Islamic Wills and Estate Planning

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] wow whoa [Music] a warm welcome to everyone who's joined us for the session we are so delighted to have everyone um on seat this evening uh what a wonderful wonderful number of people who's joined us in the session we have people that i can see from zimbabwe malaysia india south africa we have people from indonesia alhamdulillah we have a well well global group of participants this evening i just want to welcome you to our session this evening my name is nureen sali i will be the moderator for this evening and this evening is all about honoring and showing participation and support in the context of national wolves week so everyone's received an invite everyone's joined us um we we're happy to have you here one of the things we aim to do for the session is to create an awareness um about ensuring that we have things like our walls in place we'd like to ensure that people have a better understanding about issues that affect our estate planning and we also want to make sure that there are proper understandings of how we go about doing uh our estate planning so for this evening um we're going to be talking a lot about estate planning wolves we're going to be talking a lot about sharia and the legal aspects and components of these pertinent topics and some of the things that will emerge from the session will be things like why estate planning is important what happens um or the necessity for us to understand the impact of death without a valid will religious debts but falls that we can avoid provisions for estate expenses workouts and gifts through your wool so all of those are some of the themes that will emerge from the discussions but before we get there i just wanted to do a few house rules as the moderator of the of the session it's important to manage a big group that we have this evening uh just to give you a little bit of some of the um house rules that we have in place for you this evening so you might have noticed that this evening you are muted uh we are going to keep you muted for the duration of the session we're going to ask you if you have any questions to kindly use your check box we'll be facilitating that check box looking at your questions and we're going to then facilitate the answers to some of our speakers this evening we're also going to keep cameras turned off so that we can maintain our bandwidth um and also so that uh we have no or less distraction um on our session we know speakers come up and are spotlighted um and then just something very important i want to allude you to is um the social media networks um that okaf has put up uh and will be putting up we're going to be having this session it's a live streaming session um that's going to be a broadcast um on youtube it will also be broadcast or streamed on facebook and instagram um and we'll be able to share this with you guys at the end of the session as well uh through links as well as through your emails so um this evening session will be live streamed via the sokislam platform um and i will share and my technical team will share the link with everyone uh in the chat box so look out for the chat box um we're gonna be having a lot of uh interesting links placed there uh i see it's placed in the chat box already so if you're not having good connectivity please feel free to join us via live stream um with the sukislam platform again just a warm welcome um i want to repeat my name for those who are just entering the session now again my name is nurin sally i'll be your moderator for this evening um part of what i've been doing has been working with a car for the last 12 or so years and as part of a proud supporter of oak um i have had the privilege to work very closely with some of um really networked individuals on this platform um and so without further ado i want to in introduce you to some really influential and some really um honorable speakers that we have for tonight um and we're going to look at an overview of the program a little bit later so our first speaker that i'd like to introduce you to um our esteemed our esteemed guest is none other than dr munir abdul rahaf hails from cape town an academic at heart who holds multiple llbs llms lld degrees both in south african law and islamic law amongst others um dr sheikh munir abdulrahf is a doctor he is an aalim he is a lawyer he is a lecturer he has many many many different roles that he performs and fulfills so a warm welcome to uh dr sheikh munir abdullah we look forward to speaking with him as our guest speaker and taking great insight um away from some of the things that he will be sharing with us this evening we also want to introduce to you um our second speaker who is uh brother zainal aberdeen khalji um who absolutely needs no introduction is the flag bearer for okaf south africa is a chartered accountant and founding member and ceo of oak half south africa and uh brother brother zainal will focus on talking to us all about worker waseers habibas and all the interesting aspects that are related to our topics that we have for discussion our third speaker is renowned brother shokat ali mukadam who has a b comes honors in taxation is a chartered accountant as well has many many different roles um in in terms of a trustee a director a deputy chairperson of south african national zakarpan whom we all familiar with our south africans and also a founding member of the future cheaper um institute of south africa so um brother mukadam will share with us areas that are aligned to financial planning trust services um and we'll also deal with aspects that are related to um sharia concepts of wasia key features of estate planning as well as features of sharia inheritance which we so desperately need to understand critical critical conversations so without further ado we are running on time we have a lot of questions that has already been pre-posted to us that we want to get through this evening um we're going to run this event in such a way that we allow our speakers 20 minutes of airtime to just give us an understanding on some of the questions that we'll be asking them we'll have some deep dives into the conversation with them and then we'll open up the session to some questions and answers from the audience feel free to use again the chat room so that we can get your messages there and we will definitely um use that to position some of the answers um and then i will take it from there and we'll see how we go if we don't finish in time please don't despair everyone's emails are on board so we will definitely give you guys an email with all your questions that have been answered i see the the list is growing the entries number of guests that are entering is growing such a wonderful turnout thank you everyone for joining us but without delaying the session i want to go straight into introducing our very first speaker dr sheikh munir abdul auf dr abdul abdul i wanna thank you very much for sharing the screen with me welcome a warm welcome we hope that cape town is uh treating you well and that it's warmed up really well in cape town as it has in janus berg um as we as we continue uh through this discussion before we can get started into maybe just getting a sense of more guidance from you uh dr sheikh munir i want to just ask a question i think it's a burning question that has been on the mind of a number of people that have seen through questions and that is really about the legal frameworks of inheritance um and how they relate to compare to our sharia frameworks and and i'm sure your your presentation is packed with a lot of information so maybe you can just take us through some of the layman terms and layman understanding of the process of worlds religious debts was see as inheritance and give us an understanding of how these all fit together and how they work for us as layman people who don't have any uh broad or in-depth islamic basis or understanding of the complexities that exist within the legal frameworks as well as the sharia frameworks doctor can you hear me so i think we have we have some network issues on doctor's side and doctor will join us again maybe what we can do uh is move on to the next um maybe we can move on to the next speaker brothers i know uh can i can i bring you in here on this um topic uh that is so pertinent now we know that from a perspective of inheritance um and estate sometimes we want to leave workers we want to be able to donate some of what we have um what are some of the processes that are involved in us being able to share our inheritance or leave it as a worker maybe you can just start from that point and we can then join doctor a little bit later okay jazakallah here and sister nurem and salam welcome to all the guests out there and all the wonderful participants that have joined us here tonight um so i think i think it's quite an important issue that you've raised and and it's it's an important issue for estate planning as well and in particular when one has to think about assets that we have and assets that we'd like to share with others that we'd like to gift as gifts to others and assets that we'd like to give to allah so uh when we when we talk about waka then we're really talking about a a worker or a sadaqa arya that we would love to leave for as a dedication to allah and as a means of getting closer to allah those are the fundamental purposes for which one would actually take some of our assets and leave it aside give it away during our lifetime or it could be done through our worlds so i'm gonna talk about what we can do during our lifetime and what we can do through our worlds so there are three three aspects that that one should really be uh concerned about one is the worker the second one is the heba and uh and and from my understanding and from my interaction with a lot of people uh many people don't know about this really beautiful concept of the heba that one can actually use as a mechanism for uh for our estate distribution um and then of course we have the wasa which is the part of the world the written world that we leave aside something as a gift or as a work of for either people that we we care for or love or or an organization so let's let's just talk firstly uh as far as the work of his concern so the the work of by definition really means to stop our own ownership of an asset uh so if we if we stop our ownership then who is going to be the owner technically the owner is now allah so when i dedicate something as a worker i'm actually removing the ownership from myself and giving it over to allah but i need somebody to look after it so i need a trustee so i could donate