An Islamic Will, built for Australia, that holds up when life changes.
Most Islamic wills available to Australian Muslims were written for a family that doesn’t change, an estate made of cash and a house, and a country whose laws don’t really apply.
Yours is none of those things.
This is a complete estate pack — a Last Will and Testament, executor guide, inheritance calculator, estate snapshot, codicil, joint ownership declaration, enduring power of attorney, a guide for solicitors and courts, a guide for non-Muslim family members, and a religious obligations reference — designed from the first page for Australian Muslims who want their Will to reflect both the farāʾiḍ and the Australian succession laws their estate will actually be administered under.
It is the document we wished existed when we went looking for it ourselves.
The problem with most Islamic wills
If you’ve looked at Islamic will templates online, in community centres, or through overseas services, you’ve probably seen the same pattern:
A short document — ten to fifteen pages — that lists your spouse, your children by name, your assets in broad categories, and a few paragraphs of inheritance instruction. It assumes a specific family composition. It assumes every asset you own will pass under the Will. It says little about Australian law. It says nothing about your superannuation, your cryptocurrency, your business interests, or the religious duties you haven’t yet discharged.
That kind of document works on the day it’s signed. It often fails on the day it’s needed.
Families change. Children are born. Marriages end. Parents pass away. Grandchildren arrive whose parent has predeceased you. A child may leave the faith, or marry someone who hasn’t entered it. You might start a business. You might buy a second property as joint tenants. You might never get to perform Hajj.
When any of these things happen — and at least one of them happens in almost every family — a fixed-template Will produces an outcome the testator never intended. The farāʾiḍ shares no longer add up. Assets fall outside the Will entirely. The executor doesn’t know whether to follow the document or seek scholarly advice. The family fights. Lawyers bill for years. The inheritance the testator spent a lifetime building is consumed by the very dispute the Will was supposed to prevent.
The pack was built to solve this — once, properly.
What makes this pack different
The farāʾiḍ rules are integrated into the Will itself, not assumed.
Clause 5 and Schedule A together implement the full classical inheritance framework according to the majority Sunni position — fixed-share heirs, residuary heirs (ʿaṣabah), proportional reduction (ʿawl), proportional return (radd), the sole-surviving-spouse rule, the maternal-line and collateral fallback heirs (dhawū al-arḥām) across four classes and four degrees, and a terminal charitable disposition when no eligible heir remains. Roughly twenty pages of inheritance machinery.
The practical effect is this: the Will does not need to be rewritten every time your family changes. Whatever your validated heir set looks like at the moment of death — whoever survives you, in whatever combination — the Will already covers it.
It is built for Australian law, not adapted from somewhere else.
The Will references and operates within the Wills Act 1968 (ACT), the Trustee Act 1925 (ACT), the Administration and Probate Act 1929 (ACT), and the Family Provision Act 1969 (ACT). It addresses the section 60 notice to creditors and the section 64 notice for family provision protection. It handles joint tenancy versus tenants in common correctly. It accounts for Binding Death Benefit Nominations and the tax treatment of superannuation death benefits. It explains how trust and company assets sit outside the personal estate and what powers an executor actually has over them.
Family provision claims — where a person believes they have not been adequately provided for under the Will — are a genuine risk in Australia. The pack acknowledges this directly, records the testator’s considered judgment about every potential claimant, and gives the executor a procedural path if a claim arrives.
Religious financial obligations are discharged before distribution.
Most wills are silent on the religious duties a Muslim leaves behind. This one is not. Clause 3 sets out four obligations as pre-distribution charges on the estate, in priority order:
- General zakāt on remaining assets above niṣāb, with a complete methodology for the aggregate pool, the ḥawl requirement, exclusions, and direction of payment;
- Zakāt on superannuation, with an elected methodology (full deferral to receipt, calculated on the net payout after tax) so no annual liability runs during the accumulation phase;
- Ḥajj al-badal, the proxy pilgrimage, where the obligation arose during life and was not discharged, subject to a financial sufficiency condition so the estate is not exhausted;
- Fidya for missed fasting, where days were owed and could not be made up, calculated at the rate prevailing at the time of administration.
