Question: Do we need to determine whether a beggar is genuinely needy before giving him/ her Sadaqah?
Both the Ahadith and the Qur'an teach us to be kind to the poor and needy, and help beggars. "..Do not treat the orphan with harshness, nor drive the beggar away" (93:9-10). However, nowadays people often dismiss beggars without giving them anything, giving the reasoning that the beggars are either drug addicts, part of a mafia gang, just pretending to be needy, or will use the money for buying things they don't really need. This situation is very confusing for me, as it compels me to think that the Qur'an does not tell us to distinguish between beggars which are genuinely needy and beggars which are just pretending and give Sadaqah to only the ones which are genuinely needy. My question is: should we just give sadaqah to every beggar or needy person we come across or first determine that he/she is not part of a mafia gang, not pretending, or not a drug addict and then give him/her something? (Question by Zainab Salman)