By Rahamatu-Lahi Zakaria
Islam encourages the given of arms to less privileged in our society but it does not say we should enable people to beg. In one of the hadith of the Prophet, though I cannot verify the authenticity says that, if a beggar earns more in a day and it can survive him for another day, he should not beg the following day. But the story is different.
Begging is now a daily routine for people. I have heard stories in Tamale where disabled persons have begged and are able to build a house and even owning a commercial vehicle, yet they are still on the streets.
The mosque has now turned into a begging spot for disabled persons and children alike. Anybody with any form of disability turns to the mosque to beg. Children who come from abled homes also come here to begin the guise of keeping worshipers sandals safe on the day of Jummah prayers.
There was this day I went to the police barracks mosque in Tamale to observe my Jummah prayers. While I was leaving upon completion of the prayer, I head a man say ‘’please give him money for Allah’s sake, he cannot walk’’. Immediately I turned, I saw a young boy who would be less than ten years suffering from cerebral paralysis while his ‘supposed guardian’ was holding a money box begging worshippers for money to help the child.
This same day, I saw another woman scolding some kids for putting her sandals elsewhere. Most kids come to Friday’s prayers not to pray, but to beg worshippers’ money in the guise of keeping worshippers sandals safe. Nobody sees this wrong at our mosques. Some parents are unaware while others are aware and even encourage this behavior of begging by kids at the mosque.
Begging is now a business in our mosques and most of these disabled persons who come to the mosque forget the primary reason for coming to the mosque, thus to pray especially on Jummah and eid day. On this day, the rules pertaining to prayers are broken because more people gathering means more money to be collected.
Same police barracks mosque, I witness another visually impaired woman who came with an escort. While some of us were praying the two rakats and others listening to khutbah and others performing other religious activities, this woman and her escort were going around to beg for money. ‘’the question is did you come to beg or to pray?
Another time at the Tamale central mosque, I witness another shameful act from another male disabled person. In Islam, males and females are not supposed to stay in the same line for prayers. Even a married couple does not stand shoulder to shoulder pray. So this particular day.
When the Imam was given the Khutbah, this disabled person came over to the female side to beg money while the khutbah was going on and eventually prayed with the ladies. The woman he stood by was so angry that she could not hold her peace after we had said Asalamu Alaikum. The reminded him of the rule pertaining to women and men standing on the same line to pray. She also added that the fact he could not walk does not mean he could not be aroused by a woman’s touch or he cannot arouse a woman by his touch.
I am not against the helping of these disabled persons seeking help from the abled persons. We should all help the disabled but not a way that enables begging. Begging that keeps girls out of school and reducing the dignity of these people.
Can our mosques also be used as a rehabilitation center and also an entrepreneurial center where we can have volunteers teach these disabled persons to earn a living for themselves instead of begging and also provide start-up capital for these people?
Instead of begging at the mosque, what if the mosque introduces programs that will help these disabled people to be financially independent.
