Updated: Jun 22, 2023
Creating Islamic Wills should not be an issue as long as you follow important ground rules. Missing one or more can turn your Will into nothing. You will learn about definitions, necessities, Pros and Cons of Islamic Will, Types of Islamic Will, Adds-on to Islamic Will, and legality of Islamic Will.
The Islamic Will is straightforward compared to the secular Will because the Islamic inheritance law is optimally designed with in-built rules. This feature saves much of the Attorney's efforts as you do not worry about how and to whom to distribute assets. Click HERE to learn about non-Muslim authors' perspectives of Islamic inheritance law.
Islamic Will is the most popular estate plan to protect assets, make a bequest, and fulfill debts and Inheritance obligations. One beauty of the Islamic Will is that it's a simple estate plan with no maintenance. However, there are other things to know about Islamic Will, which we will explain shortly in the next topics. Islamic Will becomes irrevocable and cannot be changed after a Testator loses mental capacity or dies. Islamic Will must meet Legal and Shariah compliance to make it perfect. You will learn more about Islamic Will's pros and cons shortly. There are different names for Islamic Wills, such as Wasiya, Wasia, Wasiyat, Wasiat, Wasiyat Nama, Wasiyya, Wasiyyah, Wassiyyah, Wassiya, Wassiyya, Muslim Will, or simply Last Will. Using the name of your Will to be "Islamic Will" would not make it Islamic. There are different types of Wills; Family Will (or Mirror Will, Mutual Will, Husband Will, and Wife Will), Survival spouse Will, and Single Will (or Individual or Bachelor’s Will).
For Muslims, there are tones of Islamic literature support (through all four sources, Holy Quran, Sunnah, Ijma-the consensus of companions, and Qiyas-the analogical deductions) that every Muslim must have an estate plan (either Will or Trust) for their Inheritance protection and successful salvation (See Presentation). If you do not make a Will, every government has made Will for you, called the “Intestacy” Will (ironically), and the distribution of estates will follow the legal Inheritance law (instead of Muslim inheritance law) if a Muslim dies without Will. The legal inheritance laws are pretty different (in terms of estate distribution) from Islamic law and may differ from one country or jurisdiction to another.
It's not mandatory legally to create Will. Although, it is mandatory due to many reasons. If you do not have an estate plan, no one can look after your affairs after death. In that case, the government has to spend time and energy to fulfill the executor's duty (through the "Administrator" or "Representative" appointment by the government). Please, don’t think all these are welcoming for the government because they will get wages as they are also busy, and most governments do not have adequate time and resources to look after these unwelcoming extra affairs. That would be why the estate's distribution is delayed for months and years if the deceased left no Will. Administrator fees may not be an issue if Testator left substantial wealth; otherwise, your inheritance can decrease drastically due to Administration fees, and little or nothing goes to inheritors.
If you want your wishes upheld and respected, create your estate plans (i.e., Islamic Wills or Trust) before it is too late. Writing down an estate plan is one of the most precious gifts you can convey to your family after death. Wassiyyah can help you fulfill your obligations by providing easy and quick solutions for your Islamic estate planning needs. It takes less than five minutes to create and an hour to have ready for signing (assuming you have all information available on hand). You do not have to worry about compliance, fees, or other complications in creating your estate plans. Wassiyyah will be with you to accomplish and optimize your estate planning goals.
Without creating estate plans (i.e., Islamic Wills or Trust), there is no other way and the best way to pay off your debts, whether personal, business, legal, or obligatory. There is no alternative document in which you could specify your debts more clearly than Wills or Trust so that the debts are paid off after death. Executors and Trustees are responsible for paying off these debts before inheritance distribution. Legal and Islamic laws align regarding debt obligations that must be paid before inheritance distribution. Creditors have more upper hand under Islamic law compared to Legal Laws. Anyone can create estate plans to circumvent the issues of debt (to overcome legal laws), but under Islamic law, it is not allowed. You cannot hold your inheritors accountable for paying off debts because you did not leave any documents. So, you must create estate plans to pay off your debts to purify legally and spiritually before leaving this world.
The minimum you should do is to create Islamic Wills as a primary and basic estate plan. Then think later to optimize your estate plans further rather than delay. Wassiyyah provides exclusive premium blog articles for Premium and Ultimate members. Wassiyyah’s team continuously looks for opportunities to optimize and update the content as needed so that the valued customer can access the fresh content. Since you will have 24x7 access to premium content, you can take your time, learn and optimize your estate plans based on your situation. If anything changes around you, your family, your job, your business, or your wealth, Wassiyyah’s resources are designed to help you fine-tune your estate plans.
Creating an Islamic Will is more straightforward than creating Trust. Islamic Wills do not require details of each asset, investment, money, belongings, or jewelry. Trust includes accurate and current information for all these items. Trust needs to keep up to date with all changes that may happen to your assets. Selling, buying, renting, or leasing must spell out correctly in the Trust. These changes do not matter for Islamic Wills as much. Islamic Wills have no effect or provide no control while a person is alive. Islamic Will becomes effective only after death. Islamic Wills does not require an establishment similar to Trust which may include transferring all the titles and names to Trust.
