“I once wrote to him (the Imam), abu al-Hassan (a.s.), saying, ‘I pray to Allah to keep my soul in service for your cause, I do not have any children and I have assets that I inherited from my father and myself earned a certain amount, but I do not feel safe from something happening. If something happens to me and I have no children, what do you think I must do, I pray to Allah to keep my soul in service for your cause? Can I make a certain amount of it an endowment for the needy, of the oppressed brothers (in belief) or sell it and spend upon them in my lifetime? I fear that endowment may not be managed properly after I die and if I make an endowment for my own survival will I be able to eat thereof?’ He (the Imam) (a.s.), wrote, ‘I understood your letter in the matter of your assets. You cannot eat from charity (endowment), if so the law of endowment is not followed just as if you had heirs. You can sell and give as charity a certain amount of the proceeds in your lifetime. If you give as charity you can keep for yourself for your sustenance just as ’Amir al-Mu’minin had done.’”