SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This article concerns the rules of Islamic (Shari’a) succession law applicable in Islamic countries and the various possible ways in which a Middle East HNW individual can organize his or her affairs in order to limit the application of those rules, particularly by the use of Islamically complaint trusts. Islamic Law has a complex and rigid system of legal rules which provide for a deceased person's estate to be apportioned among certain close relatives in definite fixed shares. This system of forced heirship applies generally to at least two-thirds of a person's estate. The opportunities to avoid the mandatory rules of forced heirship in Islamic law are perhaps fewer than in other similar systems of law and certainly fewer than the common law. The three main possibilities are lifetime gift, bequest/Will or waqf (an Islamic trust equivalent).