it to an organization such as okaf south africa or i could actually have open up my own trust and and leave it inside there if i donate it to a public benefit organization such as okaf south africa i would also get certain tax benefits so that's quite an important issue if i if i leave a worker for an organization whoever are going to be the beneficiaries it could be a mosque it could be a dresser it could be a family member it could be a spouse it could be parents it could be literally anybody or you know some something that we are passionate about so uh during our lifetime we could actually do that and we could also do it through our worlds through the wasiah portion by the way if we don't have any airs then we could actually donate the entire uh in our entire estates as a worker since there is no air because if we don't have a world and if we don't have any airs it actually goes to the state and i'm sure nobody would love you know our assets to be taken over by the state so again it's important to have this uh consideration that we ensure that our our assets are devolved in a way or distributed in a way that uh you know the beneficiaries will benefit another uh important um mechanism is the hiba okay so the hipaa is actually a gift that one would give to any person or institution similar to a wakav but the worker is actually given to allah for the pleasure of allah the heba is a gift given to a person for the pleasure of that person actually and for the benefit of that person so there are certain rules and regulations around the heba i should be the owner of whatever i'm giving away if i if i give something away i need to transfer it over to that person uh i can't take it back once i've given it away um and i could do this during my lifetime or i could do it through my will so if i if i do this during my lifetime i could literally give away everything all my assets during my lifetime to my children to my sons and my daughters i can give it to them equally some of the questions that have been raised in in in during the registrations were also about this issue about if i have sons and daughters can i can i uh distribute it equally yes you can if you during your lifetime it's very to secure your children or to secure your wife or uh vice versa as well sometimes our sisters also have a lot of assets they can they can very well look after their their husbands as well um so uh the the the heba is really one of the very very important mechanism especially if one has to plan our estates during our lifetimes and this is a recognized system uh in malaysia it's it's very very popular uh i i believe in south africa not so popular uh but but i think that uh if if if we study this uh and and i think our ulama can give us more and more information there's lots of literature around us that one can actually uh obtain lots of research being done on it as well uh if you look at why should why should one actually you know use this hiba system and if you look at it there are many many reasons why one could actually go into into the hiba system for example um if you if you look at uh a couple that may not have or may not have children or a couple that uh there may be a polygamous marriage for example uh so in in that case as well you would have um you know to be able to distribute your assets uh equitably otherwise uh on on on death uh your one eighth that goes to your your wife will be shared by all your wives so so i think that's also something that people who are in polygamous marriages need to consider uh if you have mentally disabled children or you have children with disabilities it's something that you need to think about and maybe the heba can work for that as well if you have sons and daughters like i said you could actually allocate and gift it to them equally during your lifetime now the the one question that will come up is well do i have to do the actual transfer during my lifetime because that's something that may have uh a cost implication and so forth so one of the the the conditions about the hipaa is that the transfer may be done upon death but there needs to be an agreement there needs to be a proper document uh hiba deed that will actually enable you to to uh to ensure that your intention is quite clear as to why you are doing this and to who are you who are you donating it to uh as a gift because it's a it's a gift of love it's not a gift of uh you know just out of out of any ulterior motive you want to ensure that the issues of justice and compassion are kind of covered in whatever you are doing so you could you could now do this during your lifetime or uh finally you've got the wasa so the wasa uh we are told that we could we could use it at about one third as a maximum that one could actually leave to our uh our uh not not actual quranic beneficiaries but to other beneficiaries to to friends to family to organizations so you've got that one-third allowance and in fact that is really your will because the other two-thirds is allah's will because allah has determined those other two third that two-thirds portion so that two-thirds portion is is almost like what we would call uh interstate succession because you you've got absolutely no control over the two-thirds what we do have control over is the one-third and this is where our wishes and what we would like to do we would like to donate to an institution or to a person a family member an adopted child uh people that i don't that they don't automatically inherit through the quranic system you can make an allowance for for those people you may have a poor auntie or a uncle and you want to leave something for them or you may want to leave something for an for a very uh honest and honorable employee you know you may do that as well or you may leave something for animal care or welfare as a worker for or you know that's that's where you've got this uh opportunity to actually distribute something you know apart from what you've down distributed during your lifetime you can now distribute through your versio i think i'm gonna just stop there and if there are any questions related to this we will entertain them later inshallah so much brothers i know that's such an interesting thing i think when we talk about the work of we're talking about the gifting that was here we're talking about um different types of gifts and i think that's something that people don't often realize is that gifting is such an important aspect of us being able to continue um to share with others even after our demise but we'll come back to that a little bit later and we'll talk to you um shortly again um on some of the questions that we we might have that's coming in so just for now i want to go back again to dr sheikh munir abdullah i believe he's back with us okay uh doctor thank you for joining us again so just give us the rundown in terms of um the legal frameworks versus your um sharia frameworks and then give us an understanding and an understanding in layman's terms about how do we understand and how can we understand the process of wolves religious states were seers inheritance and all of those beautiful things that we so often don't realize are critical uh when we talking about our walls and inheritance etc if you can share that with us and basically my presentation will be just that looking at how the estate of a deceased muslim should evolve in terms of the islamic law of succession and administration of of disease states so insha'allah in order to facilitate my presentation i will be making use of an example so when a person passes away that is state left behind by that person prior to any deductions could be referred to as the the gross estate so that includes everything includes books includes cars money in the bank money under the bed um your desk your whatever you have that forms part of of the estate now in terms of the quran in the sunnah of the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam they are primary verses in the quran that governs and dictates as to what should happen to that estate i'm starting with suratu nisar right at the beginning of this program broadcast we've looked at uh the recitation of ayah number 11 verse number 11 of suratu allah says now there are three verses in the quran if you open up the quran right now or later on chapter 4 verse number 11 verse number 12 and verse number 176 you will find the the laws governing the laws of succession or islamic law succession and administration of estates in terms of verse number 11 allah explains how the the children the descendants inherit how the parents inherit exactly what their portions are if we go to verse number 12 after allah speaks about the inheritance of surviving spouses the widows the way there were and allah also speaks about the inheritance of uterine siblings as we know there are different types of siblings some brothers and sisters share the same father and say mother some share the same mother only where others share the same father but different mothers by terms of ayah of verse number 12 it refers to the inheritance of uterine siblings the same mother but different fathers as far as 176 is concerned they're looking at the full siblings as well as the um constant one siblings so when a person looks at the distribution of the estate the grossest state it is governed by primarily by these three verses now the first claim against let's say the person passes away with any state of a millionaire in many people they have a house and thousands worth a million rand the first claim against that is state prior to any deductions prior to a son coming and saying i want the car or the daughter coming and saying but i want the things in the kitchen or i want the car as well prior to that happening there are certain claims against that estate referred to as liability claims and that includes the janazah expenses we must ensure that the person is buried first paying for the for the shroud of the kafan paying for the whole and other administration cost to ensure the peace the person is buried that would be the first claim against the estate from that million rand now thereafter also as part of the liabilities we must ensure that the debts are paid as allah says in the quran in uh in chapter 4 verse number 11 allah speaks about the inheritance and allah speaks about the request but it says that that only applies and only comes into into force after all the debt have been paid now when looking at debt as a liability we find that there are two types there's a normal debt by the creditors appeared by edgars or by woolworths or by any person that we owe money and that has to be deducted against the estate and that person must be paid