How to treat homeless/beggars?

Yeah.

But how do you know that the people selling the Big Issue aren't just using the money they make to buy alcohol/drugs?

If you want to help them give them food and a warm drink. Some may use money for drugs, that's correct, but most will be hungry and cold and will welcome it. I find it incredibly hard to simply walk past many homeless people as I have been briefly homeless myself. Since I was 10 or 11 I have given homeless people food and drink when I could. There is so much more we should be doing for our homeless and while I recognise many are there for reasons they could have controlled many are not and the attitude many people have that if something is somebody's own fault they don't deserve help is abhorrent to me personally. I'm often very critical of organised religions but in this case I've seen them do a lot of good, to throw that out there.

Does anyone know if Muslims are obligated (in their religion) to give to any sort of beggar or just a fellow Muslim?

+ rep!.


I've given money and bought the big issue before now.I cant just walk past when another person needs my help, its just not me.I can go home to my warm house with its full cupboards and lie in my warm bed, some people arent so fortunate.

Anyone can end up homeless....

So it's best not to give money?

Perhaps a relevent hadith:
[INDENT]A man expressed his intention to give charity, so he came with his charity and placed it in the hand of an adulteress. In the morning the people were talking and saying charity was given to an adulteress last night. The donor said: O Allah, to thee be the Praise - charity to an adulteress! He then again expressed his intention to give charity, so he went out with it and placed it in the hand of a rich person. In the morning the people were talking and saying charity was given to a rich person. The donor said, O Allah to You be the praise - charity to a rich man! He then expressed his intention to give charity, so he went out with his charity and placed it in the hand of a thief. In the morning the people were talking and saying charity to the thief. So the man said, O Allah to You be the praise (what a misfortune that charity has been given) to the adulteress, the rich and the thief! Then someone came to him and told him your charity has been accepted. As for the adulteress the charity might become the means whereby she might restrain from fornication. The rich man might perhaps learn a lesson and spend from what Allah has given him, and the thief might thereby restrain from committing theft. (Muslim/ Bukhari)[/INDENT]

What need is there for guilt, it is a useless emotion that only restrains me from experiencing the greatest happiness.

That's a good point. I'm OK with them drinking or doing drugs, life is hard, if that's their vice so be it. But at least they're trying to help themselves by selling the Big Issue. That's my opinion anyway.

If you were presented with two homeless people, both of which were going to use the money earnt to buy cider, one is begging for money to buy food and the other is selling the Big Issue, which one would you rather give money to?

Again like I said, it's just my opinion on it all.

Hmmm, why then would those Romanian beggars adopt Muslim dress just for the purposes of begging?

Not necessarily. Personally I prefer to give food and drink if I have it but you should give what you feel comfortable giving really. I can't make any personal assurance they won't use it for drugs and you have to decide yourself if the possibility means you wish to give in some other way because that is a personal choice, but a great many homeless are not drug addicts or alcoholics (or weren't before they became homeless) so that characterization is incredibly lazy on the part of anyone who makes it and is used simply to justify selfishness.

It's only empathy if you're homeless/have been homeless yourself. Otherwise it's sympathy.

You know the only thing worse than correcting people on the Internet? Correcting someone and being wrong.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/empathy