Narrated Abdullah ibn Masud: The Prophet ﷺ said: If one who is afflicted with poverty refers it to me, his poverty will not be brought to an end; but if one refers it to Allah, He will soon give him sufficiency, either by a speedy death or by a sufficiency which comes later.

Narrated Ibn al-Firasi: Al-Firasi asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: May I beg, Messenger of Allah? The Prophet ﷺ said: No, but if there is no escape from it, beg from the upright.

Ibn al-Saidi said: Umar employed me to collect the sadaqah. When I finished doing so and gave it to him, he ordered payment to be given to me. I said: I did only for Allah’s sake, and my reward will come from Allah. He said: Take what you are given, for I acted (as a collector) during the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and he assigned me a payment. Thereupon, I said the same kind of thing as you have said, to which Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: When you are given something without asking for it, you should use it for your own purpose and as sadaqah.

Abdullah bin Umar reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said when he was on the pulpit speaking of sadaqah and abstention from it and begging: the upper hand is better than the lower one, the upper being the one which bestows and the lower which begs. Abu Dawud said: The version of this tradition narrated by Ayyub from Nafi is disputed. The narrator Abd al-Warith said in his version: `The upper hand is the one which abstains from begging;” but most of the narrators have narrated from Hammad bin Zaid from Ayyub the words “ The upper hand is the one which bestows. ” A narrator from Hammad said in his version “the one which abstains from begging. ”

Narrated Malik ibn Nadlah: The Prophet ﷺ said: Hands are of three types: Allah's hand is the upper one; the bestower's hand is the one near it; the beggar's hand is the lower one. So bestow what is surplus, and do not submit yourself to the demand of your soul.

Narrated Abu Rafi: The Prophet ﷺ sent a man of the Banu Makhzum to collect sadaqah. He said to Abu Rafi: Accompany me so that you may get some of it. He said: (I cannot take it) until I go to the Prophet ﷺ and ask him. Then he went to him and asked him. He said: The sadaqah is not lawful for us, and the client of a people is treated as one of them.

Anas said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came upon a date on the road; he would not take it for fear of being a part of the sadaqah.

Anas said: Messenger of Allah ﷺ found a date and said: Were it not that I fear it may be part of the sadaqah, I would eat it.

Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas: My father sent me to the Prophet ﷺ to take the camels which he had given him from among those of sadaqah.

The aforesaid tradition has also been transmitted by Ibn Abbas through a different chain of narrators in a similar manner. This version adds: “My father exchanged them for him”.