Sunan Abi Dawud

Ibn ‘Uyainah reported from Zaid, from whom Malik narrated and Thwari narrated from Zaid that an authentic narrator reported from the Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him)

Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) said : Sadaqah is not lawful for a rich person except what comes as a result of Jihad or what a poor neighbor gifts you out of the sadaqah given to him, or he entertains you in a feast. Abu-Dawud said : This has been transmitted by Abu- Said through a different chain of narrators in a similar way.

Basheer b. Yasar said that a man from the Ansar called Sahi b. abu-Hatmah told him that Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) gave one Hundred camels to him a blood-wit from among the camels of sadaqah, i.e a blood-wit for the Ansari who was killed at Khaibar.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Acts of begging are lacerations with which a man disfigures his face, so he who wishes may preserve his self-respect, and he who wishes may abandon it; but this does not apply to one who begs from a ruler, or in a situation which makes it necessary.

I became a guarantor for a payment, and I came to Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him). He said: Wait till I receive the sadaqah and I shall order it to be given to you. He then said : Begging, Qabisah, is allowable only to one of three classes: a man who has become a guarantor for a payment to whom begging is allowed till he gets it, after which he must stop (begging); a man who has been stricken by a calamity and it destroys his property to whom begging is allowed till he gets what will support life (or he said, what will provide a reasonable subsistence); and a man who has been smitten by poverty, about whom three intelligent members of his people confirm by saying: So and so has been smitten by poverty, to such a person begging is allowed till be gets what will support life (or he said, what will provide a reasonable subsistence), after which he must stop (begging). Any other reason for begging, Qabisah, is forbidden, and one who engages in such consumes it as a thing which is forbidden.

A man of the Ansar came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and begged from him. He (the Prophet) asked: Have you nothing in your house? He replied: Yes, a piece of cloth, a part of which we wear and a part of which we spread (on the ground), and a wooden bowl from which we drink water. He said: Bring them to me. He then brought these articles to him and he (the Prophet) took them in his hands and asked: Who will buy these? A man said: I shall buy them for one dirham. He said twice or thrice: Who will offer more than one dirham? A man said: I shall buy them for two dirhams. He gave these to him and took the two dirhams and, giving them to the Ansari, he said: Buy food with one of them and hand it to your family, and buy an axe and bring it to me. He then brought it to him. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) fixed a handle on it with his own hands and said: Go, gather firewood and sell it, and do not let me see you for a fortnight. The man went away and gathered firewood and sold it. When he had earned ten dirhams, he came to him and bought a garment with some of them and food with the others. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) then said: This is better for you than that begging should come as a spot on your face on the Day of Judgment. Begging is right only for three people: one who is in grinding poverty, one who is seriously in debt, or one who is responsible for compensation and finds it difficult to pay.

We were with Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him), seven or eight or nine. He said : Do you take the oath of allegiance to the Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him), and we shortly took the oath of allegiance. We said: we have already taken the oath of allegiance to you. He repeated the same words three times. We then stretched our hands and took the oath of allegiance to him. A man (or us) said : We took the oath of allegiance to you; now on what should we take the oath of allegiance, Messenger of Allah ? He replied: That you should worship Allah, do not associate anything with Him, offer five times prayer, listen and obey. He uttered a word quietly : And do not beg from the people. When the whip fell on the ground, none of that group asked anyone to pick up the whip for him. Abu Dawud said : The version of Hisham was not narrated by anyone except Sa'id.

If anyone guarantees me that he will not beg from people, I will guarantee him Paradise. Thawban said : I (will not beg). He never asked anyone for anything.

Some of the Ansar begged from the Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) and he gave them something. They later begged from him again and he gave them something so that what he had was exhausted. He then said :What I have I shall never store away from you but Allah will strengthen the abstinence of him who abstains, will give a satisfaction to him who wants to be satisfied, and will strengthen the endurance of him who shows endurance. No one has been given a more ample gift than endurance.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If one who is afflicted with poverty refers it to me, his poverty will not be brought to an end; but if one refers it to Allah, He will soon give him sufficiency, either by a speedy death or by a sufficiency which comes later.

Al-Firasi asked the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ): May I beg, Messenger of Allah? The Prophet (ﷺ) said: No, but if there is no escape from it, beg from the upright.

Umar employed me to collect the sadaqah. When I finished doing so and gave it to him, he ordered payment to be given to me. I said: I did only for Allah’s sake, and my reward will come from Allah. He said: Take what you are given, for I acted (as a collector) during the time of the Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) and he assigned me a payment. Thereupon, I said the same kind of thing as you have said, to which Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) said: When you are given something without asking for it, you should use it for your own purpose and as sadaqah.

the upper hand is better than the lower one, the upper being the one which bestows and the lower which begs. Abu Dawud said : The version of this tradition narrated by Ayyub from Nafi is disputed. The narrator `Abd al-Warith said in his version : `The upper hand is the one which abstains from begging;” but most of the narrators have narrated from Hammad b. Zaid from Ayyub the words “ The upper hand is the one which bestows.” A narrator from Hammad said in his version “the one which abstains from begging.”

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Hands are of three types: Allah's hand is the upper one; the bestower's hand is the one near it; the beggar's hand is the lower one. So bestow what is surplus, and do not submit yourself to the demand of your soul.

The Prophet (ﷺ) sent a man of the Banu Makhzum to collect sadaqah. He said to AbuRafi': Accompany me so that you may get some of it. He said: (I cannot take it) until I go to the Prophet (ﷺ) and ask him. Then he went to him and asked him. He said: The sadaqah is not lawful for us, and the client of a people is treated as one of them.

The Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) came upon a date on the road; he would not take it for fear of being a part of the sadaqah.

Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) found a date and said: Were it not that I fear it may be part of the sadaqah, I would eat it.

My father sent me to the Prophet (ﷺ) to take the camels which he had given him from among those of sadaqah.

“My father exchanged them for him”.

Anas said when some meat was brought to the Prophet (SAWS), he asked What is this? He was told this is a thing (meat), which was given as sadaqah to Barirah. Thereupon, he said it is sadaqah for her and a gift to us.