Life Is Temporary
Janazah Wishes
of Name
Written
- IStart here
- IIWashing and burial
- IIIWhat I owe, and what I am owed
- IVMy bequest and my papers
- VTo my family
كُلُّ نَفْسٍۢ ذَآئِقَةُ ٱلْمَوْتِ
“Every soul will taste death.” Āl ʿImrān 3:185
Keep this with your will, and tell your family where it is.
If I have died
Start here
إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّآ إِلَيْهِ رَٰجِعُونَ
Indeed we belong to Allah, and to Him we will return.
Call this number first
My masjid’s funeral committee. They arrange the washing, the shroud, the prayer and the burial.
Then tell these people, in this order
My body
Washing and burial
I would like to be washed by
Someone of the same sex, or my spouse, with the masjid’s washers.
I would like to be buried at
Please
- Bury me as soon as you can. Do not wait for relatives to travel.
- Wash me with water and sidr, and shroud me in plain white cotton.
- Pray the janazah prayer over me, and make duʿāʾ for me after.
- Keep it simple. Spend what would be spent on display on charity.
Before anything is inherited
What I owe, and what I am owed
My debts are paid from my estate, after my funeral and before anything goes to my heirs. Please pay every one of them.
What I owe
Loans, bills, money owed to family, any unpaid zakat.
What I am owed
And whether I forgive it.
The order: funeral, then debts, then bequests from a third, then the heirs. al-Sirājiyyah (al-Sajāwandī), opening chapter.
My estate
My bequest and my papers
My wasiyyah
Up to one third of what remains after debts, to people or causes that are not already my heirs.
Where my papers are
Will, deed, bank and retirement accounts, insurance, passwords.
A third, and a third is much: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2742. No bequest to an heir: Sunan Abī Dāwūd 2870 (ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ).
In my own words
To my family
—
“I am not in this world except as a rider who seeks shade under a tree, then moves on and leaves it.”
The Prophet ﷺ · Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 2377 (ṣaḥīḥ)
For my family
Make duʿāʾ for me. Give charity on my behalf. Keep the ties I kept. And prepare your own pages; none of us knows our time.
About this document
Written with Life Is Temporary, a free guide for Muslim families in America. It records wishes and is not a legal will. Every ruling it mentions is sourced at lifeistemporary.com/sources.