before any types of inheritance is looked at there's also something referred to as a religious liability or a religious debt so a person might have not performed for example the obligatory hajj now in terms of the school of law which is different to the hanafi school of the hanafi school of law basically says that uh if a person has any uh outstanding zakah if the person has any uh outstanding did not perform the obligatory hajj or the hajjat on islam that that is not deducted as a liability against the estate automatically however in terms of the school of law which is different to the hanafi that says it's not a liability the shaffering school says it is a liability and those religious debts must be deducted from the estate prior to any other claims as far as test state succession claims which is also referred to as the washington as well as the interstate succession claims that is also referred to as a miraf so these religious like abilities are important to be paid especially if you are a shafiari and how we can do that within the south african context is that we must state in our world that in the event of our demise that the executor that you have employed appointed must then ensure that all your religious liabilities have been seen too and it can be further stated in the world that the executor of your state that you have nominated and subsequently been appointed by the master of the high court must then go to an islamic institution here in the western cape it could be the muslim judicial council in other parts of the country could be other islamic judicial bodies and that judicial council with the draft and a certificate stating exactly what these religious liabilities are once that has been settled so let's say all the liabilities including the funeral cost if you including the administration cost the debt out to individuals as well as religious liabilities they have all been deducted and let's say it is 100 000 rad in total we're now sitting with a 900 thousand rand now in terms of the quranic verses i've referred to earlier on says that the mira the inheritance or the compulsory inheritance is deducted from that estate from the million land after the wasilla and after the debt so now we've deducted the debt so now what what is the wasika the wasaya is also referred to as an optional succession plan which basically means that a test stator you and i we have the option to bequeath up to a maximum of a one-third of the net estate that is the estate after all liabilities have been deducted in this example it would be three hundred thousand rent because one third of nine hundred thousand ran is three hundred thousand ran so we can be quiz up to that one third in favor of any person that does not inherit as a compulsive beneficiary so for example if i were to bequeath that 300 000 rand if my grocery state is a million and a hundred thousand rand deductions of liabilities i can decrease 100 000 rand 200 000 and up to a maximum of 300 000 rand in favor of the local masjid because the masjid does not inherit by way of compulsion in terms of the quran and the sunnah of the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam so so these are the two restrictions as far as freedom of testation is concerned but in this african context we have this almost like a a total freedom of testation we can request everything towards whoever but within the islamic context we can be but up to a maximum of one-third and that one-third cannot be bequeathed to an inheriting compulsory beneficiary for example if a person passes away and leaves behind a son a a daughter a mother a father and a widow that is now the wife all of these persons are compulsory beneficiaries as long as they're not disqualified for example of a different religion or they kill the deceased and so forth if there are no disqualifications they will inherit by way of compulsion they are compulsory beneficiaries and because of this it is not that allowed for you to bequeath something to them which is extra like allah in the quran might say that if you have a mother a father a son a daughter and a widow the mother only needed one six the father in here is one six the daughter and the widow in here is one eighth and the remainder is shared between the son and the daughter in the proportion of two weeks to one that that is the quranic injunction so that is what he stated there so i cannot take of that 300 000 rand and give it to my daughter or give it to my wife or give it to my to my father or mother as a bequest as a wasilla once i have passed on it is not allowed as a general principle however it they're allowed to do so if they all consent so if i say i would like to give my daughter another 200 000 rand of my net estate which is the state after um i deducted all my liabilities which is now that nine hundred thousand ran uh minus now making the request of two hundred thousand in their favor that could work on condition at that at the time of my demise my mother father my widow and my son as well that is okay because the prophet there is no decree there's no optional succession or been a benefit to a person who inherits my way of compulsion except in the event where the the compulsory beneficiaries consent there to and the third point to note as far as that is concerned that the request should also be something which is allowed in terms of islamic law so we can't for example a very drastic example would be i say that the people should buy some wine and give it out at the local masjid so it's not allowed for myself to drink wine so therefore that type of a request would not be permissible but however sometimes you would like that at the time of your janazah at your funeral you'd want people to eat nice and you want them to maybe have some spaghetti or prawns and whatever it might be so you can make a wasa they request that when you die that they should take 10 000 ram of the money available to three hundred thousand grand if your that is united states and you buy some food and give it to the people who have come to the to the gymnasium and that is is permissible right so so that is the optional uh succession claim the request made in favor of any person who does not inherit by way of compulsion so let's say the person gave away the maximum of 300 000 grand in favor of the local masjid which means that we had the beginner we deducted the funeral expenses and so forth all the liabilities leaves us with 900.000 we've deducted the three hundred thousand rand bequest in favor of the local masjid and now we're sitting with six hundred thousand rand now the six hundred thousand rand that is when we're looking at what we refer to in arabic in the shariah as a mirac the one-third request that is referred to as the wasiya right and we have looked at a brief analysis of that the wrath basically is when we're looking at who is inheriting from that estate by way of compulsion so you can't disinherit these people in my example i said the person passes away leaving behind a mother living behind a father a son a daughter a widow or a widower all of these persons are entitled in terms of verses number eleven and twelve of surah tunis of chapter four doing it by way of compulsion so that's 600 000 red we don't have a saying so we can't really say that i would like my my daughter to get the the book and the sun to get uh the car and this one to get that um it won't really work however what you can do is before you pass away right you can you can give the car to the to the to your son and he is you can transfer it onto his name and you can ask him maybe can you lend me the car you can drive the car when you pass away it it was basically the car that you learned from you from your son and that is basically a way around some of these things um the same with the house the you can transfer the house on to the name of of your son or your daughter for whatever amount of money and you can he can then give you a lifelong use of later on as a gift to you if he said once so there are many mechanisms around working with the estate of a person either while you are alive but once you pass away then uh these laws would find application and um the the benefit of having these type of seminars uh is that once you know exactly what is going where and so forth and so forth then you can play around with your estate and do what is allowed within the conforms of sharia you can give a gift as was stated earlier on you can make a big quest as was stated earlier on as well but however to make sure that when you pass away that everything is shady uncompliant so the last question what happens if you have not drafted a will that basically does what i have stated now ensuring that all my liabilities are paid an example i i could have mentioned at the beginning is that let's say you haven't paid your um your dollar also referred to as a mascara or the mahara right if i said to my wife i'll i'll i'll give you my house uh as a dollar and i'll pay it to you um in the next 10 years or 20 years if i have not done so then she can claim that as a a liability right he's not inheritance right and even during the marriage and there's nothing that prevents the parties the husband to say i'm going to increase your your uh your dowel your mascara now so you um it was tinder and at the time of of our marriage but now making it a million rand so if i die you can claim the millionaire because that is the real dollar obviously as long as mutual consent by by both parties and it would also apply in the event where there is a divorce so it's not something you're playing around with but it's something which is which is real so what happens if a person if a person passes away and he passes away without me it would then mean that neither the liability laws like for example looking at religious liabilities it's not automatic in terms of african law you can't claim via the master's office to claim uh money for a hajj or to pay the car it won't be accepted so it will be problematic you have to draft that that was on the wall um the same with the optional succession claims in terms of african law the document must be in writing if it is not in writing it is not enforceable so islamic law allows for you to state something in front of people and and just witnesses and it would be enforceable in terms of islamic law but to give effect within the african context would be problematic because it must be a document reduced to writing and that document will then be also shown to the master of the high court so therefore for south african muslims uh it would be incumbent then to yes make the washington make the big list but of course that is it is compliant with islamic law