Each obligation has a pre-planning record in the Estate Snapshot, an activation rule, a verification process for the executor, and a fallback if the estate is insufficient. None of this is left to the executor to invent at the worst moment of their life.
Specific gifts that classical fiqh allows but standard wills omit.
Within the one-third waṣiyya limit and the rule against bequests to fixed-share heirs, the Will provides for:
- A charitable endowment of ten per cent of the distributable pool to a named registry of Australian Islamic charities, with cy-près fallback;
- A parents-in-law gift where one or both of the spouse’s parents survive;
- A displaced descendants gift for grandchildren whose parent predeceased the testator and whose own inheritance path is therefore severed;
- A non-qualifying children gift for biological children excluded from farāʾiḍ by reason of religious qualification, and for adopted children, with calculated allocation and a hard cap;
- An executor appreciation gift as a personal acknowledgment of the burden assumed.
Each gift is structured to lapse cleanly into the residuary estate if its conditions are not met, with no orphan provisions.
Digital assets are addressed directly.
Cryptocurrency held on exchanges or hardware wallets, password vaults, software licences, email and social media accounts, cloud storage, Apple Legacy Contact, Google Inactive Account Manager — all addressed in Clause 16 of the Will and in the Estate Snapshot template. The pack distinguishes between digital assets that can be inherited (cryptocurrency, payment accounts) and those that cannot (most platform accounts, which must be handled through deceased-user processes), and gives the executor a starting point for each.
The pack does not ask you to write your seed phrase into the Will. It records where credentials are stored and who has been shown the access procedure.
Trust structures for minors, illiquid assets, and continuing arrangements.
Where a beneficiary is under eighteen, the Will establishes a trust until majority, with guardian-held funds, Executor accountability, a direct right of accounts for the minor from age sixteen, and a family-and-court backstop. For estates with illiquid assets — a family home, business shares, agricultural land — the Will provides an optional continuing trust framework that allows assets to be held intact while beneficiaries receive their proportional interest, preserving the farāʾiḍ arithmetic without forcing a fire sale.
Multiple executors, guardians, and appointors, with proper substitution chains.
The default Will appoints a spouse, four substitute executors, three substitute guardians, and three substitute trust appointors, with the Supreme Court of the ACT as terminal fallback. The codicil allows the executor structure to be amended without rewriting the Will. The assumption throughout is that the first-named person may not be available, willing, or appropriate when the moment arrives.
An Enduring Power of Attorney covering end-of-life medical treatment.
The pack includes the ACT Enduring Power of Attorney form for property, personal care, health care, and medical research decisions while the testator is alive. Clause 7.4 of the Will records a non-binding personal statement on resuscitation and futile treatment, grounded in the Sunni position that permits withholding futile treatment while prohibiting any act intended to hasten death.
What’s in the pack
| Document | Purpose |
| DOC01 — Last Will and Testament | The binding legal instrument. All operative provisions. |
| DOC01A — Codicil | A template for amending the executor structure or other specific provisions without re-executing the entire Will. |
| DOC02 — Joint Ownership Declaration | A non-binding ethical record between spouses regarding the moral treatment of jointly held property. |
| DOC03 — Orientation and Technical Note | A short guide for solicitors and courts confirming the Will is self-contained. |
| DOC04 — Executor Guide | A step-by-step administration checklist for the executor. |
| DOC05 — Estate Snapshot | A template register of assets, accounts, religious obligation pre-planning records, and key contacts. |
| DOC06 — Inheritance Calculator | A standalone calculator that walks the executor through Clause 5 and points to the relevant subclauses. |
| DOC07 — Non-Muslim Heirs Guide | Planning guidance for families with members who do not profess the Islamic faith. |
| DOC08 — Islamic Estate Management Guide | The jurisprudential basis for the religious obligations, for the personal reference of the testator and the information of any scholar reviewing the plan. |
| Enduring Power of Attorney | ACT statutory form with completion guidance. |
Only DOC01 is legally binding. Everything else exists to make administration possible — for the executor, for the family, for the solicitor, and for the court.
