God’s Messenger visited me when I was ill and asked whether I had made my will. I replied that I had. He asked how much I had willed and when I told him I had willed all my property away to be devoted to God’s path he asked how much I had left my children. I replied that they were rich and prosperous, whereupon he told me to will away a tenth ; but I kept on telling him it was too little till he finally said, “Will away a third, but a third is a lot.”
During an illness which brought me near to death in the year of the Conquest God’s Messenger came to visit me and I said, “Messenger of God, I have a large amount of property and my daughter is my only heir. Shall I will away all my property ?” He replied, ‘No” I suggested two-thirds, but he objected, then a half, but he still objected. When I suggested a third he replied, “You may will away a third, but that is a lot*. To leave your heirs rich is better than to leave them poor and begging from people. You will not spend anything, seeking thereby to please God, without being rewarded for it, even the mouthful you give your wife.”
*While this tradition tells that the Prophet gave permission for a man to will away a third of his estate to some person or purpose other than the heirs, it indicates that be thought it would be better not to will away so much.
Narrated Abu Umama told of hearing God’s Messenger say in his sermon in the year of the Farewell Pilgrimage, “God has appointed for everyone who has a right what is due to him, and no legacy must be made to an heir.”
Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah transmitted it.
Tirmidhi added:
“The child is attributed to the mother’s husband, but the adulterer gets nothing, and their reckoning is in God’s hands.”
Wills.
Ibn ‘Umar reported God’s Messenger as saying, “It is the duty of a Muslim man who has something which is to be given as a bequest not to have it for two nights without having his will written regarding it.”