principles i'm going to stop you there just for our timing purposes i think it's a beautiful topic it's something that we we can spend probably three other sessions or four other sessions on um and we want to get more on the context of the different laws from sharia as well as islamic law and we have a few burning questions that we do want to ask you as well that is related to um the concept of there is no uh wolf or is uh but before we go to the questions that we have there i want to bring in brother show cut here and i want to talk a little bit about um the topic around planning for our estates such a critical issue that we need to be talking about i think um when we think about estate planning as an um uh we we don't often give due diligence to the time we need to be able to plan for these things and i see that a lot of the pitfalls a lot of the problems in families come about because we haven't taken the time to plan so i want to quickly get um you know your take uh brother shogun on what is it that we should be thinking about when we're planning for our estate how should we go about it where do we start where does it end and and what are some of the issues that we will come up against that we need to be aware of it is indeed a pleasure to be part of this panel and i want to express my sincere thanks to okaf for facilitating the facilitating this in this world's week there's no doubt the concept of will is is very important as sheikh has already relayed all the verses really but more importantly in the ideas related in muslim the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam said that you should not sleep three nights without three consecutive nights without having made your will and and further other idea we are encouraged to learn uh about the concept of mira or concept of inheritance so it's critical to our deen and it's critical to our being itself really now in a recent survey done by a leading financial institution they've indicated that about 44 of economically active people have actually reviewed the walls in the last 18 months in this pandemic environment that's why people be leave purely simply because they they don't even want to think about death in many cases um and at times uh it's just uh there's a lot of a path a petitive about it really so the first point is a simple rule is a part of a plan really and and that's the starting point really a simple world is part of a plan and the first thing is to make sure that you have a wall and that the requirements of a basic world have been met namely that anybody who has any asset and that's older than 16 should have a written world it can be either typed up or it can be written really and as she said indicated early on in an islamic environment if you do announce your will in fact you don't announce any word in the islamic environment because by default the quranic verses apply your will only applies to the wasia those are the kind of one-third items you would want to give but within the south african context and within the world's act your world has to be in writing that's the first point okay the second point is that you as a testator must sign every page of that will third point is there must be two witnesses who witness you sign that world in other words you can't sign the world and then go to the witnesses afterwards that's not the valid rule effectively and fourthly the witnesses can't be any ears in that world very important often we find that the world is signed in the house and the heirs who are going to be inheriting our witnesses they are then disqualified as is the world is not an invaluable but they are actually disqualified and the issue in the sharia world is that your extended family could possibly in a remote chance be the inheritors of your will of your assets your extended family in other words you all go down in a plane and your whole family your immediate family is wiped out then the extended family do come into play and hence they could but if they are a witness to the will then they can't inherit really so i think that's the most important criteria of making a valid will and that's a good plan you've said that what is the most important clause in that world the most important clause in the sharia will say something to this effect my answers are to be dealt with in terms of islamic laws of inheritance succession and that the proportions who are to be certified by an alim that's the key clause in your will besides the wasiak laws the rest of the requirements who are the executives and all those kind of things are the common requirements but the most important differentiation in a sharia world is this statement and the statement about wasiah which we which have been alluded to and now the important point about the statement is that you do not actually say the proportions who is going to hear it what proportions have you noticed that you say that the my assets have been to be dealt with in terms of the islamic laws of the inheritance and there is a very good reason for that and the reason for that is that the ears in your estate and the proportions determined is based on who is alive at the moment you die okay so let's put it this way your father and your mother inherit as sheikh as earlier said and they each inherited 1 6. if both of them are alive the moment you die then they will inherit it if one of them is alive then only one inherits and that is why you can't spell out in the world that my parents are alive today please give them one six each my wife is allowed today and i have children please give a one-eighth you can't say that it has to be determined the day you die or the moment you die and that is why an ireland certifies it so typically you go to the mjc and you'll say to the mjc these are the people who are alive and the master gonna request a certificate from the independent aalim and and we know what the answer is we know the parents get one six each we know the wife gets one eighth if they are children and one quarter if there are no children and so on we know what the answer is but the master insists in wanting a certificate based on that moment who was alive and therefore the proportions and the values also change the proportions and the values in so the first thing is that the general statement in your world the second point about that statement is you must know your family very well you must know your family very well because a stiff sun is not a compulsory air it's not a quranic as she has indicated an adopted child is not a child for the purpose of the quran quranic verses really so the point is that when many years later but 85 years old and he passes away and you've actually got to disclose the facts what is this child worried so that's very important to know the family situation very well two is you also need to have a sense of the proportions really as sheikh has always said so there are 12 shaders of of within the verses that the sheikh has enunciated however there are three that always inherit there are three that always inherit the spouse of the deceased always inherits in other words if the husband has passed away and their children the wife gets one eighth if the husband is passed away and there are no children the wife gets one quarter of the husband's estate if their parents alive they each get one six if both are alive they get one six of the deceased male in this case and the balance go to the children if there's daughters and sons on the two to one ratio and vice versa if the white dies all right the husband gets a quarter when there are children and he gets 50 of the wife's estate when there are no children and similarly her parents also inherited and suddenly the children will cheer on a two-to-one racist however i want to just highlight one particular combination that often is overlooked that is if you only have daughters only have daughters if you only have one daughter please participants the daughter inherits 50 percent of the disease estate whether father or mother for example in this case all right the parents can inhale it the spouse can inherit it but the uncles and the aunts the brothers and the sisters of the deceased inherit the balance on a two-to-one basis on the balance if there are only two daughters in other words no sons in this example they share two thirds of the of the state of the deceased two thirds if they're only daughters again the parents the the father the mother will share the one six and then the the brothers and the sisters the uncles the aunts will share the balance that's often overlooked because the most common one that we have is that oh yes there's a son and there's a daughter and that's very easy you know that's really easy but when these only daughters i'm trying to highlight that the ankles and the arms come into play to bequeath as a compulsory quranic a as a compulsory quranic so understand the the the the proportions very well it's critical the next aspect that we spoke about in which zainab and shira has referred to is the wasa so the verse says pay the debts by legacies and then the quranic is so legacies is a translation of the word wasia and as they know has indicated you can give up to one third of your was of your estate as a wasiah however the prophet sallallahu sallam is reported in think twice before you give the whole one third think twice before you give the whole 130 in other words don't deprive your family don't be brave don't be gracious in other words you want to give one-third away but you leave them with a little bit as part of the two-thirds so take care of your family so the one-third can go to anybody was not your quranic e except as she indeed indicated unless it's consent and that constant only only happens i presume after death and check could confirm that however where the one-third wasa is very important is when you have children of children of pre-deceased you in other words if i have grandchildren of my son that pre-disease me in many cases those grandchildren are not quranic is they not compulsory is they not fart is then you should have a clause in your will that if in the event that situation arises give to those grandchildren out of the wasa clause but limited to a third of your estate a very important clause because we've had situations in our office where the grandchildren sit around the table and says what did my grandfather do because the pistops rule does not apply in the islamic situation in other words the grandchildren don't step in the shoes of the children okay very important the moment you have that situation that you have got a child that's pre-diseased and leaving children please please consult your consultant and insist that the wasa