What will YOU take with you when you die?

A wise pious rich man, sensing his approaching death, called his son & gave him these instructions: “My son, I shall be leaving you very shortly. On the day when I die, & they have washed my body & wrapped it in the shroud, I want you to put 1 of my socks on my foot. This is my final request of you.”

Soon after this, the old man died, leaving behind his goods, property, his children & dependents. The body had been washed almost wrapped in the shroud, when the son remembered his father’s wish. Finding 1 of his old socks, he handed it to the washer of the dead, saying,
“In accordance with my father’s last request, please put this sock on his foot.”
“That is impossible,” said the man. “Such a thing is impermissible in Islam. I cannot act against the Sacred Law.”
But the son insisted, “That was my father’s final request; it must certainly be carried out.”
The man refused . “If you won’t take my word for it,go ask the Mufti. He will confirm that it is not permissible.”

Holding up the funeral, they consulted the Mufti & scholars, all of whom declared that this was not permissible in Islam. Just then, an aged friend of the deceased interrupted saying to the son:
“My boy, your late father entrusted me with a letter to give you after his death.”
And he gave the boy an envelope.

Surprised, the boy opened the envelope and read his father’s letter: “My son, all this wealth & property I have left to you. Now you see: at the last moment, they won’t even let you give me an old sock to wear. When you die, you too will also be refused to keep anything but your shroud. This is all you will be able to carry over from this fleeting world into the Hereafter. So pull yourself together & be prepared. Spend the fortune I have left you, not for the satisfaction of vain desires, but in ways pleasing to Allah, that you may achieve honour in both worlds.”
**Excerpt from Inspirational Stories