A'ishah, radiAllahu anha, was reported to have said...
Some of the wives of the Prophet (salAllahu 'alayhi wasallam) asked him, "Who amongst you will be the first to follow you (die after you)?" He said, "Whoever has the longest hand." So they started measuring their hands with a stick and Sawdah's hand turned out to be the longest. When Zainab bint Jahsh died first, we came to know that the long hand was a symbol of practicing charity, so she was the first to follow the Prophet (salAllahu 'alayhi wasallam) as she used to love to practice charity.
Al Bukhari (1221) and Muslim (4490)
Some of the wives of the Prophet (salAllahu 'alayhi wasallam) asked him, "Who amongst you will be the first to follow you (die after you)?" He said, "Whoever has the longest hand." So they started measuring their hands with a stick and Sawdah's hand turned out to be the longest. When Zainab bint Jahsh died first, we came to know that the long hand was a symbol of practicing charity, so she was the first to follow the Prophet (salAllahu 'alayhi wasallam) as she used to love to practice charity.
Al Bukhari (1221) and Muslim (4490)
This story does not only show how good charity is, but it's yet another example of the sweetness and wisdom of the speech of our Prophet, salAllahu 'alayhi wasallam. If he were to straight out tell them 'the one who gives the most charity will follow me first', they could have stretched their charity just for that sake, forgetting where their real intentions should be. But the real meaning of these words became apparent to them after-the-fact.
Never belittle any charity, and that's not just monetary, charity goes way beyond that.