clause makes a general coverage for them so that in case they don't become quranic is the compulsory is they can they can benefit out of the wasia clause if there is something you take away tonight it is that principle because what law too many situations we have where the grandchildren do not inherit and this as they look as indicated this creates tremendous problems in the family effectively from that point of view right so so those were the essential uh important points of the the differentiation factors in a a in a a way in a islamic world however another factor that's becoming common these days is that the wives contribute to those kind of costs which is the responsibility of the husband the wives contribute to those costs which are the responsibility of the husband why's out there if you do that record it get it signed of every year and that is a claim against the estate it is not part of the proportions that's distributed so you get your share fully paid out up front before before the propositions and before what's here by the way so what's here applies first first the debts that's a debt then what's here applies and these proportions that we talk about is based on the balance not on the hundred it's after all those things so those sisters of you who are contributing and and you're doing it out of love and all those kind of things please in surah bakra it says recorded in writing have a signed of and i would even go further and get the spouse to make a statement of acknowledgement in the world that my wife has over my lifetime contributed to our costs that i am supposed to be responsible and i acknowledge that this is a claim in the state by my spouse and vice versa by the way okay i mean if it is the case but the point is that i think that's another critical differentiation the next point i want to cover is whether you can distribute in your lifetime there's nothing wrong you can use a trust mechanism you can you can donate to your children in a trust mechanism grow the assets in the trust mechanism and as long as you are fair there is a very strong recommendation that you should be equal it should be done equally in your lifetime and simply that's just to not create animosity amongst the children in other words you gave the one or 85 million and the other one a million rand or one million ran to the one so the recommendation strongly is that you should do it on a fair basis so the concept of a trust works very well if you're concerned that the child may lose the assets may abuse the assets a trust is a wonderful mechanism to place these assets in when assets are in the trust yours or these kind of they're not in an estate they don't go through a process of their state to wind up an estate takes about two years everything is frozen in a state effectively so when assets are in the trust you don't go through this process two it's protected very much protected inside the asset obviously there is the admin nightmare about you know annual tax compliance and so on however the trust can be framed on an islamic principle because at the end of the day a trust deed is a constitution that you write and you can announce the islamic principles you can announce islamic principles of inheritance to be applied on the disease on when the dis when the planet diseases okay so you you can adjust it and therefore assets can be held in your personal name which ends up in an estate or assets can be held in a trust and you can set the conditions and the constitution of the trust accordingly because a trust deed is a constitution obviously you have to be very careful are you worded you've got to spell it out you've got to make it very clear that the the is on your death are going to be those in terms of sharia you if you don't want to do it in the trust deed you do it in a resolution to the trustees you do it in a letter to the trustees also so i think the trust magazines worked very well and more importantly when the assets are in the trust it's not in your state and it's not subject to change tax and it's not a subject to the executive fees however that there is these compliance issues that you need to more importantly if you believe that you got a son or a child that's really spin through or you want a child that's on substance abuse please use the trust mechanism and you can say that in your world i want my answers to be dealt with on a sharia basis however when it comes to x his assets must go into a trust for him to be formed on your death and uh and wonderfully a testamentary trust will be formed effectively from that point of view then please make arrangement for all the cash requirements in an estate try and make arrangements for the cash requirements in this state effectively in other words except that there's going to be fees payable to the executives um that there's taxes and all those and liabilities to be paid do not leave the problem to the ears effectively if you believe an asset should be sold because there is no cash then give clear instructions do not let the ears sit around the table and debate for hours which asset are we going to sell because they may have emotive lines to the assets really effectively the next important point is please communicate with your family indicate to them where the world is indicate to them who are going to be the executives indicate to them what you're thinking is the biggest challenge in a sharia war is who gets what for their share the biggest challenge in a sharia world is who gets what for this year's so to illustrate the point if you got listed shares and you got a house and you got a car and you got a business and your assets are total 10 million rent and your wife must get one eight one two five oh which asset does she get for one to five oh do you see the problem if the sun must get four million rain hypothetically which assets does he get for four million rand if the daughter must get two million hand which assets so generally the way to overcome that you discuss that up front alternatively you say in your world i want my assets to be dealt with on a sharia basis however i recommend subject to everybody's consent that the business goes towards to my son towards his share of the islamic inheritance if it's more then he must pay in and if it's less he gets that plus something else always remember money and near money is easily divisible money and near money in other words unit trust a car that you can sell is easily divisible the moment you go beyond that you've got other kinds of assets you should seriously apply your mind as to how and consult a consultant how this is going to happen so importantly communication is important liquidity is important so finally i want to leave you with an acronym those of you got a pin you can write this acronym down picks p i c k s p i c k s p stands for plan have a plan have a world have a plan where the money is gonna come from i is information the biggest challenge that we have in an estate is information where is the title deed where the bank account numbers what is the pin number of the accounts okay what's the registration number of the cars what's your credit card number we need information and as you know no estate takes less than one year and it's gone almost to three years to wind up if you got that readily available then that makes life easy communicate c is for the communication i said communicate with your family k has have some knowledge of the process have some knowledge how inheritance is going to work effectively and finally there is remember there is a spiritual dimension to passing on the assets it's clearly spelt that on the basis of the quran and the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam shukran for your time and i hope that was useful shukran alhamdulillah mashallah thank you very much i think that was a great great um uh understanding um about the importance of planning and how we should be going ahead to plan uh brother shulkin uh there are some questions that are coming through i want to encourage everyone to use the chats um just to ask some questions uh brother shulkin i just want us to have a quick question he has aspects related to um the pension fund act um life policies uh so if i had to just group them up it would really be roughly about issues that are related to our tax benefit um as well as our policies and now from a sharia perspective we understand that life policies in relation to uh islam is not permissible um and i think that imam can also can also give us some insight on that but there are some questions where we have to sometimes entertain life policies because of work pension provident funds etc so section 37c of the pension funds act can you just give us a sense of how does one deal with the pension benefits um when it comes to walls yeah so all pension funds and uh provident funds and retirement nutty funds are actually managed by trustees by trustees when you nominate the beneficiary in your pension fund your provident fund and your time duty that's a recommendation by you however the day you die the case is presented to the trustees and unfortunately the trustees have the final say on the matter really okay so often we have the cases for example of a husband has merit got married to another wife second wife and they are smaller the minor children from that wife and their major children from the first wife most likely the trustees will look at the minor children for example even though even though you said i be i i recommend my spouse to be the a of of the pension fund so the answer very simply is the trustees have the final say and the case is presented to the trustees as far as life insurance is concerned um obviously um most opinions is that and sheikh will contribute to this is that it's it's not permissible however there is consensus amongst the scholars that the life insurance proceeds can be used towards the cost of an estate towards a death cost of an estate in other words the estate duty the income tax the capital gains tax and the executive fees and so in our roles and what i recommend to everyone is that you clearly spell out you make the process policy payable to the estate and then you say in your will under bequest i bequeath that the process be used towards death taxes that's the first statement you make two is you then say that the contributions you've made goes into the allow pot for sharia apportionment because contributions are allowed to be taken out of it and finally if there is still a surplus after that you recommend a charitable institution so for example if your policy is saying payable a million ran and your estate cost total cost of all the cost of the estate is 500 000 ran and your