The Messenger of Allah ﷺ, while on the pulpit speaking about charity and refraining from begging, said, "The upper hand is better than the lower hand. The upper hand is the one that gives, and the lower hand is the one that asks."
أن رسول الله ﷺ قال- وهو على المنبر، وهو يذكر الصدقة والتعفف عن المسألة-: اليد العليا خير من اليد السفلى، واليد العليا هي المنفقة، والسفلى هي السائلة.
Malik narrated it in "Charity" (8) from Nafi, from Abdullah bin Umar, and he related it. Bukhari narrated it in "Zakat" (1429), and Muslim in "Zakat" (1033), both through the route of Malik, with the same wording.As for what Bayhaqi narrated (4/197) through the route of Malik, where he said, "The upper hand is the one that abstains from asking, and the lower hand is the one that asks," and then attributed it to the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim), this is not as he said. For "the spending hand" appears in the narration of Abdul-Warith, from Ayub, from Nafi, as Abu Dawud stated following his transmission of the hadith (1648) from Abdullah bin Maslama, from Malik. This is his wording. Abu Dawud said, "There is disagreement over Ayub's narration from Nafi regarding this hadith. Abdul-Warith said, 'The upper hand is the one that abstains from asking.' Most of them, narrating from Hammad bin Zayd, from Ayub, said, 'The upper hand is the spending one.' And one person, narrating from Hammad, said, 'the one that abstains from asking.'" End of quote.I say, Ibrahim bin Tahman likewise narrated it, from Musa bin Uqba, from Nafi, with "the one that abstains from asking," this is how Bayhaqi narrated it. However, Imam Ahmad narrated it (5344) through the route of Abdullah, meaning Ibn Mubarak, from Musa bin Uqba, and in it he said "the spending one." Allah knows best what is correct.As for the meaning of the hadith, Khattabi said, "The narration with 'the one that abstains from asking' is closer and more sound in meaning. This is because Ibn Umar mentioned that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said these words while speaking about charity and abstaining from asking for it, so it is more fitting that the statement be connected to the occasion that gave rise to it, and to whatever matches it in meaning."He also said, "Many people mistakenly imagine that the meaning of 'upper' is that the hand of the giver is placed physically above the hand of the receiver, taking it to refer to something being raised upward. In my view, this is not the correct interpretation. Rather, it comes from the loftiness of honor and generosity, meaning the elevation above asking and abstaining from it. Abu Umar recited to me, saying, Abbas recited to us, saying, Ibn Arabi recited to us on this meaning,'When the door of humiliation lies on the side of wealth, I rise to loftiness on the side of poverty,'meaning by this the dignity gained through refraining from asking and keeping oneself above it." End of quote.As for the statement "the upper hand is the spending one... etc.," its apparent form suggests it has been inserted into the text, as though it were the explanation of one of the narrators. It has also been said that it is the explanation of Ibn Umar himself, the narrator of the hadith. This is the view favored by most scholars, among them Ibn Hajar, see Fath al-Bari (3/297).