This chapter turns to nafaqah, the spending a person provides for those in their care, and overturns a common assumption: the most rewarded charity is not the coin dropped in a stranger's hand but the money spent on your own family. Provision for a wife, children, and dependents is here counted as worship, a sadaqah that earns the greatest return when offered for the sake of Allah.
Read together, these hadith reframe ordinary household expense as a path to Allah's pleasure, even the morsel a man lifts to his wife's mouth. They also warn the other way: to neglect those you are bound to provide for is sin enough on its own, and each dawn an angel prays for the generous and against the withholding.
Hadith 289
Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported:
وعن أبي هريرة رضي الله عنه قال: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم : " دينار أنفقته في سبيل الله، ودينار أنفقته في رقبة، ودينار تصدقت به على مسكين، ودينار أنفقته على أهلك، أعظمها أجرًا الذي أنفقته على أهلك" ((رواه مسلم)).
Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "A dinar you spend in Allah's way, or to free a slave, or as a charity you give to a needy person, or to support your family, the one yielding the greatest reward is that which you spend on your family". [Muslim].
In plain words
Of all the ways to spend money for good, what you spend on your own family carries the greatest reward.
Reference : Riyad as-Salihin 289 In-book reference : Introduction, Hadith 289
Hadith 290
Thauban bin Bujdud (May Allah be pleased with him) reported:
وعن أبي عبد الله - ويقال له: أبو عبد الرحمن - ثوبان بن بجدد مولى رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم : " أفضل دينار ينفقه الرجل دينار ينفقه على عياله، ودينار ينفقه على دابته في سبيل الله، ودينار ينفقه على أصحابه في سبيل الله" ((رواه مسلم)).
Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "The most excellent dinar is one that a person spends on his family, and the dinar which he spends on his riding-animal in the way of Allah (in Jihad), and the dinar he spends on his companions in the way of Allah". [Muslim].
In plain words
Money spent on one's family, on one's mount in Allah's cause, and on companions striving in His way are among the most excellent of expenditures.
Reference : Riyad as-Salihin 290 In-book reference : Introduction, Hadith 290
Hadith 291
Umm Salamah (May Allah be pleased with her) reported:
وعن أم سلمة رضي الله عنها قالت: قلت يارسول الله، هل لي أجر في بني أبي سلمة أن أنفق عليهم، ولست بتاركتهم هكذا وهكذا إنما هم بني؟ فقال: " نعم لك أجر ما أنفقت عليهم" ((متفق عليه)).
I asked Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), "Would I be rewarded for what I spend on Abu Salamah's sons? For I can't let them go here and there (to beg people)." Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) replied, "Spend on them and you will be rewarded for what you spend on them". [Al-Bukhari and Muslim].
In plain words
Spending on the children in your care is rewarded by Allah, even when they are not your own birth children.
Reference : Riyad as-Salihin 291 In-book reference : Introduction, Hadith 291
Hadith 292
وعن سعد بن أبي وقاص رضي الله عنه في حديثه الطويل الذي قدمناه في أول الكتاب في باب النية أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال له: " وإنك لن تنفق تبغي بها وجه الله إلا أجرت بها حتى ما تجعل في في امرأتك" ((متفق عليه)).
Sa'd bin Abu Waqqas (May Allah be pleased with him) reported in a Hadith included in the chapter of Intention, that Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "Whatever you spend seeking thereby the Pleasure of Allah, will have its reward, even the morsel which you put in the mouth of your wife". [Al-Bukhari and Muslim].
In plain words
Anything spent seeking Allah's pleasure is rewarded, down to the small mouthful of food a man lovingly gives his wife.
Reference : Riyad as-Salihin 292 In-book reference : Introduction, Hadith 292
Hadith 293
Abu Mas'ud Al-Badri (May Allah be pleased with him) reported:
وعن أبي مسعود البدري رضي الله عنه، عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: " إذا أنفق الرجل على أهله نفقة يحتسبها فهي له صدقة" ((متفق عليه)).
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "When someone spends on his family seeking his reward for it from Allah, it is counted as a charity from him". [Al-Bukhari and Muslim].
In plain words
When a person provides for his family hoping for Allah's reward, that ordinary spending is counted as charity.
Reference : Riyad as-Salihin 293 In-book reference : Introduction, Hadith 293
Hadith 294
'Abdullah bin 'Amr bin Al-'as (May Allah be pleased with them) reported:
وعن عبد الله بن عمرو بن العاص رضي الله عنهما قال: رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم : " كفى بالمرء إثمًا أن يضيع من يقوت" حديث صحيح ((رواه أبو داود وغيره)). ورواه مسلم في صحيحه بمعناه قال: " كفى بالمرء إثمًا أن يحبس عمن يملك قوته".
Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "Neglecting one's own dependents is a reason enough for a man to commit a sin". [Abu Dawud] The narration in Muslim is: Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "It is enough sin for a person to hold back the due of one whose provision is in his hand".
In plain words
Neglecting those one is bound to support is itself enough to make a person sinful, so providing for dependents is a serious duty.
Reference : Riyad as-Salihin 294 In-book reference : Introduction, Hadith 294
Hadith 295
Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported:
وعن أبي هريرة رضي الله عنه أن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: " ما من يوم يصبح العباد فيه إلا ملكان ينزلان، فيقول أحدهما: اللهم أعط منفقًا خلفًا، ويقول الآخر: اللهم أعط ممسكًا تلفًا" ((متفق عليه)).
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Two angels descend every morning, and one says: 'O Allah, give him who spends something, in place of what he spends.' The other one says: 'O Allah, give destruction to him who withholds". [Al-Bukhari and Muslim].
In plain words
Each morning angels pray for the one who spends in good and against the one who selfishly holds back.
Reference : Riyad as-Salihin 295 In-book reference : Introduction, Hadith 295
Hadith 296
Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported:
وعنه عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: " اليد العليا خير من اليد السفلى وابدأ بمن تعول، وخير الصدقة ما كان عن ظهر غنًى، ومن يستعفف، يعفه الله، ومن يستغن، يغنه الله" ((رواه البخاري)).
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "The upper hand is better than the lower one (i.e., the spending hand is better than the receiving hand); and begin (charity) with those who are under your care; and the best charity is that which given out of surplus; and he who asks (Allah) to help him abstain from the unlawful and the forbidden, Allah will fulfill his wish; and he who seeks self-sufficiency will be made self-sufficient by Allah". [Al-Bukhari].
In plain words
Giving is better than receiving, charity begins with those in your care, the best charity comes from what you can spare, and Allah grants self-restraint and self-sufficiency to whoever sincerely seeks them.
Reference : Riyad as-Salihin 296 In-book reference : Introduction, Hadith 296