contributions you can get a certificate from the broker or the financial planner or the insurance company they would say the contributions were 200 000 ran then 500 plus 200 and then the 300 000 will then be paid out by the executive to but you got to spell it out in the world otherwise it ends up in a common pot amongst everything effectively so spell it out very clearly in the world from that point of view however most policies and this is another important point most financial planners make the spouse the beneficiary of the policy and the reason for that is that when the policy is paid into the estate it itself attracts 20 death taxes 20 percent however if the policy is payable to the spouse it doesn't attract that 20 percent so anything between husband and wife or wife and husband is always free of death taxes always free okay so what happens in this case the financial planner says to you this is a great product make the spouse a beneficiary but you don't have to you're not going to pay the 20 percent but on what basis does the spouse bring the money back to the estate to settle the cost there's no basis there's no basis whatever she brings there is no request on her there's no call on her to make that therefore if you believe that these costs are to cover their state you and if you need a million rand you actually need 1.2 because the million grand itself is going to attract the 20 so that's a very important point make the estate the beneficiary and it will solve all the problems and the reason the logic for that we can use that is that simply because this is a a tax imposed by the government on your wealth and you don't want to um decrease your own wealth that you've built up you're happy to use this mechanism in every islamic country there's never this taxes there's never taxes really so we are in the sarah country and and we got death taxes okay jazakallah so much that was a great detailed um answer to the question i think we can move safely into the next section which we are going to look at is the q and a um and to do our q a we have already some questions that we have here um so i'm just gonna um talk about the first question that's come up and sheikh i want to pose this question to you he talks about in the islamic succession plan is there something like so i'm not sure if you understand that question but uh um a sister is asking that question if we can maybe just uh get that uh um i am posing it to you sheikh yes i'm i'm not basically so clear with a probably yeah so in terms of islamic law um there is something referred to in the maliki mother as an omar and that is basically where um a person then gifts by way of a gift to to another person so let's say there's a husband and a wife and a husband um he owns a house and he wants to give during his lifetime to his wife a lifelong userfact of the house in her favor and even has it registered by by the teach office so um that usage of the property will extend past his lifetime as well so for as long as she's alive even if she lives longer than him she will be sorted out for the rest of her life in the event of her passing then that asset that house for example will then be redirected back into the estate or basically at the time of his death already it will be redirected but uh the usage of the property will remain with her for the rest of her life and and that is also a way of of ensuring that your your wife is sorted for the rest of your life or if you have a young child who would also like to give something like that as a gift um that that that can be done and definitely jazakallah uh for that one sheikh um uh brother zainal i wanna come and bring you in on this question here i think that's quite um pertinent to hipaa uh the question is are there tax implications when gifting in terms of heber okay uh jazakallah for that question okay so basically if you if you're giving a gift to your wife there's no tax implications to that okay if you're giving a gift to your children then you are allowed to give up to about a hundred thousand rents per annum to anybody else to to your children in particular if you're giving a gift to a pbo like public benefit organization such as occult south africa or any other uh non-profit organization which is a registered public benefit organization then also you are exempted from any donation stacks if you're giving it via your will if you through your wasa if you're giving uh to to a public benefit organization or to your spouse uh there there are no taxes uh payable for that as well uh up to a certain amount for a pbo it's completely text exempt so those type of gifts um i think would be would would you you'd need to actually consult with your advisor prior to that to see exactly how much of it will be taxable and how much will not be taxable uh but uh clearly uh the two uh the the two entities or the wife and or the spouse and the uh public benefit organization or charity charity organization those are clearly tax exempt so uh i think when you when you when you planning your estate think about this carefully because it actually saves you some estate duty as well because there's no estate duty on donations that you give to a public benefit organization or donations that you that the the the heba that you give to your spouse in for example uh it may be in the form of the the claim that uh schokit actually mentioned early on which was which is quite an interesting one where wives have to claim for their contributions to the costs of their you know running of the house and taking over the husband's responsibilities so uh he may compensate her for that or he may this gift that he gives to her in terms of the mahar can also be construed as a debt so you know it's quite an interesting way to actually plan your estate so that you minimize your taxation as well thank you so much um okay i i'm gonna deal with some of these questions in batches we seem to have a trend that's kind of on self unraveling yeah um [Music] there is a question so they know brother zainal if you can stay on with me is this someone from okafor can help to draft the bull is there any product from a car for any financial institution to cover the executive fees etc so i just want you to deal with that question for us please okay so yes uh i think after this particular webinar we will be sending out a a little service form to ask people what type of service they would like to have for example they would like to have a consultation or they would like to draw up a trust or they would like to appoint an executor or whatever the the need is and then we will be able to recommend you know the service providers relevant service providers for those particular needs but certainly we can help them to set up the world we can help them with the uh the the point about covering of costs and there were other questions related to covering of uh either estate duty or executives fees so currently there are two organizations that that actually provide this kind of service but it means actually taking out some kind of uh takaful policy to to be able to cover those costs in the event of your death and to cover whatever you know the calculated pre-calculated expenses might be so uh yes those are clear possibilities uh if you don't mind i just want to mention something else that showcase actually brought up with regard to to to trust for minor children now you could either set up your own trust or you could use an organization such as okaf south africa to actually house your minor miners trusts minus trust funds because you don't need to actually create a trust and create additional expenses in managing and maintaining and complying with all those rules and regulations when there is an existing facility that one could actually use not everyone can actually afford to establish their own trust and manage it and all of that so i thought i just mentioned that as well as a service that okaf south africa can provide because it is a registered trust and it does make it it is capable of managing minor uh minus funds so one of the pitfalls that that one has to be careful about is what happens to minus funds that are or if you have any minor children what happens to those funds now if you don't have a clause in your will to to to say that your minus funds should not go into the guardians fund which which the master actually controls then you've got a bit of a you've got a problem because your minor children's money is now going to be sitting in the guardian's fund so in order to avoid that we have the clause in your world to ensure that it actually goes into a trust if if you've got a big enough fund then by all means create your own trust but if you have smaller funds it would be better to actually hand it over to trustees within okaf south africa which is a registered trust that can look after those minor funds and that can you know manage those funds in a way that the executor really wants love jazakallah so much uh since we're talking a little bit about the trusts i think it's um pertinent to bring brother shulker in here brother shokar questions are being asked about uh if you could elaborate on some of the pros and cons of us setting up a um trust what is administration costs um and tax implications and impact and then i also want to just keep you on the line for a further question with regards to the example you gave us previously if you have daughters and health daughters inherit we have a question on that that we can talk about after the trust fund question if you can just come in there for us i um i didn't pick up that question quickly but i think it's something about daughters i i i didn't the the sound wasn't that good you can hear me i can hear you uh so we wanna we wanna deal with two questions with you one is the one about trust funds so uh how do we set it up and administration wise what are the costs involved and the processes that um and the impact of uh tax implication on a trust fund and then the second question we'll deal with is related to whether or not if you have only one daughter um does the residue still go to the brothers and sisters if there is a father that is deceased uh sorry if brothers and sisters if the father of the deceased is still alive does the father not block the deceased siblings um and does the father they not get one sixth um from the residue so we just want you to comment on those two questions for us please yeah so when one talks about the trust i i think the answer to that is one needs to look at very holistically one can't just look at from a tax angle effectively and estate duty and so on i think one needs to say listen why what is the need for the stress um what's so critical