East London Islamic Centre

The Problem#

• When a congregation member dies, the imam is often the first person the family turns to — before a solicitor, before the bank, before anyone
• Families need guidance on faraid obligations (who inherits what under Islamic law), funeral arrangements, and charitable bequests (wasiyya)
• The imam has no structured way to receive estate information from the family’s solicitor or will-writer, and no way to confirm the will respects faraid rules
• Funeral wishes — even when carefully recorded in a will — are buried in a PDF that no one reads until days after the burial has already happened
• Islamic burial must happen quickly, ideally within 24 hours of death

How They’d Use INHERIT#

• The Islamic Centre receives INHERIT documents from the deceased’s family or their solicitor, with the islamic-succession extension providing HeirClassification[] with heirClass, fixedShareFraction, and residuaryClass — the imam can verify the faraid calculation matches the family’s school of jurisprudence (school: "hanafi" or school: "shafii")
• wish.json with wishType: "funeral" carries burial preferences: funeralArrangementType: "burial", funeralCeremonyReligion: "Sunni Islam", funeralLocationPreference, and bindingNature: "religiously_obligatory" to distinguish Islamic burial requirements from optional preferences
• The awlAdjustment and raddAdjustment fields in the extension show whether mathematical corrections have been applied to the faraid shares
• bequest.json captures the wasiyya (charitable bequest), validated by the extension’s one-third limit, while organisation.json with organisationType: "religious_institution" tracks bequests directed to the Centre’s waqf fund
• person.json entries carry the deceased’s details and family relationships needed for the faraid calculation

The Integration#

• The Islamic Centre receives INHERIT documents via a simple web portal or email — no API needed
• The imam or administrator opens the document in a viewer that highlights the faraid calculation, funeral wishes, and any bequests to the mosque
• The Centre may produce INHERIT-compatible endorsements confirming the faraid distribution has been reviewed by a qualified scholar

The Business Case#

• The Centre serves approximately 3,000 families, with an estimated 40–60 deaths per year involving families seeking faraid guidance
• Currently, the imam spends 2–3 hours per case manually reviewing wills and calculating shares — often duplicating work the solicitor has already done
• Structured faraid data via INHERIT eliminates this duplication entirely
• Most critically, funeral wishes reaching the imam before burial within 24 hours ensures the deceased’s preferences are honoured — a source of significant distress when they are not

Before / After#

Without INHERIT:

1. A congregation member dies on a Monday morning
2. The family phones the imam, distressed, asking what their father wanted for the burial
3. The imam has no information — the will is with the solicitor, whose office opens on Tuesday
4. The family makes burial decisions under extreme time pressure, guessing at preferences
5. Three weeks later, the solicitor sends a PDF of the will — the funeral wishes are on page 7
6. The imam spends 3 hours manually calculating faraid shares from the will text

With INHERIT:

1. A congregation member dies on a Monday morning
2. The death notification triggers the estate workflow — funeral wishes are pushed to the Islamic Centre immediately
3. The imam sees the deceased’s burial preferences, preferred cemetery, and janazah instructions before the family’s first phone call
4. The faraid calculation arrives pre-structured — the imam verifies it in 30 minutes, not 3 hours