Charity is one of the best and most rewarding deeds which a person can benefit from and offer himself. In this hadeeth, The Mother of the Believers, ʿA’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) reports that some of the wives of the Prophetﷺ had asked him: which one of them will die the fastest after him? To which, he ﷺ answered them by [saying] ‘she who has the longest hand.’ They understood this matter according to its literal meaning, so the women grabbed a rod so that they could measure the arms’ length of every one of them and compare [their results], in order to find out which of them had a longer hand than the other, [as] they thought that what he meant ﷺ was truly the length of the hand. [It turned out that] Sawdah bint Zamʿah (may Allah be pleased with her) had the longest hand. Afterwards, it became clear to them after Zaynab bint Jahsh (may Allah be pleased with her) died what the Prophet ﷺ had intended by the expression regarding the longest hand, which [was actually] alluding to who was the most charitable of the wives; and what he meant by the length of her hand was the frequency of her spending [money on others] and offering alms, as ʿA’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said in a narration reported in Saheeh Muslim: “Zaynab had the longest hand amongst us, because she used to work with her hands and spent [the income] on charity.” Zaynab (may Allah be pleased with her) was the first of his ﷺwives to die after him ﷺ, and she (may Allah be pleased with her) passed away during ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭaab’s caliphate (may Allah be pleased with him), while Sawdah lived until she passed away during Muʿaawiyah’s caliphate, in the month of Shawwaal, the fifty-fourth year [after Hijrah]. From the other benefits that we can conclude from this hadeeth is that it highlights the merits and virtues of Zaynab bint Jahsh (may Allah be pleased with her). It serves as an indication that the legal ruling [of a matter] stems from the meanings, and not from the wording. And lastly. It gives a sign thattestifies to the Prophethood of the Prophet ﷺ..