Islam has placed emphasis on distributing the wealth of a Muslim in a pre-determined manner upon death. Sharia Law states that your estate must be distributed amongst specific family members in specific shares.
It is essential that you understand how you own your property. Property owned with somebody else is usually owned as ‘Joint Tenants’ or ‘Tenants in Common’. If you own a property with somebody else as Joint Tenants, then your share in the property automatically goes to the surviving co-owner, This is called the right of survivorship, therefore, it would not fall in accordance with an Islamic Will. This may not be what 'should' happen in accordance with Islamic law nor what you would expect. Where you are not sure how you own a property with another person it is crucial that this is clarified and your Will writer can assist you with this.
If you own joint assets as ‘Tenants in Common’, then your share can pass in accordance with your Islamic Will but again the reasonableness of that needs to be considered.
At Bequeathed, we are able to check this information for you via the Land Registry and can arrange for your tenancy to be severed from Joint Tenants to Tenants in Common, in order for your joint assets to pass to your beneficiaries in accordance with your Islamic Will.
Husband – Entitled to 50% (1/2) of the estate if the deceased has no surviving children or 25% (1/4) if they do have children.
Wife – Entitled to 25% (1/4) of the inheritance if the deceased has no children or 12.5% (1/8) if they do have children.
Daughters – Entitled to 50% (1/2) if the deceased has no sons and only one daughter, or 66.6% (2/3) if they have multiple daughters and no sons (shared equally between them).
Son and daughter – Siblings share a percentage of the estate with a 2:1 ratio in favour of the sons.
Father – Entitled to 16.6% (1/6) if the deceased has children.
Mother – Entitled to 33.3% (1/3) if the deceased has no siblings or children, or 16.6% (1/6) if they do.
It is understandable that some people may want certain beneficiaries to inherit more or less than the Sharia law process sets out and this is possible to do with the appropriate and accompanying advice.
Below attached is an Islamic inheritance calculator which will allow you to work this out online.