بِسۡمِ اللهِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِيۡمِ

Islamic Will: Practical Guide to Using Freeislamicwill.com

 

The following slides show you how to generate a free customised Islāmic Will online. You may also read the following articles available on this website.

Why it is important to write a Will

What is an Islāmic (Sharīʿa compliant) Will?

Is FIW© Suitable for Writing Your Will

 

Please note the slides below are in 16:9 format and are best viewed on a computer/ laptop screen. If you are viewing them on a mobile phone you should have it sideways to get a landscape view. The view may also be affected by the browser that you are using.

If you are having problems seeing the slides on your mobile phone you may find this YouTube video useful which was kindly done by someone. 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Many Muslims have written their Islāmic Will in the last few months including many doctors. The Will writer (testator) should, of course, choose which fiqh/ madhahb is to be applied to his/ her Will to reduce uncertainty when the Will is executed.

I have noticed that some individuals are choosing the traditional Maliki fiqh to be applied to their Will. I presume these individuals are from some north African countries residing in the UK or other Western common law countries. I should point out that in the traditional Maliki fiqh the spouse relict as the sole heir gets a maximum of 1/2 (husband) or 1/4 (widow) of the estate, the remaining estate goes to the bait-ul-mal, there is no radd for the spouse relict. This is different from the other 3 Sunni madhāhib, in that the spouse relict as the sole heir inherits the whole estate.

So, it is advisable that those Muslims living in non-Islāmic states writing an Islāmic Will should NOT choose the traditional Maliki fiqh to be applied to their Will for this reason as it may create uncertainty during the execution of the Will unless they really wish to do so and inform their spouse of their intentions, or there is a clause included in the Will addressing this issue.

Dr. A. Hussain, June 2020

 

USEFUL INFORMATION

Many people writing an Islamic Will in the UK have property and/or other assets abroad, in their country of origin and they often ask how this will affect their Islamic Will written in the UK?

Under English law, more than one law may be applicable to a Will.  The laws of location of property (lex loci rei sitae or lex situs, for short, meaning ‘law of the place where the property is situated’) govern the validity of disposition of immovable property. The disposition of moveable assets is governed by the jurisdiction in which the testator was domiciled (lex domicilli meaning ‘law of the domicile’) at the time of his death. A property owned through a company in the form of shares would be considered as moveable property. Islamic law does not differentiate between moveable and immoveable property.

You can write a separate Will for each jurisdiction.

Also, note that deemed domicile status determines the payment of inheritance tax which is applied to all the assets of the decedent worldwide. Even if you are not domiciled in the UK under general law you may be deemed domiciled in the UK for IHT purposes. Domicile is peculiar to English law. The Common Reporting Standard means that HMRC in the UK shares information with tax authorities in India and Pakistan from 2017.

Dr. A. Hussain, June  2010