English Translation

Waki' told us, from Sufyan, from Umarah ibn al-Qa'qa', from Abu Zur'ah, from Abu Hurayrah, who said: A man said, "O Messenger of Allah, which charity is most excellent?" He said: "That you give charity while you are miserly [with wealth] — or [he said] healthy — hoping for [long] life and fearing poverty, and do not delay until, when [the soul] has reached the throat, you say, 'To so-and-so this much, and to so-and-so that much,' when it has already come to be [theirs by inheritance]."