As for permissible asking, examples include what Allah Most High relates about Moses and al-Khidr: they came to the people of a village and asked its inhabitants for food. Another example is the Prophet’s saying:

“Asking is not lawful except for someone burdened with a blood-money payment, an overwhelming debt, or grinding poverty.”

Likewise, he said to Qabīsa ibn Mukhāriq al-Hilālī:

“O Qabīsa, asking is lawful only for three kinds of people: a man whose wealth has been swept away by a calamity, who may ask until he obtains enough to meet his needs, or enough to sustain him, and must then refrain;

a man afflicted by poverty, whose condition is attested by three men of sound judgment from his people, who stand and say, ‘So-and-so has indeed been afflicted by poverty.’ He may ask until he obtains enough to meet his needs, or enough to sustain him, and must then refrain;

and a man who has undertaken a financial liability on behalf of others, who may ask until he obtains enough to discharge that liability, and must then refrain. Anything obtained by asking beyond these circumstances is unlawful gain, which its recipient consumes unlawfully.”

None of the Companions—whether the people of the Suffa or anyone else—made asking people, or importunate begging and soliciting alms, whether with a basket or otherwise, into a trade and occupation from which alone they sought their livelihood. Nor were there among the Companions people with surplus wealth who neglected to pay zakah, spend their wealth in Allah’s cause, or contribute in times of calamity. Rather, both these unjust groups, persisting in manifest wrongdoing—those who withhold zakah and other obligatory dues, and those who transgress the limits set by Allah Most High in taking people’s wealth—were absent from the Companions who have been praised.