreed upon.