Wills & Inheritance · Faraid
Your estate will be divided. The question is by whose rules.
Die without a valid will in England and Wales, and intestacy law decides who inherits, and it does not follow Faraid. A well-drafted English will can honour the Islamic shares and stand in probate.
Writing one is neither difficult nor expensive. Leaving it unwritten is usually both.
The task
One estate, two sets of rules
What Faraid requires
The Islamic law of succession
Faraid is precise. Debts and funeral costs come first, including any unpaid mahr, which is a debt like any other. The remainder passes in fixed shares to defined heirs, and who those heirs are, and what they take, depends on who survives you. Up to one third may be left by bequest, the wasiyyah, to those who do not inherit by right.
It is a complete system. It just isn’t the one English law applies by default.
What English law provides
Freedom, if you use it
English law gives you something valuable: the freedom to leave your estate largely as you choose. A will that follows Faraid is, in principle, as valid as any other, provided it is drafted, signed and witnessed as the law requires.
Decline that freedom, and the intestacy rules take over: a fixed statutory distribution, built around the surviving spouse, that was never designed with Faraid in mind.
English law will let you follow Faraid, but it will not do it for you. The default does something else entirely. The whole discipline of Islamic estate planning in Britain is using the law’s freedom deliberately, in a document that holds.
The quiet failures
How good intentions miss
Almost no one plans to leave a mess. The failures below are common precisely because each one feels safe at the time.
- No will at allThe commonest failure
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Intestacy law distributes your estate by its own fixed formula: the spouse takes a statutory sum and share, and children divide what remains. Faraid does not enter into it. The family is left watching a distribution they know is wrong by the standard that mattered to you, with no way to correct it.
- A will that names namesFixed today, wrong tomorrow
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Faraid shares depend on who survives you, so a will that fixes specific people and amounts today can contradict the correct shares at the date it matters. Well-drafted Islamic wills handle this with careful drafting rather than a frozen list. It is a drafting problem with a known solution; it just has to be applied.
- The jointly owned homePasses outside the will
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Property held as joint tenants passes automatically to the surviving owner. The will never touches it. For many families the home is the estate, which means the will covers a fraction of what they think it covers. How you hold your property has to be checked, and sometimes changed, for the plan to work.
- Pensions and life policiesFollow their own nominations
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These often pass by nomination directly to whoever you named, possibly years ago, outside the estate and outside the will. An Islamic estate plan that ignores nominations is incomplete; aligning them is quick and frequently overlooked.
- Informal wishesSincere, and ineffective
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A letter, a recorded conversation, a note that “everything should be done Islamically”: none of it has legal force. Writing down Islamic inheritance wishes does not, by itself, make them legally effective. Only a valid will does that.
Practical planning
What a complete plan covers
A good Islamic estate plan is mostly ordinary diligence, done once and reviewed when life changes. It starts with an honest inventory of what you own and how you own it, and ends with documents your family can act on without archaeology.
Two roles deserve particular thought: the executors who will carry your intentions into effect, and, if you have children under eighteen, their guardians. For many parents the second matters more than anything financial in the will.
- An honest inventory: assets, debts, and anything held jointly or abroad.
- How the home is held, checked, and restructured if the plan requires it.
- Nominations aligned: pensions and policies pointing where the plan intends.
- Mahr and debts recorded, so they are settled first, as Faraid requires.
- Executors and guardians: the right people, asked in advance.
- The wasiyyah third, used deliberately, for those who do not inherit by right.
- A review habit, after every marriage, birth, death or major purchase.
How we help
Scholarship on one side, drafting on the other
What the scholars settle
Before a word is drafted
It begins with one confidential conversation about the facts a plan has to fit: family, assets, how things are owned, anything abroad. Then our scholars resolve the questions the whole plan rests on: who the heirs are, what the shares require, how the wasiyyah third should be used, and how mahr and debts are to be settled first.
Only when the religious foundation is sound does drafting begin.
What the drafting delivers
A document that holds
The will itself, drafted and executed with the formalities English law requires. Where regulated legal services are required, these are provided by our partner SRA-regulated law firm. And around it, the quiet work that makes the will effective: ownership of the home checked, pension and policy nominations aligned, executors and guardians in place.
Common questions
What families ask us
Can a Faraid will be challenged?
English law allows certain family members and dependants to apply to court if they consider a will fails to make reasonable provision for them, and no drafting can remove that possibility entirely. What careful planning can do is reduce the risk, by making sensible provision, documenting the reasoning, and taking advice where a challenge is foreseeable. Anyone promising a challenge-proof will is overselling.
Can I leave something to people who don’t inherit under Faraid?
Yes, that is precisely what the wasiyyah is for. Up to one third of the estate may be left by bequest to those who are not fixed-share heirs: a relative outside the Faraid shares, a charity, a cause. Used deliberately, it is one of the most generous instruments in the whole system.
We have property abroad. Does an English will cover it?
Not necessarily. Foreign property is often governed by the law of the country where it sits, and some countries apply their own succession rules regardless of your will. Cross-border estates need the plan coordinated across jurisdictions. Tell us early; it changes the drafting.
If an estate is already in dispute
Book a consultation
The kindest document you will ever sign.
A will that honours your faith and holds in law spares your family the worst argument they could ever have. One conversation starts it.
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