Miscellaneous Benefits from Yemen
BENEFIT 34: Some of the harms of begging in the name of ’ilm and da’wah
1. Begging is a major sin
The Prophet ﷺ said: “a person continues Begging until he comes on the day of judgement with no flesh on his face.” [Bukhāri & Muslim]
2. The Sharī‘ah has forbidden begging except in exceptional circumstances, so anyone who begs outside this category has violated the evidences and disobeyed Allāh and His Messenger.
3. Begging goes against the covenant which our Messenger ﷺ took from some of the Companions.
’Awf Ibn Mālik Al-Ashajj raḍhiyallāhu ’anhu said: “We, nine, eight or seven men, were in the company of the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) and he said: 'Why don't you pledge allegiance to the Messenger of Allāh?' while we had recently pledged allegiance. So we said: 'Messenger of Allāh, we have already pledged allegiance to you.' He again said: 'Why don't you pledge allegiance to the Messenger of Allāh?' And we said: 'Messenger of Allah, we have already pledged allegiance to you.' He again said: 'Why don't you pledge allegiance to the Messenger of Allāh?' We stretched our hands and said: 'Messenger of Allāh. we have already pledged allegiance to you. Now tell 'on what things should we pledge allegiance to you?' He said 'You must pledge allegiance that you would worship Allāh alone and would not associate with Him anything, (and observe) five prayers, and obey- and he said one thing in an undertone -that you would not beg people of anything.' And as a consequence of that I saw that some of these people did not ask anyone to pick up the whip for them if it fell down.” [Muslim 1043]
4. Begging goes against the guidance of the righteous predecessors with regards to abstinence, asceticism, contentment, piety, patience, and so on from noble qualities.
5. Begging falls under consuming ḥarām; as begging is ḥarām, the money earnt from that is also ḥarām.
6. Begging falls under eating people's wealth unlawfully, because people donate to them believing they are deserving of it when they are not.
7. Begging tarnishes a person's honour.
8. Begging removes a person's credibility (’Adālah)
Imām Ibn Qudāmah raḥimahullāh said: “Whoever begs while it is not permissible for him to beg, and he does so frequently, his testimony is rejected; because he has committed ḥarām, consumed unlawful, and fallen into baseness... As for the beggar who is permitted to beg, his testimony is not rejected unless he spends most of his life begging, or he does that a lot, this is when his testimony should be rejected; as this is baseness and his honour is removed.” [Al-Mughni (10/ 163)]
9. It draws humiliation, indignity and disgrace on the beggar
10. Begging indicates lack of patience and weakness
11. The begger is deprived of abstinence
12. The begger is deprived of asceticism
13. The begger is deprived of contentment
14. The begger gets accustomed to leading a luxurious life
15. He becomes lazy in seeking knowledge and his motivation to give da’wah declines. When there's a worldly gain involved the motivation is there, but when there's no worldly gain, “sorry I'm busy”.
16. Begging takes away barakah; wealth which comes to a person through ḥarām contains no barakah. This is a reality that is witnessed when you look at the da’wah of beggars; even if they have classes, and students, etc., the barakah is minimal, if not completely absent. We ask Allāh for safety.
17. Beggers fall passionately in love with this Dunya and stop striving for the Ākhirah
18. In order to attract donations, beggars will exaggerate and make things appear worse or better than they actually are depending on the cause
19. Gradually the begger turns into a serial liar and is more than ready to forge receipts to cover his tracks.
20. Beggars waste a lot of time on this lowly occupation
21. Begging leads to fitnah arising between the beggars and the donors - especially when donors don't see any results
22. Beggars despise those who advocate abstinence & asceticism; although this is in line with the way of the Salaf.
23. Begging tarnishes a person's da’wah, which is why the Prophets & Messengers went out of their way to distance themselves from begging - “we ask no reward of you for this.”
24. Beggars in the name of ’ilm and da’wah set a bad example for others
25. Begging opens the door for wealthy donors to have a negative influence on the da’wah
26. Beggars take advantage of sincere volunteers to get things done, while they make a living off donations
27. Students of knowledge are brought in to deliver free classes. These classes are then video recorded and uploaded online to attract new donors. The students are labelled as 'Sheikh' to give more credibility to the establishment. Although this miskeen student works his socks off teaching and attracting 'new donors', the moment he steps out of line and goes against the administration, he is expelled and replaced by someone else...and the cycle continues.
28. Beggars go out of their way to make themselves look good infront of the scholars and they do the exact opposite with regards to those who advise them against begging.
29. Beggars exploit ambiguous fatwas and differences of opinion amongst scholars to their advantage and they ignore the clear evidences prohibiting what they're upon of begging.
30. Begging is addictive, hence why after completing one project, you find beggars moving onto bigger projects.
31. Tasweer (picture-making) is a crucial advertisement tool for beggars, that is why it's almost impossible to find a beggar who says tasweer is ḥarām.
32. Beggars know what the public like, so they strive to achieve that, and they know what the public dislike, so they strive to refrain from that - even if it means opposing the way of the Salaf. For example, knowledge based refutations are something that is generally frowned upon by people, so they distance themselves from that, although in their private sittings they backbite those who advise them. Likewise, they know that blockbuster videos attract people, so they strive to produce high quality, action packed clips for public enjoyment. They know that commanding good and forbidding evil drives people away, so they don't practise this as much in their gatherings.
33. Beggars leave themselves exposed to Fitnah; the Prophet ﷺ said: “Indeed every Ummah is trialled with a Fitnah, and the Fitnah of my Ummah is wealth.” [Tirmithi]
Final advice:
Ya Jamā’ah, I advise you with the Prophet's advice to Abu Dharr raḍhiyallāhu ’anhu: “O Abū Dharr, I find that you are weak and I like for you what I like for myself. Do not rule over (even) two persons and do not manage the property of an orphan.” [Muslim]
You are not stronger than Abu Dharr raḍhiyallāhu ’anhu, so leave off collecting the wealth of the people!
[these points were summarised with some additions from: Aṣ-Ṣiyānah Al-’ilmiyyah fī At-Taḥdhīr min At-Tasawwul wal Mutasawwilīn bi ism Ad-Da’wah As-Salafiyyah]
No comments:
Post a Comment