End of Life Instructions

Preamble
All Praise is to Allaah, we praise Him, seek His help and His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allaah from the evils of our souls and evils of our deeds. One whom Allaah guides none can lead him astray, and one whom He misguides, none can guide him. We bear witness that there is no god but Allaah, and We bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger.
“O you who believe! Fear Allaah as He should be feared, and die not except in a state of Islaam.” (Aali Imraan [3]: 102)
“O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person (Aadam), and from him (Aadam) He created his wife [Hawwa (Eve)], and from them both He created many men and women and fear Allaah through Whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (do not cut the relations of) the wombs (kinship). Surely, Allaah is Ever an All-Watcher over you.” (an-Nisaa’ [4]: 1)
“O you who believe! Keep your duty to Allaah and fear Him, and speak (always) the truth. He will direct you to do righteous good deeds and will forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allaah and His Messenger he has indeed achieved a great achievement (i.e. he will be saved from the Hell-fire and made to enter Paradise).” (al-Ahzaab [33]: 70-71)
Ammaa ba’d (After that):
Certainly, the most truthful speech is the Word of Allaah and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad and the worst of affairs are the newly-invented matters in the religion. Every newly-invented matter is an innovation and every innovation leads one astray and every straying leads to the fire.

End-of-Life Instructions

The Arabic word for “end-of-life instruction” is “wasiyyah”. Linguistically, it means a “definite command or obligation”. Allah has used the term in various contexts in the Qur’an. Allah uses wasiyyah in the context of command to fear and obey Him: “Verily, we have commanded the people of the Scripture before you, and you (Muslims) that you all revere Allah.” (Q4[Nisaa]:131)
In the context of a command to treat the parents with kindness and benevolence, Allah gives the following wasiyyah in His Book:
“We commanded the human being to be kind and dutiful to his parents.” (Q46[Ahqaf]:15)
After ordaining the shares of the estate for the spouses and maternal siblings, Allah says that this is His wasiyyah:
“This is a commandment from Allah; and Allah is ever Knowing and Tolerant.” (Q4[Nisaa]:12)
End-of-life instruction
Wasiyyah also means a command given by a person in anticipation of death, which would be executed after his death. Prophet Ibrahim (alayhi salaam), as well as his grandson Ya’qub (alayhi salaam), gave the following important wasiyyah to their sons:
“And Ibrahim commanded this sons with that (submission to Allah), and so did Ya’qub, “O my sons, Allah has surely chosen for you this religion, so do not die except as Muslims.” (Q2[Baqarah]:132)
In the legal language of the Islamic shari’ah (legislations), a wasiyyah is a set of instructions given by a person to individuals whom he expects to survive him. It includes Islamic instructions and admonishments, monetary distributions, and assignments of rights. In this sense of wasiyyah, Allah says:
“…When death approaches any of you and he is leaving wealth, that he makes fair bequests….” (Q2[Baqarah]:180)
The focus of this article is essentially about instructions regarding monetary distributions and assignments of rights to non-heirs.

Giving end-of-life instructions

Since no one knows when or where death will come to him, one must hasten to write his end-of-life instructions. Allah’s Messenger (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) indicates that this is an obligation for everyone who has anything worth bequeathing. Ibn ‘Umar (RA) reported that the Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

“It is not rightful for a Muslim person, if he has anything to bequeath, that he sleeps two consecutive nights without having his will written with him.”
Ibn Umar (RA) then noted, “Not even one night has passed me, ever since I heard this from the Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa sallam), without having my will with me.” (Bukhari)
This is even more important if one owes debts that are due to Allah (such as unpaid zakaat, missed fast etc.); or he owes any of the slaves of Allah some dues which may not be fulfilled without an end-of-life instruction. Also, this obligation is further emphasized in situations where one approaches a dangerous undertaking, such as a long journey or severe illness.
“Or were you witnesses when death approached Ya’qub? When he said unto his sons, “What will you worship after me?” They said, “We shall worship your Ilaah (God – Allah), the Ilaah (God) of your fathers, Ibrahim, Isma’il, Is’haq, One Ilaah (God), and to Him we submit (in Islam).” (Q2[Baqara]:133)
This is an end-of-life instruction of Prophet Ya’qub to his children ordering them to adhere to the worship of Allah alone without associating partners with Him. This is the most beneficial content of an end-of-life instruction about which, unfortunately, many Muslims have become negligent.
Wisdoms in Giving End-of-Life Instructions
From the wisdom behind end-of-life instruction is that it affords the testator to absolve himself of blame for any infraction that may occur after his death especially in an environment dominated by religious ignorance. The testator would then be free of his relatives’ excesses in mourning his death if he had admonished them against such acts in his end-of-life instructions. Ibn ‘Umar (RA) from his father (RA) that the Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) said: “The deceased is tormented in his grave because of the lamentations (wailing) over him.” (Bukhaari and Muslim)
This torment is to be understood as referring to one who requests that people weep and wail for him, or who does not leave instructions that these things should not be done. The one who leaves instructions that this should not be done will not be tormented because of it, because he has nothing to do with it and he was not negligent. The point here is that he should leave instructions that these things should not be done, and whoever neglects that will be tormented because of it. This is the view of Dawood and others. (An-Nawawi in Sharh Saheeh Muslim)

This also applies to all other unIslamic practices that are quite popular in funeral rites among Muslims today such as throwing parties, holding three, seven or fortieth day prayers for deceased and marking anniversary of death. All of these have no authentic basis in Islam because neither the Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) nor his companions did all of these at the death of their loved ones and they are our models in the religion.