Islam, without any doubt provides unique way of living life, emphasizing on its every aspect be it social, religious, economic, cultural or behavioral .Apart from preaching religious harmony, brotherhood it respects humanity without categorizing it on the basis of caste, creed, color and life standards and wants economic parity in the society .This religion wants masses to elevate their life standard from lower to higher, that the poor-rich categorization would be stamped out. For those people who fail to transform with regard to economic conditions, Islam introduced the concept of “Zakat” and “Sadaqah” and made former obligatory for those who meet necessary criteria of wealth to give a specific amount of their wealth to those who are eligible to receive Zakat, which involve downtrodden and economically weak sections of society so that their needs are fulfilled and additionally they can somehow live life of comfort. However this is tragedy with majority of Muslims, they perform salah, go for hajj, observe fasting, but tend to forget paying Zakat that deals with ties between fellow Muslims despite it is one of the important pillars of Islam which is sometimes referred to as al-sadaqa al-wajiba (obligatory alms).If Muslims around the world would not overlook this third pillar of Islam and start taking it seriously, there is not an iota of doubt that poverty can be eradicated from the Muslim world.
During month of Ramadan, Muslims go through divine changes with increased enthusiasm for praying, sympathy, compassion and doing good deeds. In this blessed month people exhibit extraordinary passion of helping others and engage themselves in philanthropy. Even those who hold the money by tooth can be seen donating this month. With this change, the poor, destitute, drown trodden, orphans and people from marginalized sections expect a lot. For them, this month holds great significance as they manage to get help to large extent to fulfill their needs thus this month, markets, public places and streets leading to mosques are seen jam packed with these people, who beg out of dire need.
But unfortunately the generosity shown by people drives more and more people to beg. Taking advantage of this generosity, some people disguise to be helpless. Young and healthy, who can meet two ends at ease prefer begging over working as they consider it easiest way to make money. Women also join this profession and through their pretentious behavior take benefit of gullibility of public. Some families with good source of economy have put all its members into the job. Without caring about education of their wards, they field them to beg. Once I saw policemen abusing child with injured hand that irritated me, I went there to confirm about the matter. Policeman replied, days ago we took him to hospital for treatment but his parents don’t let his wound to heal, to pose him maimed before masses to collect donation .Same case I witnessed in train where two females were pretending to be sufferers. Since my school days, I used to see an elderly women begging in buses claiming her husband, admitted in hospital was suffering from deadly disease. Years are on; her husband has not recovered yet which urged one of passenger to ask her, Can I visit your husband? This made her to vacate the place. Not only that, some are utilizing technology to embezzle benevolent people .Years ago, woman who used to show a picture of a child claiming her own son to be cancer patient made people fool through social media. She was been doing all this for a long time and many people were donating unaware that they are helping a thief.
It is compulsory to pay Zakat with regularity according to rules set by Shariah and best way to utilize it is to create local “Bait ul Maals” in respective areas, through which we can consume collected amount (Zakat as well as other forms of Alms (sadaqah etc.) in proper way by distributing it among needy families as we know better, the condition of families in our locality
This new profession is flourishing in our streets with every passing day. Some people indulge into begging in very dignified way .They have found different ways to beg which don’t affect their honor .We can see people collecting alms with receipts of orphanages, madrasas etc. which in reality don’t exist. Some people claiming to be village heads wander in remote areas in the name of patients in their village who exist only by name but these so called “respectable beggars” plunder people with dignity by posturing as volunteers and social activists. Begging has become social menace that is prevalent in entire world and adding to this menace, professional beggars emigrate from major cities of India to Kashmir with the advent of Ramadan which then outnumbers native beggars. Wherever you will go, you will encounter them .No place, no street, no bus etc could be seen without them engaged in faking public.
However, most of donors hold the opinion that it doesn’t matter whom we help, what matters are our intentions to help for the sake of Allah to seek his closeness. They need to reconsider their opinion because seeking mercy of Allah is not the only objective of donating but it aims at improving economic conditions of needy. Donating blindly, helping dacoits, thieves and pretentious people masquerading as hapless is not good deed rather it is equivalent to crime as we help them to flourish and deter them from working.
Now question is what to do? Firstly it is compulsory to pay Zakat with regularity according to rules set by Shariah and best way to utilize it is to create local “Bait ul Maals” in respective areas, through which we can consume collected amount (Zakat as well as other forms of Alms (sadaqah etc.) in proper way by distributing it among needy families as we know better, the condition of families in our locality.Besides satisfying their need it would also prevent these families to beg. This is best way of curbing this menace. Additionally, whenever any person approaches you, don’t give away your money unless you are sure they go to the right person. Before donating for orphanages and other institutes, confirm their validity and credibility, if they really exist, what role are they playing? .Moreover, there are some credible institutes operational in valley which no doubt are playing pivot role in welfare of people on different fronts, it is better to donate to these charity houses. Thus before donating, we need to think so that our donation would find better utility it is meant for, else donation loses its actual purpose.
——(The author a student at the postgraduate department of Zoology at Kashmir University writes exclusively for “Kashmir Horizon”)
