831 – Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “I asked, ‘Messenger of Allah, I possess wealth and none will inherit from me except a single daughter. May I give away two-thirds of my wealth in charity?’ He replied, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Then half of it?’ He said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Then a third of it?’ He answered, ‘A third—and a third is a lot. Indeed, for you to leave your heirs well-off is better than to leave them poor, begging from people.’ ” Agreed upon. (1)

Glossary of the ḥadith
– al-shaṭr: written with an open shīn, a quiescent ṭāʾ, and ending with a rāʾ. The word has several meanings; here it means “one half.”
– al-thuluth wa-l-thuluth: In its first occurrence the word may be read in the nominative as the subject—“The third suffices you”—or as the subject of an implicit verb—“(It is) a third that suffices you.” It may also be read in the accusative as an exhortation, i.e., “Give a third.” In its second occurrence it is the subject, and its predicate is kathīr (“much”).
– kathīr (“much”): The majority of narrations spell it with a thāʾ; this is the preserved wording. Al-Bukhārī transmits a version that reads kathīr or kabīr (“great”), noting that the uncertainty is from the narrator.
– innaka: inna is a particle that governs the nominative, and the kāf serves as its subject.
– an tadhara: with an open hamzah. The particle an and the verb that follows form a verbal noun in the nominative, functioning as the subject—“your leaving your heirs wealthy.” Its predicate is khayr (“is better”). The whole clause is the predicate of inna. The phrase is also transmitted with a kasrah on the hamzah, making it a conditional particle whose apodosis is omitted, the sense being: “If you leave your heirs wealthy, that is better.”
Al-Nawawī said: Both readings are authentic, and this parsing was supported by the grammarian Imām Ibn—