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- The third is a man who had been wealthy but has become needy without any obvious cause and without any identifiable calamity. He is allowed to ask, yet nothing is to be given to him until three rational men from among his own people testify that poverty has indeed struck him; only then may he be given an amount proportionate to the loss he has suffered.
These, then, are the three cases in which asking is permissible. Concerning every other instance, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to Qabīṣah: “Anything beyond these forms of begging, O Qabīṣah, is suht (illicit gain); whoever engages in it is consuming sheer unlawful wealth.”
The term suht refers to that which is forbidden; it is so called because it strips the blessing from one’s property and may even wipe the property out completely through afflictions and penalties that devour it at its root. Allah alone grants success.
والثالث: رجلٌ كان غنياً فافتقر بدون سبب ظاهر، وبدون جائحة معلومة، فهذا له أن يسأل، لكن لا يعطى حتى يشهد ثلاثة من أهل العقول من قومه بأنه أصابته فاقة، فيعطى بقدر ما أصابه من الفقر.
فهؤلاء الثلاثة هم الذين تحل لهم المسألة وما سوى ذلك يقول الرسول ﷺ: ((فما سواهن من المسألة يا قبيصة، سحت يأكلها صاحبها سحتاً)) .
والسحت هو الحرام وسمي سحتاً؛ لأنه يسحت بركة المال، وربما يسحت المال كله، فيكون عليه آفات وغرامات تسحت ماله من أصله والله الموفق.