for the stress and and and then work through the process uh you will be able to manage and to understand what the cost is typically the cost of maintaining the annual compliance factors and so on but the answer to that is one needs to look at each one individually and and assess it from that so for example if you have a disabled child for example or a child that's on um substance abuse really i mean even if it's two million rent you can't afford to or the millionaire and you can't afford that the egg gets the iran in his or her hands under the circumstances are you at me so in in that situation in that situation um excuse me uh trying to get my my charges going here um in that situation uh it's a very different objective to another arrangement effectively so the answer is there are costs there are ways to minimize the tax also you don't have to put your assets into a trust you can put it into a vehicle below the trust and so on and so on so i think the the said person who posed a question should really analyze it with his consultant in this case what the needs are and so on as regards the as regards the the inheritance so in the case with are two daughters you said eight two eight two daughters one daughter um the set air will will inherit fifty percent the daughter will inherit fifty percent if there's a parent a lie obviously the father or mother has died so there is another parent alive that parent will inherit 1-6 okay and then the brothers and sisters will inherit the balance of the disease on a two-to-one basis if it is brothers and sisters or if it's just brothers they will inherit it equally effectively but many of these computations i must just remind the the the audience uh you know they are wonderful uh inheritance calculations islamic inheritance calculations you just google in the islamic inheritance calculator and it asks you to enter what the surviving is and it gives you the answer it gives you the answer absolutely and i i think that um apps are all available uh through some of the um muslim hands and places like that as well as on google an interesting question here brother choker i'm not sure if you'll be able to give an answer to this one uh but it does ask um the sister has a house and would like to gift it to her child what's the best option is it sell at minimum amount or transfer to his or her name so i i think that is more on the personal side of yeah what is the value of the house yeah look you know um obviously um the reason why the person wants to gift it is first of all if if if it is done through a will there are other ears so the objective is to deny the other ears then that can't be right that's the first point i want to in other words you can donate you can gift into your lifetime but the objective must be very clear okay so if there is one child for example and if it's a daughter and as you just said the uncles and aunts will inherit for example are you with me so if you believe that you want to donate it to the child let's look at the challenge the other way what happens if the child pre-diseases you okay the child predecessors you and has a will then the calculation has to be done on the basis of that so i think you need to think this through very carefully it is not just as straightforward that i want to gift it to my child are you with me and i sheikh earlier and alluded what comfort have you got that you still can have security of the home unless you don't live in the home for example unless you don't live in the home and so on so again the answer is that um yes you have to look at it you've got to sell it at market value there's the nation's tax that must apply and again it's not a simple answer again you need to consult somebody who understands these mechanisms and give you the best answer and i'm not sure if sheikh wants to comment on on the fact that the donation is made during your lifetime and maybe deny the is on islamic succession really i think that's um a good question if she can come in on that um and then at the backdrop of that chick we have another question that says i i would like to give inheritance to my son before i die so by the time i go my son would have acquired the majority of inheritance so maybe the two questions are related you can comment on that for that concerning the previous um question of the house if if if the father wants to sell the house for whatever reason he might be it's not stated in the uh in the question um then he sells he sells it to market related uh price of value which means that the money basically comes back to the father and he can do with that money as as he so wishes however he decides then to to have the agreement that okay i'm selling it to you for this amount of money i'll give you something back but then you have to give me like useful in favor of that as a gift that could also be another another possibility so um the the pros and cons must must basically be discussed around around the matter and they can definitely come to a a a reasonable conclusion in that regard the next question was a similar question where um the the son has acquired a lot of inheritance uh before the demise of the parent um so how does one uh by the time the parent passes away that son would have acquired majority of inheritance already okay basically the inheritance only applies at the point of the the person's demise then you're looking at inheritance prior to the person having passed on then we're looking at maybe gifts or a sale transaction to someone and so forth the child could have bought certain assets from the father the car the house and so forth before he passed away so it's nothing to do with inheritance the father can even acquire more properties later on um and sometimes you hear people speaking about that i'm giving out my inheritance now already there's nothing like that because inheritance only applies and the laws of allah only apply as foreign once you pass away so before that point in time then you have to look at is it a gift and if you're giving it to your children uh and they're all okay they're all working they all have all stable then the right thing to do is to be a feel between all of them by giving them equal shares right as far as that is concerned if one however is about struggling and so forth then you can explain that to the children and give a gift to that child as as well um but to answer the question uh it's not distributing the inheritance or maybe it is distributing parts of his estate but the problem again lies in the fact that it might be that that person doing this might live for many many more years so he has already given so much away and if that son dies before him as well um then that property does not necessarily come back to him he will he might need one six years but it will go to to that person's um spouse and children and so forth so these factors must be kept in mind before making a decision in this regard okay please don't go away we want to ask you the question about please explain if a non-muslim child can inherit from a parent who became a muslim if they not considered legal islamic inheritance can they be left with any wasia so i think it's a two-part question for yourself and brothers anal no i think the chef can answer that question um basically if if if the family was was was all christian it was a christian family and another father i believe then embraced islam so he has a non-muslim son all right so the son you can't force him uh to become muslim that that is not a problem as you says we can't we can't force anyone to become muslim but then we look at the distribution of the estate of of the muslim father he can bequeath up to a maximum of one third of his net district after all liabilities have been deducted in favor of that non-muslim son it is also possible that one of his other sons also embraced islam and at that point in time he can then work around with his state to even give his muslim and non-muslims children inheriting the same proportion one inheriting in terms of maybe the laws of miraf and the other inheriting in terms of the laws of warsia but at the end of the day they might need the same amount of money if i can if i can just come in there as well we just recently had a case where the father inherited from his father but this person also had non-muslim children or that purportedly are non-muslim children but he didn't actually make any provision in his world for these non-muslim children so that's another thing that we have to be very very careful about and the the other problem is that a pitfall that this person did his world maybe in 2007 and he passes away in 2021 and during this interim period the world was never ever reviewed so now he's got a he passed away and these uh non-muslim children are disinherited in in terms of the inheritance so they basically left now with nothing so and if the other is deemed to actually share some of their inheritance with these the other siblings then it it may work but who's going to do that you know so if it hasn't been clarified in the world uh those children be they non-muslim have actually lost out jazakallah i think it's a beautiful time for us to talk about some of the pitfalls and things that we can do to avoid um uh a lot of the times you know that uh we do estate planning in in a very um terrible way we don't really pay much attention to that our inheritance structures and sharia compliances sometimes we're taking out wills through banks um and and thinking that it's okay to be able to bequeath certain um uh uh certain assets and to our children in certain ways um we don't really have great full understanding of what we should be doing but in collecting all of that they certainly are going to be times when we're not going to get it right um and sometimes we are going to get it right but what are some of the things that we need to be thinking about what are the areas that we can avoid when it comes to things like our compliance from a sharia perspective from an inheritance perspective from a tax perspective um as well as from a waseer perspective um and and also bringing in the concept of um work of being uh something that we want to also leave as a legacy and something that we want to earn perpetual benefits from when we all go so what are some of the lessons that we can take away from us with uh with regards to these areas um what have you learned what have you seen what are best practices and how do we avoid those pitfalls and close the gaps um in in the in these areas so i'm going to ask each of the speakers to give us uh just a one minute on that and then we can just wrap up uh depending on how many more questions we have to take okay so brother shulker