The best of them is a gift made in good health, for the Prophet ﷺ said: “The best charity is that which you give while you are healthy and reluctant to part with wealth, hoping to live on and fearing poverty. Do not delay until the soul reaches the throat, and then say: ‘Such-and-such is for so-and-so, and such-and-such is for so-and-so,’ when it already belongs to so-and-so.” (1)

Next comes a gift made during a terminal illness, followed by the bequest. Thus, the bequest is of a lower rank.

If someone asks: Why do you regard a gift made during a terminal illness as better than a bequest?

The answer is that the giver hopes to recover from this illness, whereas a bequest takes effect only after death.

As for a non-terminal illness, it is treated as good health, because the person does not expect to die.

His statement, “Earlier and later bequests are treated equally, while gifts are executed in the order in which they were made”: this is the first difference between them. That is, if bequests and gifts compete with one another and the one-third portion is insufficient to cover them, then gifts are executed in the order in which they were made, whereas in the case of bequests, all recipients share equally. But if they do not compete and the one-third portion is sufficient, then all are given their due, whether it is a bequest or a gift.

An example is a man who gives one person one thousand riyals, another two thousand riyals, and a third three thousand riyals, making a total of six