Points derived from this hadith:
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The legitimacy—and hence recommendation—of voluntary charity. The Prophet ﷺ instructed it, yet what diverts the instruction from indicating obligation is the report related by al-Tirmidhi (618) and Ibn Mājah (1778) from Ibn ʿAbbās: “When you have paid the zakah on your wealth, you have fulfilled what is due from you.” Al-Iqnāʿ and its commentary add: “By unanimous agreement, no right is due on wealth other than zakah; any other text is to be understood as encouragement, not obligation.”
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A person must meet his obligatory expenses before giving voluntary charity. If what he has only covers his own maintenance, he begins with himself. When he possesses more than his own needs, he spends on his children—male and female—each according to individual need. If something remains, he spends on his servant, and if more is still left, he may choose whomever he wishes to assist, for the obligatory expenditures have been satisfied and only voluntary spending remains.
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This prioritization is not a matter of whim or selfish preference but of genuine benefit; thus, he should channel his charity through the avenue that is better and more advantageous.
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The finest avenues of goodness are to spend on beneficial causes: teaching knowledge, spreading Allah’s call, rescuing Muslims in hardship, supporting a needy relative, or aiding an immediate neighbour. He assesses where the greater benefit lies and gives precedence accordingly, so that his charity will be highly fruitful and placed exactly where Allah and His Messenger ﷺ love it to be.
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The hadith mentions only oneself, one’s child, and one’s servant. The same ruling applies to one’s wife, for her maintenance is obligatory, and likewise to one’s parents—especially when they are elderly and weak. It is probable that the questioner had only a daughter and a servant.
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The hadith also proves that spending on oneself, one’s child, one’s servant, and everyone one is obliged to support counts as charity, and that the giver is rewarded for it provided a righteous intention is present—although such expenditures are often prompted by