This is an excerpt of a news item from Bernama:
KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 — The distribution of wealth based on a will is not the same for a Muslim and non-Muslim, Amanah Raya Bhd group managing director, Datuk Ahmad Rodzi Pawanteh, said.
“A person has the right to give his or her wealth to anyone and in Islam God knows everything,” he said.
Rodzi said for Muslims, the writing of a will was not conclusive compared to non-Muslims as the law of faraid had to be followed and this involved a step-by-step procedure.
“Many Muslims have the misconception that when it comes to the faraid, it applies automatically upon death,” Rodzi told Bernama in an interview. He said the faraid could only be applied when three procedures were complied with.
“The first is the need to pay the funeral expenses of the deceased. The second is to settle all debts. Thirdly, under Islamic law, only a third of the wealth can be given to someone else with two-thirds going to the family,” he said.
Rodzi said an exception to the third rule was possible if all family members agreed to give their shares to a concerned individual.
Maybe I should also add that Business Times reported the ARB as saying that will-writing penetration in Malaysia is still low and to date, about 60,000 Muslims and 80,000 non-Muslims have drawn up their wills. I don’t know where ARB got their figures from but Rockwills Corporation alone has more than 60,000 non-Muslim clients.