Sa‘d b. Abu Waqqas said:During an illness which brought me near to death in the year of the Conquest God’s Messenger came to visit me and I said,“Messenger of God, I have a large amount of property and my daughter is my only heir. Shall I will away all my property ?”He replied, ‘No”I suggested two-thirds, but he objected, then a half, but he still objected. When I suggested a third he replied,“You may will away a third, but that is a lot*. To leave your heirs rich is better than to leave them poor and begging from people. You will not spend anything, seeking thereby to please God, without being rewarded for it, even the mouthful you give your wife.”*While this tradition tells that the Prophet gave permission for a man to will away a third of his estate to some person or purpose other than the heirs, it indicates that be thought it would be better not to will away so much. (Bukhari and Muslim.)

Sa’d b. Abu Waqqas said:God’s Messenger visited me when I was ill and asked whether I had made my will. I replied that I had. He asked how much I had willed and when I told him I had willed all my property away to be devoted to God’s path he asked how much I had left my children. I replied that they were rich and prosperous, whereupon he told me to will away a tenth ; but I kept on telling him it was too little till he finally said,“Will away a third, but a third is a lot.”Tirmidhi transmitted it.

Abu Umama told of hearing God’s Messenger say in his sermon in the year of the Farewell Pilgrimage,“God has appointed for everyone who has a right what is due to him, and no legacy must be made to an heir.”Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah transmitted it. Tirmidhi added:“The child is attributed to the mother’s husband, but the adulterer gets nothing, and their reckoning is in God’s hands.”

It is related in munqati’ form on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas that the Prophet said,“No legacy is to be left to an heir unless the other heirs are agreeable.”This is the wording in al-Masabih, but in Daraqutni’s version he said,“A legacy to an heir is not allowable unless the other heirs are agreeable.”

Abu Huraira reported God’s Messenger as saying:“ A man and a woman act in obedience to God for sixty years then when they are about to die they cause injury by their will, so they must go to hell.”Then Abu Huraira recited,“After a legacy which you bequeathe or a debt, causing no injury ... that will be the mighty success”(Al-Qur’an 4:12). Ahmad, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah transmitted it.

Jabir reported God’s Messenger as saying,“He who dies leaving a will has died following a path and a sunna, he has died piously and testifying to the true faith, and he has died with his sins forgiven.”Ibn Majah transmitted it.

‘Amr b. Shu'aib, on his father’s authority, said his grandfather told that al-‘As b. Wa’il left in his will that a hundred slaves should be emancipated on his behalf. His son Hisham emancipated fifty slaves and his son ‘Amr intended to emancipate the remaining fifty on his behalf, but decided first to ask God’s Messenger. He therefore went to the Prophet and said,“Messenger of God, my father left in his will that a hundred slaves should be emancipated on his behalf and Hisham has emancipated fifty on his behalf and fifty remain. Shall I emancipate them on his behalf?”God's Messenger replied,“Had he been a Muslim and you had emancipated slaves on his behalf, or given sadaqa on his behalf, or performed the pilgrimage on his behalf, that would have reached him.”Abu Dawud transmitted it.

Anas reported God’s Messenger as saying,“If anyone deprives an heir of his inheritance, God will deprive him of his inheritance in paradise on the day of resurrection.”Ibn Majah transmitted it.

Baihaqi transmitted it in Shu'ab al-lman on the authority of Abu Huraira.