Who this pack is for
You’re likely a good fit if:
- You’re an Australian Muslim adult who wants a Will that reflects both your faith and Australian law;
- Your estate is straightforward enough that a template-based approach makes sense — a home, superannuation, savings, perhaps an investment account or a small business;
- You have a family situation that a one-page form won’t capture cleanly — blended family, non-Muslim relatives, grandchildren, in-laws, dependents with special needs;
- You want the religious obligations (zakāt, Hajj, fidya) discharged from your estate rather than left to your family to figure out;
- You’re willing to have the document reviewed by a qualified Australian solicitor before execution.
Who this pack is not for
The pack is not a substitute for legal advice, and there are situations where a template — any template — is the wrong tool:
- If you hold significant assets in a discretionary family trust where the appointor succession is genuinely contested, you need a solicitor who specialises in trust law before this pack will help you.
- If you have a substantial business with co-owners, a buy-sell agreement, or partnership obligations that interact with your estate, you need bespoke advice.
- If you are anticipating a contested estate — an estranged spouse, a disputed paternity claim, a previous marriage with children from another jurisdiction — please use this pack as a starting point for a conversation with a solicitor, not as a final instrument.
- If your family situation is so unusual that you’ve already had three solicitors give you three different answers, this pack is not going to give you a fourth answer. Speak to a barrister.
The pack is designed to handle the great majority of Australian Muslim estates well, and to be the right starting document for solicitor review in the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Is this Will valid in Australia? The Will is drafted to be executed under the Wills Act 1968 (ACT) and is recognised in all Australian states and territories under the usual reciprocal arrangements. You should have it reviewed by a qualified Australian legal practitioner before execution. The pack includes a draft distribution notice on the cover of every document making this requirement explicit.
Is the Farāʾiḍ methodology approved by a scholar? DOC08 sets out the jurisprudential basis for every methodology elected in the Will, including the zakāt methodology for superannuation, the Ḥajj al-badal activation rule, and the inheritance framework. It is provided so that any ʿālim you consult can review the reasoning. The methodology follows the majority Sunni position and is internally consistent and self-contained — the executor does not need to consult any external source to administer the estate.
What if my family situation changes after I sign? For most changes — a new child, the death of an heir, an asset acquired or sold — the Will adapts automatically because Clause 5 and Schedule A work on the validated heir set at the date of death, not the family as it was at signing. For structural changes — a marriage, a divorce, a major change of jurisdiction — you should have the Will reviewed and, if necessary, re-executed. The codicil allows lighter amendments without full re-execution.
Does this Will cover my superannuation? Superannuation does not automatically form part of any estate. The Will provides a framework for directing super through the estate by way of a Binding Death Benefit Nomination to your Legal Personal Representative, and the Estate Snapshot includes a tracking template. Whether to direct super through your estate or to a dependant directly is a decision you should make with financial advice.
What about my children who aren’t Muslim? Schedule A applies the religious qualification rule for farāʾiḍ purposes, and DOC07 (the Non-Muslim Heirs Guide) discusses the planning options available. The Will provides a Non-Qualifying Children Gift within the one-third waṣiyya limit. The aim is to give the testator a structured way to provide for those family members within what classical fiqh permits, rather than ignoring the question.
Can I use this pack outside the ACT? The Will is drafted for execution in the ACT, but the underlying succession principles and the religious framework apply across Australia. If you live in another state, you should have the document reviewed by a solicitor in your state to adjust the statutory references and the family provision regime. The bones of the pack remain sound.
What does the pack cost? {PRICING}
One final note
This pack is the result of a deliberate decision not to write a short Will.
A short Will is easier to read. It is easier to draft. It is easier to sell. It is also, in the experience of the lawyers and executors who actually administer estates, where most of the problems begin.
The length of this Will reflects the fact that an Australian Muslim estate sits at the intersection of two complete legal systems — Australian succession law and the farāʾiḍ — and that the intersection has detail. Every clause exists because something specific would go wrong without it. The detail is evidence of consideration, not complexity for its own sake.
If you want a Will that holds up when your family changes, your assets shift, and the law evolves around you, this is the pack.
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The pack arrives as a downloadable bundle. Independent legal advice is required before execution. The pack is not a substitute for that advice, and is designed to make that advice efficient and inexpensive rather than to replace it.