May Allaah reward you for the answer to this question. I am a single Muslim man. I have 2 parents, 2 brothers and a sister. My father is not an observant Muslim, he is not a good influence. Does that affect the amount of inheritance he is entitled to? If I write an Islamic will is it sufficient to write it on my own, or does it need witnesses? Can I type it or does it have to be handwritten? Anyway, I want to know in an Islamic will, who would inherit from me and exactly how much? Please explain this carefully and clearly. I love my nephews and I'd like to leave as much as I can to them. Please clearly answer all of my questions. Jazah kallaah khairun and thank you very much for your help.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

If by your statement about your father ‘my father is not an observant Muslim…’ you mean that he is not steadfast on the obedience of Allaah and that he commits major sins and minor sins, then he is obliged to repent to Allaah. However, his disobedience does not prevent him from becoming an heir nor does it decrease his legal share of the inheritance. Rather, what prevents him from becoming a heir is one of the two matters: becoming a non-Muslim or killing: a non-Muslim does not inherit his Muslim relative and a killer does not inherit his relative whom he killed. For more benefit, refer to Fataawa 84942 and 87856.

As regards the will, we have already issued Fataawa 85091 and 85438 clarifying a number of its rulings; it is not an obligation to write a will; rather, if it is a verbal will and there are witnesses to it, then this is sufficient. Hence, it is not a condition to write the will but it is desirable to do so as the Prophet said: “No Muslim, who has something to be included in a will, has the right to stay for two nights without having his will written regarding it.” [Agreed upon and this is the wording of Al-Bukhari]

Moreover, it is permissible to write the will in a handwriting other than that of the person who makes the will, like writing it on a computer, but one has to have witnesses to it because whoever writes a will and does not have witnesses to it, his will is ineffective.

Besides, it is permissible for you to make a will for your nephews provided it does not exceed one-third of your inheritance because they are not heirs; for more benefit on the permissibility of making a will that does not exceed one-third for a non-heir, please refer to Fatwa 86417.

As regards those who will inherit you and their shares in the inheritance, then this is a matter that is not known at the moment, but if someone dies and leaves behind two parents and some brothers and sisters, and he did not leave any other heir, then it is only his parents who inherit him; in which case his mother gets one-sixth and the remainder is for the father; one-sixth as his legal share and he gets the remaining of inheritance by virtue of Asabah (i.e. being a relative who is entitled to inherit the residue after those who have fixed share in the inheritance).

Allaah Knows best.