The Third That Outlives You
4 min read
A Complete Guide to Charitable Giving in Your Sharia-Compliant Will
Leaving a gift to charity is one of the most encouraged acts in Islam — a way of turning a portion of your estate into a source of ongoing reward long after you’re gone. But good intentions alone aren’t enough. Without the right legal structure, a charitable gift in your will can fail entirely, leave your family exposed to a costly legal challenge, or simply never reach the cause you meant to support.
This guide walks through exactly how to build charitable giving into a will that is both religiously sound and legally enforceable in Australia — covering waqf, sadaqah jāriyah, the one-third limit, and the single most common mistake that causes charitable gifts to fail in probate.
What is waqf, and can you include it in your will?
Yes. A waqf (a perpetual Islamic endowment) can be established through your will, provided it’s funded from your Wasiyyah: the discretionary bequest capped at one-third of your net estate (more on that limit below).
A waqf works by preserving the underlying asset, such as a property or an investment fund, while the income or yield it generates is distributed to a charitable cause indefinitely. Under Australian succession law, this is typically set up as a charitable testamentary trust, a trust that only comes into effect after your death, created through your will. For the trust to be legally recognised (and to access tax concessions), its purpose needs to meet the statutory definition of a “charitable purpose” under the Charities Act 2013 (Cth), which sets out twelve recognised categories, including the advancement of religion and relief of poverty. A trust that doesn’t clearly fit within these categories risks failing to qualify.
“It is better that you leave your heirs wealthy than leave them destitute, begging from others.”
Sadaqah jāriyah: leaving a charity that keeps giving after you’re gone
Sadaqah jāriyah, continuous, ongoing charity is a broader and often simpler way to leave a lasting legacy. Rather than establishing and managing a perpetual structure like a waqf, you instruct your executor to direct a portion of your one-third Wasiyyah toward a project with long-term benefit: funding a water well, contributing to a mosque, or endowing a scholarship, for example.
In practice, sadaqah jāriyah is most often executed as a straightforward lump-sum payment to an established, registered Australian charity that specialises in sustainable infrastructure or education projects — avoiding the ongoing administrative burden of a trust while still creating benefit that continues well beyond the initial gift.
Can you leave more than one-third of your estate to charity?
No, not unilaterally. This limit isn’t arbitrary; it comes directly from a well-known hadith involving the companion Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas, recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. When Sa’d, gravely ill and with only a daughter to inherit from him, asked the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ whether he could give away two-thirds of his wealth in charity, he was told no. He then asked about half — again, no. Told to give a third instead, the Prophet added: “A third, and a third is much. It is better that you leave your heirs wealthy than leave them destitute, begging from others.”
This one-third ceiling is the settled position across all four Sunni schools of jurisprudence, and it exists specifically to protect the fixed inheritance shares (Farāʾiḍ) guaranteed to your surviving family members. You cannot override those shares simply by directing your entire estate to charity.
There is one exception: the majority of Sunni scholars hold that a bequest exceeding one-third can stand — but only if your legal heirs unanimously and voluntarily consent to it after your death. That consent can’t be locked in ahead of time within the will itself; it has to be given freely once you’ve passed. Separately, under Australian law, a will that leaves everything to charity without making reasonable provision for dependants is far more vulnerable to a family provision claim, where the court can order part of the estate redirected to a family member regardless of what the will says.
How to name a charity correctly so your bequest doesn’t fail
This is the detail that trips up more charitable gifts than any point of religious law. Under Australian probate law, a gift to charity can fail completely if the recipient organisation is too vague to identify — for example, a will that simply says “to a local mosque.” If the executor and the court can’t confirm exactly which entity you meant, the gift may lapse and fall back into the general estate instead of reaching any charity at all.
To avoid this, your will needs to state the charity’s exact registered legal name and its Australian Business Number (ABN). The organisation should also be a verified entity on the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) register — this confirms it’s legally recognised as a charity and, in most cases, eligible for Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status with the ATO.
As examples, two Islamic charities currently registered with the ACNC are the National Zakat Foundation Incorporated (ABN: 39 521 979 908) and Islamic Relief Australia, which holds current DGR status and fundraising licences across NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, WA and the ACT. Naming either this precisely — full legal name plus ABN — removes any ambiguity for your executor and the court.
Wasiyya’s platform is built to prevent this exact failure point: our Charitable Disposition Register hardcodes verified legal entities directly into your document, so your chosen charity is identified correctly from the outset rather than left open to interpretation.
This article is an informational guide to navigating these frameworks and does not constitute personalised legal, financial, or religious advice. Charitable trusts and waqf structures in particular carry real legal and tax complexity — always discuss your specific circumstances with a qualified solicitor or Islamic scholar before finalising your will.