MUSLIM BEGGARS- BY BRIGHT HABEEB

I sat on a commercial danfo bus this morning, and while waiting for it to fill up so the driver can drive off, I began to stare at the great infrastructural craft of the Berger/Lagos-Ibadan express road. As I silently appreciate what I see, my gaze also fell on a man who wore a pale-yellow dirty caftan with an oversized tattered cap. He was sitting alone with a plastic bowl and holding a firm grip on his bamboo stick in a corner secluded solid wastes. 

First, I wonder how comfortable he was there with the offensive odor of the place but a few moments later I stopped caring about that. Someone who notice I was lost in the vision said "that beggar holding an Islamic rosary, (tesbih) is not a Muslim oh"

My focus on him became interrupted, now I was looking at him but not seeing him, I was lost in thoughts because he wore a poor Islamic image without even being a Muslim. 

I don't know why beggars almost everywhere portray themselves as Muslims even though not all of them are. Did Islam discuss anything on this matter at all? Or should I say this religion has ENCOURAGED its indigent ones to stoop this low? 

We are people who are encouraged to give, never should we promote the act of begging. Both ain't supplementary. Islam frowns at taking begging as a means of livelihood. Abu Huraira reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace, and blessings be upon him said, "if one of you were to carry a bundle of firewood on his back and sell it, that would be better for him than begging a man who may or may not give him anything.” 

I will rather give to help and support a person in need than to encourage the commercial beggars by giving them as well. 

It's Friday, 

Salam A'leikum! 

BRIGHT.

-Nigeria