Will-Writing Workshop

The Development Society of KSI Dar Jamaat organized a Wills Workshop on the 9th of May 2023. The program was born out of the idea that many community members are not well aware of their responsibilities regarding their will, and its corresponding importance. There are countless records of heirs arguing over the will of the deceased simply because such a record was not clearly kept. Indeed, even the Quran also speaks of the importance of writing a will in Surah Baqarah:

“It is prescribed upon you, when death approaches (any) one of you – if he leaves behind wealth – then he should make a will (wasiyyah) for his parents and near relatives in a fair manner [in the one-third]. This is a duty upon the pious people. (2:180).

The Committee also believed that such a program would also help ease the anxiety around the writing of a will, as such an act is often associated with thinking of death, something most of us would often avoid. The program was opened by Syed Adeel Raza, the resident Alim of the Dar-es-Salaam Jamaat. The sheikh spoke for an hour on the various technical religious rulings around the writing of a will and its importance.
Thereon, the Team invited MohammedZameen Nazarali, an Advocate of the High Court of Tanzania, to educate the community on the various legal matters surrounding the preparation of a will as well as discussing the legality of an Islamic will per Tanzanian law.

Finally, the Development Society allowed the 120 community members in attendance to begin writing their own wills on prepared templates and thereon ask the sheikh and the lawyer any questions they may have. The Committee believed this to be an important step for the members to relieve any anxiety they may have over writing their will. The participants thereon took their write-ups home, hopefully in order to continue writing their wills and fulfil this important duty.