The Prophet ﷺ said, "The truly poor person is not the one turned away with a date or two, or a morsel or two."The companions asked, "Then who is the truly poor, Messenger of Allah?"He replied, "It is the one who lacks sufficient means yet whose need is unknown to people, so no one gives him charity."Zuhri commented, "That is the one referred to as al-mahrum, the deprived."
حدثنا عبد الأعلى عن معمر عن الزهري عن أبي سلمة
أن النبي ﷺ قال ليس المسكين الذي ترده التمرة والتمرتان والأكلة والأكلتان قالوا فمن المسكين يا رسول الله قال الذي لا يجد غنى ولا يعلم الناس بحاجته فيتصدق عليه قال الزهري وذلك هو المحروم
Its isnad is sahih. Nasai reported it, 1:359, from Nasr bin Ali, from Abdul-Ala, with this same isnad. But he did not mention in it the word Zuhri, and that is the deprived one. Abu Dawud reported it, 1632, through the route of Abdul-Wahid bin Ziyad, from Mamar, similarly. In it, "and that is the deprived one" appears connected to the hadith, inserted into it.Then Abu Dawud said, "This hadith was reported by Muhammad bin Thawr and Abdul-Razzaq, from Mamar, and they made 'the deprived one' part of Zuhri's own words, and that is more sahih." And it is as he said, for this narration in the Musnad also supports it.The hadith was reported by Malik, 923, and Bukhari, 3:269–270, 271 and 8:152, and Muslim, 1:283, with similar wording, at length and in brief, through other routes. Hafiz bin Kathir referred, in his tafsir, 8:66, to Zuhri's explanation of "the deprived one," and to this hadith as reported by the two Shaykhs, and it will come again with similar wording following this one. And a similar meaning has already passed in the hadith of Ibn Masud, with a daif isnad, 3636, 4260.