A person has three friends.

The first friend. The first friend to whom a person pays great attention throughout life is a friend whose companionship ends the moment the person's soul departs. This friend is the wealth that the person has accumulated.

The second friend. A person's second friend stays with him almost everywhere. A person also gives great attention to this friend. This friend accompanies the person as far as the grave after his soul has departed. These are one's family members, friends, and relatives.

The third friend. This is the friend who goes with you all the way to the Hereafter, and it is the good deeds a person has performed. Yet it is the friend to which a person pays little attention during his lifetime. It is surely not without reason that people say, "What you give away is yours; what you keep in your pocket is only held in trust." If you have given alms to a poor person, it leaves your hands, but the reward is recorded for you. Someone may take your property, and it remains in this world. That is why it is a trust. But no one can take away your good deeds. They are yours.

A short time is enough to master a profession. But a whole lifetime may not be enough to become a true human being. If only we could manage to become truly human. Our friends who are past the age of 60 resolve to spend the rest of their lives in play and laughter. Would it not be better to resolve instead to spend the remaining years in worship and piety, as an example to the young, and to live engaged, as far as possible, in creative work? If God were to ask us in the Hereafter, "I gave you such great ability and knowledge; what did you do for the benefit of society, the Homeland, and the nation, and for their progress?", we should also think about what we would answer.

From the wisdom of Mamayunus Pardaev