you are up first yeah look for me the most vital is communication communication with the family communication with the professional advisors and so on i think to for too long do we the plan does the estate plan without uh any kind of form of communication and and then the family doesn't actually know where to start really from so for me communication with the relevant stakeholders is the most critical communication but when the estate process can start communication as to when can we approach the executives review this documentation to be signed it doesn't mean the state is going to be handed over and with the administration nightmare as we have in the masters office as as you know at the moment they don't totally from an iit perspective states take anything from promise you anything from one year to three years to wind up and the later you start the more problematic it becomes so for me communication communication and communication is vital to that so much uh and then just i think there's a question that's linked to that in terms of setting up of a sharia wall um is that something brother show could you and your officer would be able to do or calf would be able to do um or is is is it a is it a daunting process or is it something that is quite simple that's a daunting process i gave you the criteria and i gave you the statement that's needed in the world however we always look at other challenges with me as i said earlier on um who gets what for this year and so on so they welcome to contact me i'm sure you're going to provide all the details at the end and i'm sure okave will also provide that service through their own office or a service provider but that's what we do full time that's what we do fantastic jazakallah for that uh brother zainal yeah i think that um you know there are several areas where people can really be uh you know [Music] more diligent in terms of their estates and planning so the one one thing is that first of all i think the most important pitfall is that we don't have our worlds in place and and that is i think probably one of the most critical areas that we all need to consider to make sure that it's all up to date secondly i think that each person that makes up a world must have a nice complete file and that fire must have a powerful attorney it must have the will it must have if there was a showcase mentioned about the acknowledgement of debt maybe you have those if you've got any creditors make a note of that make a note of all your insurance policies make a note of all your credit cards and all your telephone numbers your pin numbers uh i mean a simple thing like you some somebody passes away and now he's left with a phone and you want to contact all his contacts to inform them that you you know so and so passed away but you can't access that phone because you don't even have a pin number so have all that nicely put into a file and it's accessible and and your ears or two or three people actually know exactly where those documents are [Music] very uh often like some of the speakers have mentioned people don't even know where to start where to look for it and at the time when the person dies things are chaotic they're hectic people are under stress and you know they they they emotional uh and and i think it's important as part of that communication actually that an extension of that communication is to have all your documentation in one nice place where it's easily accessible of course there are many other uh points but i think let's hand it over to sheikh now noreen could i just intervene day and fight uh i actually forgot to mention that we have an electronic personality document on our website that you can populate and maintain yourself um if you download so it's an electronic document that covers the a to z as xenu has just covered so anyone who wants to access it they're welcome to go on to our website and download it and store it for themselves or give it to the advisor so there is a there is a personal estate document that covers a to z what's required information the number of your car and all those kind of details that sounds like a very useful document and template that people could save and keep jazakallah so much brothers i know jazakallah so much for your insightfulness on how we could actually record keep some of these pertinent information as well uh certainly things we always just forget it's it's the last thing like where's everybody's id when someone passes away it's like who knows but thank you very much for that uh dr sheikh your closing words on this well my closing remarks is basically that any person that is either young or old you will definitely die as we know but in order to prepare for that point in time and also understand your status quo because many times a person might for example have a child they say that their child was considered a wedlock you you you might not know that that child if you understand it will stating that in terms of and um it might just be that the islamic institution doesn't provide that that person will be entitled to inherit and as a consequence to that you you could have dealt with this beforehand by drafting a clause in the world stating that the oshini is from the was here so they always it might be some of our viewers they may be married to non-muslims as well so that would be a disqualification in terms of islamic law but you can decrease that as a request in favor of that that wife so she can also inherit so to understand all of you your status quo and then to make a decision as to what you want to do with with the estate and also with regard to debts and and and and liabilities so many times we're very uh trusting and a person might say no you just take a ten thousand rand you can sort me out again but when you pass away that person has no tangible proof that you owe him that amount of money and that would definitely be some issue for you in that grave so my advice is as as as a summary is that ensure that you know exactly what your status is and ensure that you do the best uh estate planning with the great people involved i just want to add on to that that when i started when i when i looked at the topic that was coming up for discussion today one of the things that struck me was that allah has spoken about um absolutely nothing on the procedure of how to make salah how to perform your hajj how to do all these five pillars of islam with the exception of world's inheritance the detail in the in the quran is so amazing and that was something that i thought wow allah had left that for himself to discuss and not as part of what our prophet salallahu islam taught us so that was really something as an eye opener to me everything about um wolves and and inheritance etc is detailed in the quran really really well so from that perspective i think that it's really up to us to go out there understand how to interpret how to be able to apply that and there are many options as the speakers have so kindly shared with us today how much we can actually do and think about our estates our um families our loved ones in a very different way but we've got to be able to start somewhere and starting somewhere requires that we go out there seek the knowledge information agave is a platform that does that um uh brother shocker does that our sheikh does that you know it's just for us to go out there and get the information we have a few questions that have not been uh um asked uh but i'm going to leave those questions for now um because we still have a closing door that i would like sheikh to do for us but on that note i'd like to say a warm thank you to each and every participant who has joined us we've had an overwhelming turnout today more than 230 people was was on for tonight which is not something that i think we anticipated at uh three o'clock this afternoon we were still sitting in the in the high of 150 people so this was a really really wonderful response from the people showing that there's an eagerness for people to want this information i do know that uh brothers i know you've mentioned that okaf will be running these sessions um for the next or once every quarter we invite the beautiful speakers to come back and share some more of their knowledge with us um and then uh we definitely will keep people informed questions that have not been answered will certainly be made available on email um our technicians have worked hard taking down all the questions and we'll certainly post them i think they're about three questions or so that does require a lengthier response than what we can afford time to give us right now on that note i'm going to hand over to brother zainal to just give us some last closing words from oak calf uh which we have been truly blessed to be here today and basically what's uh the only thing left for me is to say jazakallah to our panel of speakers to shoka to sheikh uh munir uh you have really enlightened us you have really come forward and you know shared your expert knowledge with with all of us uh it has been really very insightful and and very beneficial as well i'm sure to all the participants as well and we hope really as noreen said to see you again inshallah on these on this platform we we hope to have further deep dives uh in various topics and i think covered quite a wide range of issues tonight but i think uh as we go forward we can look at specific topics and and go much more deeper into those particular topics we will be sending out after this event a little uh email a little form uh for just a bit of evaluation and also any particular information that you actually require and then we can then see who you know we can forward that to the relevant people who can provide us or provide you with that particular service uh but once again jazakallah you've been a wonderful audience uh you've sent in a lot of questions a very very interesting questions as well and we hope that you know this is just going to enrich all of us with with the knowledge and confidence in dealing with with worlds and estates inshallah over to you again nuremberg and thanks to you for being a wonderful uh moderator thank you have fun so much i'm going to ask you to make our closing dua and we will take our leave and put our guests farewell and thanks to us in the technical side of it as well sorry allah

Channel: soukISLAM

Views: 659

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Islamic wills, estate planning, religious debt, waqf, gifts, awqaf, awqaf sa, Muneer Abderauf, Showkat Alie Mukadam, Zeinoul Abedien Cajee, death, last will and testament, muslim will

Id: 7VEaALV9LPw

Length: 115min 20sec (6920 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021