9 – From Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet ﷺ said:

“If the Hour is about to be established while one of you is holding a palm shoot, then if he can postpone the Hour until he has planted it, let him plant it.”

(On the authority of Anas)

It was narrated by Imam Ahmad (3/183, 184, 191); likewise by al-Tayālisi (no. 2068), al-Bukhārī in al-Adab al-Mufrad (no. 479), and Ibn al-Aʿrabi in his Muʿjam (fol. 21/1) through Hishām ibn Zayd from him.

This chain is sound according to Muslim’s criterion, and it is corroborated by Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd from Anas; Ibn ʿAdī recorded it in al-Kāmil (316/1).

Al-Haythamī cited it in Majmaʿ (63/4) in abridged form, saying, “It was narrated by al-Bazzār, and its transmitters are proven, reliable men.” He overlooked that it appears in the Musnad of Ahmad in the fuller wording we have quoted above.

Al-fasīlah (the young date-palm) is the same as the wadiyyah.

No texts urge productive investment more eloquently than these noble hadiths—especially the last one, which contains a powerful encouragement to seize even the very final moment of life to plant something from which people will benefit after one’s death, so that its reward continues to flow and one’s charity is recorded until the Day of Resurrection.

Imam al-Bukhārī entitled the chapter containing this ḥadīth “Chapter: Putting Wealth to Use.” He then narrated from al-Ḥārith ibn Laqiṭ, who said: One of us would have a mare that had just foaled, yet he would slaughter it, saying, “Will I live long enough to ride this animal?” Then a letter came to us from ʿUmar: “Maintain and improve what Allah has provided for you, for there is still breathing-space in life.”