Beggars are familiar faces in Bharat and Pakistan. Their main resorts are big cities and towns where they can make a modest business out of begging. Some of them are tramps and move about from place to place. As a class beggars are parasites and live on the labour of others. Most of them are forced to beg or spread their hands before others out of necessity. Others do not simply want to work and lake to beggings.
On the whole life of beggars is miserable. In Pakistan, there are large number of beggars. Often they are the victim is of social and economic injustice. While others are rolling in wealth and enjoy the comforts and luxuries of life, some of their countrymen have to live on alms and charity. It is indeed shameful! In the good old days of the holy Prophet (SAW) and his Chaliphs, it was difficult to find deserving people to receive the Zakat. Islam stands for social and economic justice. In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the poor are obliged to beg. What a pity!
Begging is a common trend among the children men and women. The majority is men. The life of a beggar is very hard. He has no room, no hut, no house to sleep and rest. He sleeps on the lap of the earth with sky as its roof. The rigours of weathers come and go but he has no relief, no bed to sleep, and no cloths to cover. He wears rags and torn clothes. He is shabby and dirty in appearance. His hair and beard are grizzly because he has no place and water to bathe. He lives on the crumbs or left-over of others – the rich who have enough to throw away. One day’s sufferings of a poor beggar are greater than the life-lime suffering of a rich-man. The rich seldom care to help their countrymen – The beggars, what a cruel lot! [the_ad id=”17141″]
We find teams of beggars near the mosques or the round the shrines of the great Sufees like Data and Lal Shah Baz Kalandar. They are clad in motley clothes. The typical Pakistani beggar has long hair, shaggy beard. He wears a necklace of beads round the neck and number of rings studded with stones on his fingers and has a dirty blanket across the shoulder. He sits by the side of the road and appeals to the religious sentiments of the passers-by. They often repeated slogans are: Khuda Ke Nam Per Dey Doo, Rasool Kay Nam Per Dey Doo. Khuda Tumhara Bhala Krega, Jo Day Uska Bhee Bhala, Jo Na Day Uska Bhee Bhala.
He has no relatives and no social life. He only friends are the fellow beggars or a dog. If he falls ill, he has no money to give to the doctor for medicines. He blindly relies on Allah who is the sustainer and supporter of all.
A Laggard’s (beggar’s) life can be summed up in three words – begging, eating and sleeping. He is like a forsaken child of God Wandering aimlessly on the earth.
