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Islamic inheritance (faraid) prescribes fixed shares for relatives. Without a will, the intestacy rules of the jurisdiction apply, not Islamic law. Maximum 1/3 of the estate to non-heirs, the rest in fixed shares—sons double daughters, spouse 1/4 or 1/8, parents 1/6. In England and Wales a will can direct those shares; in Scotland legal rights over the moveable estate survive any will. A 1975 Act claim can still be brought against the estate in England and Wales.
This is a description of how two bodies of rules — Islamic inheritance and the succession law of the UK jurisdictions — relate to one another. It is not advice on what you should do, and no wording described here has been legally validated or approved by anyone. Whether a particular will achieves what its maker intended depends on facts this page cannot know.
The Islamic shares set out below follow Sunni faraid, which is what most English-language material on the subject describes. Shia (Ja'fari) inheritance law differs on several substantial points, including how the residue devolves and whether a bequest to an heir needs the other heirs' consent. If your family follows a school other than the one described here, the figures below will not be the ones that apply to you.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "It is not right for any Muslim who has something to bequeath to spend two nights without having his will written down with him" (Sahih al-Bukhari 2738; Sahih Muslim 1627). Jurists read that report differently — some as making a written will obligatory, the majority as making it strongly recommended and obligatory where the person owes debts or holds property belonging to others. Whichever reading a family follows, a will does several practical things:
Without a will, the succession law of the jurisdiction decides. The claim that "UK law gives everything to the spouse" is only true in one case. In England and Wales, under section 46 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925:
Either way the result rarely matches faraid: parents inherit nothing while a spouse or children survive, and daughters and sons take equally. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own intestacy rules again.
Islamic inheritance (known as faraid or mirath) follows Quranic guidelines:
The Quran specifies fixed shares for certain relatives (known as "quota heirs"). These include spouses, daughters, parents, and others. The shares are distributed from the estate after debts and bequests.
After fixed shares are distributed, remaining estate goes to residuary heirs—typically male relatives like sons, father, brothers. If there are no residuary heirs, the estate may return to fixed-share heirs.
Up to 1/3 of the estate can be bequeathed to non-heirs (like charity, friends, or distant relatives). In Sunni jurisprudence a bequest to someone who is already a fixed-share heir requires the consent of the other heirs, on the strength of the report "there is no bequest for an heir" (Abu Dawud 2870; Tirmidhi 2120). Shia jurisprudence does not impose that condition within the permitted third.
Here are the key fixed shares specified in the Quran (simplified):
These are simplified. The actual share each relative takes depends on which other relatives survive, and there are named doctrines ('awl, radd, hajb) that redistribute the shares when the fractions do not add up to one. The mother's 1/3, for example, drops to 1/6 where the deceased left two or more siblings, even though none of those siblings may inherit. Working out a real estate is a job for someone who does it — a scholar or a specialist in faraid — not for a table on a web page.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) limited bequests to non-heirs to maximum 1/3 of the estate. This means:
In England and Wales, testamentary freedom means a will can direct an estate in Islamic shares. The routes people use are:
A number of UK organisations and firms offer wills drafted to Islamic shares. We do not name or price them: will-writing is not a reserved legal activity, so providers range from regulated solicitors to unregulated will writers, and any price we quoted would be out of date within the year. No official source publishes a typical cost for an Islamic will.
What can be checked is regulation. A solicitor's firm can be looked up on the Solicitors Regulation Authority register; an unregulated will writer cannot, and the recourse if something goes wrong is different.
A homemade will is legally capable of being valid, but it must meet the formalities of the jurisdiction — in England and Wales, section 9 of the Wills Act 1837 (in writing, signed by the testator, witnessed by two witnesses present at the same time). Scotland has different formalities under the Requirements of Writing (Scotland) Act 1995. Templates circulated by Islamic organisations are not legally validated documents, and no template is guaranteed to work for a particular estate.
The Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 allows a spouse or civil partner, a former spouse who has not remarried, someone who lived with the deceased as a spouse for two years, a child, someone treated as a child of the family, or anyone the deceased was maintaining, to apply to the court on the ground that the estate does not make reasonable financial provision for them. Section 4 sets a time limit of six months from the date representation is first taken out, though the court can permit a late claim. The court can vary the distribution. This applies whatever the will says and whatever its religious basis, so a will drafted to faraid shares is not immune from it. The Act applies where the deceased died domiciled in England and Wales; Northern Ireland has an equivalent in the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) (Northern Ireland) Order 1979.
Scotland does not have testamentary freedom in the same sense. Under the Succession (Scotland) Act 1964 a surviving spouse or civil partner has jus relictae or jus relicti, and children have legitim, over the deceased's net moveable estate — cash, investments, personal possessions, but not land or buildings. Where both claim, each fund is one third of the net moveable estate; where only one class claims, it is one half. These rights vest automatically and cannot be defeated by a will. An Islamic will governing a Scottish estate therefore cannot dispose of the whole moveable estate on its own terms if an entitled person chooses to claim.
Section 18 of the Wills Act 1837 revokes a will on the testator's marriage, unless the will was made in expectation of marriage to that particular person and says the marriage is not to revoke it. A carefully drafted Islamic will made before a marriage is simply gone afterwards, and the estate falls to intestacy. Scotland does not have this rule.
In certain situations, Islamic inheritance gives sons double the share of daughters. This is part of a holistic financial system in Islamic law where:
These rules are considered divine guidance by Muslims. For questions about application in specific circumstances, consult a qualified Islamic scholar.
Classical Islamic scholarship holds that inheritance follows religious lines—Muslim relatives inherit from Muslims. A number of contemporary scholars, particularly writing about Muslim minority communities, take a different view. This can be a painful issue in mixed-faith families.
Nothing in UK succession law distinguishes beneficiaries by religion, so a will can leave anything to anyone. Within the Islamic framework, the wasiyyah third is the portion classically available for a gift to someone who is not a fixed-share heir, which is how many Muslims provide for non-Muslim relatives.
Because the religious question and the legal question have different answers here, families in this position generally end up asking both a scholar and a solicitor rather than one or the other.
In the UK, jointly owned assets (like a house with spouse) may pass automatically to the survivor. This needs careful consideration when planning Islamic inheritance.
Pension schemes often have separate nomination forms. Consider who you nominate and how this interacts with your Islamic will.
If the deceased had religious obligations they could not fulfil—such as missed fasts due to chronic illness, or unfulfilled vows—fidyah (compensation) may need to be paid from the estate.
Similarly, kaffarah (expiation) for broken oaths or other matters should be settled. These are considered debts to Allah (SWT) and are typically paid before inheritance distribution. Consult a scholar about your specific situation.
Review your will regularly, especially after:
Two separate questions sit behind an Islamic will, and they are usually answered by different people. What the correct shares are for a particular family is a question of Islamic law, which an imam or a scholar of inheritance answers. Whether a document achieves that distribution, survives a marriage, and holds up against a 1975 Act claim is a question of the succession law of the jurisdiction. A page cannot tell you what to do about either; it can tell you they are two questions and not one.
If a Muslim dies without a will in the UK: