We have been asked to share with you the following extract
from one of the Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá on the subject of begging: "By the
Sacred Verse: ‘Begging is forbidden, and it is also prohibited to dispense alms
to a beggar' is meant that mendicancy is forbidden and that giving charity to
people who take up begging as their profession is also prohibited. The object
is to wipe out mendicancy altogether. However, if a person is disabled,
stricken by dire poverty or becomes helpless, then it is incumbent upon the
rich or the trustees to provide him with a monthly allowance for his
subsistence. When the House of Justice comes into being it will set up homes
for the incapacitated. Thus no one will be obliged to beg, even as the
supplementary part of the Blessed Verse denotes: 'It is enjoined upon everyone
to earn his livelihood'; then He says: 'As to those who are disabled, it
devolveth upon the trustees and the rich to make adequate provision for them.'
By 'trustees' is meant the representatives of the people, that is to say the
members of the House of Justice.”
The Universal House of Justice does not wish to go beyond
the elucidation given by the Master in the above passage and wishes, for the
time being, to leave any matter not entirely covered by this text to the
conscience of individual believers.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter written on behalf of the
Universal House of Justice to an individual believer, August 13, 1974; compilation:
‘Lights of Guidance’)