On the other hand Trust, you can start managing it as soon as it is established. You can imagine and visualize the distribution of assets under Trust. On the other hand, You would not know the validity of an Islamic Will until a probate (court) approves it after a person dies.
Wassiyyah offers three types of Wills; Single and Multi-Jurisdictional and International Will. Creating Single Jurisdiction Will if you live and have assets in only one country. Most attorneys, legal firms, and online services offer this type of Will. Create Multi-Jurisdictional Will if you have assets in more than one country. You can also create this type of Will if you have assets in multiple jurisdictions in Canada, United States, or Australia because, in these countries, the laws for Wills differ from one jurisdiction to another. In general, you can create this type of will if countries' laws differ from one country or jurisdiction to another. The third type is the International Will. If you have assets located in more than one country and all those countries where you have assets are; part of the UNIDROIT International Will Convention, you are eligible to create this type of Will.
All above Wills can be further classified into Family Will, Mirror Will, Bachelor’s Will, Survival spouse Will, or Holographic Will. You do not need to worry about creating and choosing Will types! Wassiyyah will provide more detailed instructions about choosing the right type of Will during the Will creation process through premium blog articles and the instructions guide with your Islamic Will purchase. Wassiyyah ensures that your Will meets the legal and Islamic compliance above and beyond. Wassiyyah's estate plans are designed for in-built protection considering the worst-case scenario. To learn more about Islamic estate planning, download our eBook "Beginner's guide to Islamic estate planning." with a free sign-up.
Wassiyyah offers many adds on estate plans that include Letter of Wish, Islamic Inheritance certificates, and more.
The Letter of Wishes can be anything you may think of about your wishes regarding your values, and estates. A letter of Wishes either can be used as an internal non-binding agreement between yourself and your spouse. Another way to use an external non-binding agreement along with the Discretionary Trust under your Will.
The Islamic Inheritance Certificate is not a legal document but is an effective tool for Executors and Trustees. This document can be used with Islamic Wills or sometimes with Trust. Whether you create Islamic Wills or Trust with Wassiyyah or other services, this document can support Executors and Trustees during Probate or other court processing. If you live and have assets in non-Muslim majority countries. In that case, the probate court can consider this document to confirm the final share of Islamic Inheritance because non-Muslim majority courts are unfamiliar with Islamic law and may need some documentation to support the final share. However, the necessity and urgency of this document may differ from one country or jurisdiction to another. Executors and Trustees can get endorsement from Islamic scholars for Islamic inheritance share. The Islamic Inheritance certificate, instructions guide, and links to the "Calculation excel spreadsheet"; are all included in a single Word document. The "Calculation excel spreadsheet" works as an offline calculator, customized for six scenarios (Kamil, Awwal, Radd, Residuary, Special dynamic cases, and Special fixed cases). So, it will be easy for Executors, Trustees, and Islamic scholars to calculate and do the validation of final Islamic inheritance shares.
You should know that Wassiyyah offers free sessions. If you are interested, consider booking a free session HERE. If you are few (less than 10 people), consider booking a one-to-one session to remove all confusion you may have because free sessions are generic in nature.
The legality of Islamic estate planning is the most misunderstood term for many, including professionals and scholars. Typically, people can understand the estate plan is legal because of the reasons below, but these are all misconceptions.
Most people believe that the Islamic Will is legal because created by a legal firm, notarized, and contains legal terms. However, the reality is that legality starts with you, your family situations, marital status, asset ownership types, the type of assets, geographical location of assets, legal status, witnessing requirements, and many other things. All these can invalidate your estate plan even though you used the best lawyer, the best estate planner, or the ultimate resources for creating your estate plan.
Wassiyyah ensures and controls these gaps through administrative control, so you do not have to worry about compliance. You will learn from Wassiyyah's Premium content, including an instructions guide for ensuring your estate plans' compliance. You can learn more about Legality and its implications in the FREE eBook "Beginner's guide to Islamic estate planning."
You may have many questions, such as below but do not worry. We have exclusive premium blog articles and instructions guides to help you answers all and many other questions.
1. Whocanbemyexecutors?
2. How to choose my executors?
3. Who can be my witnesses?
4. How to choose my witnesses?
5. Do I need to notarize my Islamic Will?
6. Do I need to register my Islamic Will?
7. How can I make my Islamic Will legal?
8. When does my Islamic Will become invalid? 9. How can I secure my Islamic Will?
10. What assets do not cover under Islamic Will? 11. How to create Islamic Will?
And many more...
DISCLAIMER: Wassiyyah's blogs and articles are not intended to give legal, tax, or investment advice. You must consult an appropriate professional for advice. Please read Wassiyyah's Terms of Use for more information.