Assalamu alaikum. My husband and I set up our Islamic Wills some years ago and we are looking to update them. At the time that we got them written I knew very little about Islamic Wills, beyond just the %s between sons and daughters, and took the advice of the solicitors who were experienced in the field of Islamic Wills. Since then, learning from the IFG information I am in doubt if we set them up correctly. Our Wills are currently written such that on first death everything passes to the spouse and then on second death, everything is distributed Islamically. When we purchased our home, it was also set up in this way, i.e. on first death the house goes entirely to the spouse. Now my understanding is that we should not own things in joint names but rather in terms of % share ownership and then each of our shares should be distributed islamically at each of our deaths - is this the correct way to set up an Islamic will or is the way we had set up also acceptable? Thank you for any advice.
Wa alaykum salaam,
We would encourage you to speak to specialists in Islamic wills. There very well could be certain tax reasons for the current setup, but it would be the onus of the surviving spouse to morally distribute everything in a Shariah compliant manner. However, that is just an assumption on my part. You should speak to lawyers who are experts in Islamic wills.