What actually makes a will Sharia-compliant

A will that satisfies the fiqh but fails the local formalities is worthless. A will that satisfies the formalities but ignores the fiqh distributes the estate wrongly. A Sharia-compliant will has to clear both bars, and most of the trouble comes from people attending to one and forgetting the other. Work out your shares first in the calculator, then take them to a lawyer.

This is general information, not legal advice for your situation.

What the fiqh requires

Debts before everything

Funeral expenses, then every debt the deceased owed. Two are routinely forgotten: unpaid mahr, which is a debt of the estate and not a gift, and money borrowed informally from relatives. Both are paid in full before any heir inherits.

A bequest of no more than one third

The cap comes from the hadith of Sa'd b. Abi Waqqas, who asked whether he could give away two thirds, then half, and was told: one third, "and one third is a great deal". It is a maximum, not a target.

Normally not to an existing heir

A bequest cannot ordinarily be used to give a son or a daughter more than their share, because that would rewrite the fixed shares by another route. The remaining heirs may consent after death, but nothing can be imposed on them.

This is what makes the third so useful for the people the fixed shares do not reach: an orphaned grandchild excluded by a living son, a non-Muslim parent, an adopted child, a charity.

The rest by the fixed shares

Whatever remains is divided by Faraid. A will does not get to choose those proportions.

What the local law requires

This is where home-made wills fail, and the requirements vary by country. Some constants worth knowing:

• Witnesses. Most common-law jurisdictions need two. Critically, a beneficiary or a beneficiary's spouse must not witness the will — the will usually stays valid but their gift is void. Having your son or your brother's wife witness it can quietly destroy the very distribution you were securing.
• Forced shares. Several jurisdictions guarantee a surviving spouse a minimum regardless of the will. In much of the United States this is the elective share; France reserves a fixed portion for children that a will cannot override at all.
• Claims by dependants. England and Wales allow certain people to ask a court for reasonable provision even where the will is valid.
• Assets that ignore the will entirely. Jointly held property, pension nominations and life policies usually pass outside the estate. Aligning those designations often matters more than the wording of the will.

Country-by-country detail is in Islamic wills in the UK and Islamic wills in the United States.

What a well-drafted Islamic will contains

1. Appointment of executors, and guardians where there are young children.
2. Funeral and burial instructions.
3. Direction to pay funeral expenses and all debts first, mahr named explicitly.
4. The bequest, up to one third, to named non-heirs or charities.
5. Direction that the residue be distributed according to the Islamic shares.
6. A statement of which school is to be applied, where it could matter.

Fixed fractions, or a reference?

A drafter has to choose between writing the actual fractions into the will and directing that the estate be distributed according to Islamic law generally.

Fixed fractions are unambiguous and easy for an executor to apply — but they go out of date the moment your family changes. A child is born, a parent dies, and the will now describes a family that no longer exists. A general direction survives those changes but leaves the executor to do the calculation, and a court may want to know which rules were meant.

Most drafters use a general direction plus a schedule showing the shares as at the date of the will. Discuss it with the solicitor rather than deciding it yourself.

Common questions

Can I download a template?

Templates are useful for understanding the structure and risky as a final document — the failure modes are witnesses, forced shares and assets passing outside the estate, and a template cannot see any of those in your case.

Does a will have to mention Islam?

No. Legal effect comes from the dispositive clauses. Many Islamic wills recite the intention because it helps the family understand the structure.

How often should it be reviewed?

After any marriage, divorce, birth or death, and after moving country or acquiring assets abroad. In England, marriage revokes a will unless it was made in contemplation of that marriage.

Work out your current shares, then read the guidance for the UK or the US.