Hajj Sayyid Muhammad Ali Naji is the son and successor of Late Hajj Sayyid Muhammad Hasan. The Late Sayyid had made a bequest about different matters and great part of that was about performance of prayers and fasts on payment. The successor commissioned Hajj Sayyid Ziauddin (Prayer leader of Masjid Atishiha) to perform prayer of four years and fasts for four months, and also paid him the compensation in cash.

The successor narrates: After some time I saw my father in dream that he was extremely anxious. I asked him: Are you satisfied with me or not? For I have fulfilled your bequest and commissioned Sayyid Ziauddin to perform your prayers and fasts. My father asked in utter grief: When was it acted upon? He is involved in some other things and has not prayed more than six days of prayers. When I awoke, I went to Sayyid Ziauddin. He said: I have recorded the number of prayers I have recited.

I said: I know that you are very systematic in your job, but I want to know whether my dream is true or not? After a lot of persuasion he brought his register out and it came to be known that he did not recite prayers for more than six days. He expressed surprise and said: I was under the impression that I have recited most of the prayers. Now, that the deceased has pointed it out, I will perform his prayers from today itself.

Thus, it was learnt that Aga Ziauddin had forgotten and the Late Haji Naji had accurate information.

In the book of Ghurar ul-Hikam of Amadi it is mentioned that Amir ul-Mu’minin ('a) has said in his short sayings: Become the successor of your own self and yourself do with your money, what you want others to do.

It means that you do in your lifetime that, about which you make a bequest to your successors, because it is very difficult to get a religious and God-fearing successor.

Secondly, even if your successor fulfills your bequest, the person who is commissioned for your prayers, fasts and Hajj, may not fulfill it properly, or may forget it, because he has not accorded importance to it and if it is supposed that he has performed it, even then the act, which a person himself does, is quite different from that, which another person does in his lieu.

This it is narrated that among the companions of the Messenger of Allah (S) a person made a bequest that the Holy Prophet (S) should donate his dates in charity after his death. When His Eminence acted on his bequest, a date was found lying on the ground. He picked it up saying: If he had given only this date during his lifetime it would have been better than the huge pi le, which I gave in charity on his behalf.

How aptly Shaykh Saadi Shirazi has versified:

Send the means of your comfort and luxury yourself, after that there would be no one to procure it, so you send it before. Eat, drink and give alms, and distribute food to the needy. What expectation do you have from others, give money now, because it is in your possession. Otherwise it would be out of your bounds. Take your provisions of the journey with yourself, because such a kindness cannot be expected from your wife and children. You should worry about your own life, because relatives and kindred due to their greed do not spend time in the errands of the dead. Except for your nails, no one will scratch your back as a good tum.