Three Best Investments for the Believers

Living in this world is nothing but playing around, or just like a short journey to the hereafter – the immortal one. When we die, there is nothing but emptiness and nothingness, except for those who did good deeds during their lifetime. However, those good deeds would stick to the very point that has been done. And that is all. That is the end. We can do nothing more.

Nonetheless, there are three things excluded from those good deeds that get stuck to where it ends. These three things keep sending us goodness and blessing from Him, and produce sustained and continued benefits even after we die. These are the best opportunities to invest for our good in the hereafter. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) once said as narrated by Muslim (1631):

إِذَا مَاتَ الإِنْسَانُ انْقَطَعَ عَنْهُ عَمَلُهُ إِلاَّ مِنْ ثَلاَثَةٍ؛ إِلاَّ مِنْ صَدَقَةٍ جَارِيَةٍ أَوْ عِلْمٍ يُنْتَفَعُ بِهِ أَوْ وَلَدٍ صَالِحٍ يَدْعُو لَهُ

“When a man dies, all his good deeds come to an end but three: ongoing charity (sadaqah jariyah), beneficial knowledge, or a righteous son who will pray for him.” (Muslim, 1631)

From the hadith, we can conclude that the first thing is ongoing charity. The charity being talked about is a charity that has benefits to lots of people on and on until we lose track of who are the people who get benefit from the charity we give. This can also mean the charity that will stay useful for a lifetime. There are lots of definitions and examples of this kind of charity. Some examples are building mosques, giving food and water, giving Quran for people to read, giving books so people will get knowledge, and other kinds of giving that is going to be useful for other people for the sake of Allah.

The second one is beneficial knowledge. This means, when we teach or give examples to people so they can understand or do something, we will also get the reward for the good things those people do. That is because we are the one who persuade or teach them to do that. The grant from this deed is unbelievably abundant and never ends. This is why Prophet Muhammad said, “Convey (my teachings) to the people even if it were a single Aayah (Verse, sentence).” (Shahih al-Bukhari, 3461 and Sunan at-Tirmidzi, 2669)

The last one is the righteous son who will pray for us. Raising, educating, and taking care of our sons (also daughters) to be righteous is not an easy job. Making sure that they will grow in the right environment and noble values is difficult, let alone shaping souls that will always remember on their own to pray for their parents when they are gone. This is certainly not easy, but the rewards will flow easily for us later on.

All in all, these are the three best investments we can do right now so His reward for us never cuts out nor ends after we die. May Allah give us His blessing and chance to make these investments, and also to make things easier for us when we need it the most.

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