Analysing the Practice of Wasiyyah (Islamic Will) Within the

Analysing the Practice of Wasiyyah (Islamic Will)

Within the Contextual Form of Islamic Estate Planning

in Malaysia: Variations Across Control Variables

Suhaili Alma’amun

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review the practice of wasiyyah (Islamic will) within the

contextual form of Islamic estate planning in Malaysia by means of investigating its variations

across selected control variables. A survey via questionnaire is carried out on 314

respondents in East Malaysia starting from April 2009 until June 2009 using a purposive

sampling. Analysis methods namely descriptive and chi-square are employed. The findings

imply that age, employment status, monthly income, amount of inheritance received, health

status, having children, adopted children and grandchildren, knowledge, institution, and

inheritance law are the significant factors triggering the wasiyyah practice among

respondents. This study reflects that the attempt to increase wasiyyah practice and the

integration of wasiyyah into Islamic wealth management and financial planning process

should be aggressively made since certain groups of respondents do not realize the

consequences their family would encounter should they die intestate.

JEL Classification Keywords: Islamic will, Wasiyyah, Islamic estate planning, Islamic

wealth management

I. INTRODUCTION

Islamic estate planning is a discipline of Islamic wealth management and financial

planning – presently a new growing niche of the Islamic finance. Estate planning is a

process of allocating the property or estate for the devolution purpose of achieving

pre-set goals. The essential difference of estate planning between the non-Muslims

and Muslims lies in the fact that the Muslims’ estates are subjected to the Islamic

inheritance laws, which then makes the estate planning process for the Muslims more

complicated when juxtaposed to the estate planning for the non-Muslims. In a very

simple description, there is no restriction for Muslims to transfer their property while

they are alive, but upon their death, the estate transfer is automatically subjected to

Senior Lecturer, Research Center for Islamic Economics and Finance (EKONIS), School of

Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, National University of Malaysia (UKM),

sba7611@gmail.com, suhaili@ukm.my.

Analysing the Practice of Wasiyyah (Islamic Will) Within the Contextual ...

faraid and bequest mandatory rules. Today, in a modern and complex world, leaving

a written wasiyyah (Islamic will) for a smooth processing of the estate administration

and settlement to take place is crucial, and, thus, implies that Islamic estate planning

for Muslims demands a proper planning beyond the provision of faraid and bequest.

Previous studies have implied that the Islamic estate planning is almost totally

neglected by Malaysian Muslims. Most Muslims in Malaysia do not view estate

planning seriously, while some are skeptical about making a wasiyyah and in general,

the awareness and practice of wasiyyah among Malaysian Muslims are not very

encouraging (ARB

, n.d.a; Jin, n.d.; Omar, 2006:17; Omar, 2009:3). Leaving a

wasiyyah in Malaysia is crucial due to several reasons. The significance lies in the

regulations related to estate administration and settlement. Interestingly, in Malaysia,

civil law regulates the procedures of estate administration and settlement. Dying

intestate and testate are dealt under different legislations and authorized bodies. In

addition, the provision of several legislations and the existence of various authorized

bodies do not fully guarantee the smooth processing of the estate administration and

settlement. Common practice shows that testate estate is easier and faster to be

administered and settled.

Dying intestate could lead to frozen estate problems and

delays of the settlement period, to the extent it may take years to sort out. Until mid-

2009, ARB claimed that there has been about RM40 billion of frozen estates (Azizi

and Abdul Rahman, 2010). The value had increased to RM42 billion in 2011 (MStar

Online, 2011). Such a system also leads to an overlapping in the power of duties and

public confusion towards the responsibilities of each body, reflecting the inefficiency

of the estate distribution system in Malaysia (Muhamad, 2007:65). Apart from that,

the significance of leaving a wasiyyah is to minimize the problems related to

nominees, who supposedly act as executors rather than beneficiaries as outlined by

fatwas issued in Malaysia (Muhamad, 2007:72; Saidali, 2007:101-102; Osman,

2007:108-112; Mohd. Awal, 2007:133; Hassan, 2008:29; Awang, 2006:449-450).

Wasiyyah is also important to prevent problems arising from the family structure

itself, such as to ensure that a bequest will be made to the adopted children as well as

to minimize conflicts due to polygamy practices or secret marriages (Hassan,

2005a:78; Mohd. Awal, 2007:132). Another significance of wasiyyah in Malaysia is

to prevent problems caused by heirs as well as to avoid any increase of the number of

substitutes and untraceable heirs (Muhamad, 2007:66-68; ARB, n.d.b; Hassan,

2008:28-29). Even the government is unable to immediately proceed with

development projects involving inherited lands as negotiating and taking over these

ARB is Amanah Raya Berhad, the only public trust corporation in Malaysia.

See Alma’amun (2010:165-167).

Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance, Vol. 8 No. 3, July - Sep 2012

lands can be time consuming in order to trace and achieve a consensus among heirs

(Muhamad, 2007:66). In addition, Malaysian Muslim women have been identified as

being less knowledgeable about the procedures of estate distribution and settlement

and to a large extent they do not even take the initiative to obtain information

regarding these procedures and their rights over the estates (Mohd. Awal, 2007:129&

132-134). In such cases, wasiyyah made by their husbands are important to protect

the wives’ rights, especially when a wife provides more to the family’s financial

matters as can be observed in the current and modern practices. There is also a clear

link between the delay of the settlement period and the status of estates. Any cases

involving estates without the certificate of the title, where the certificate of the strata

title

has not yet been issued or only a hire purchase agreement is available, will have

a strong possibility of going through a complicated administration procedure or

remain pending (Muhamad, 2007:68). From the economic point of view, wasiyyah is

also important to protect the value of estates. Loss of economic value is obvious in

the case of landed properties which are divided into many portions according to the

shares that each heir is entitled to. In such cases, when the faraid is followed closely,

the landed properties are converted to uneconomic land tracts and all parties lose out

(Hassan, 2005a:78, Hassan and Yusop, 2006:154). However, it should be noted that

wasiyyah that contains an instruction to divide the estates according to the testator’s

wishes and violates the Islamic inheritance jurisdictions can only be executed upon

the heirs’ consent. There are also some restrictions on estate settlement due the fact

that the Malay privileges are protected through several provisions of special

legislations. One of them is related to the Malay reservation land under the Malay

Reservations Enactment. The implication of this enactment on the settlement of the

estates is implied by its banning of the transfer of Malay lands to non-Malays

regardless of whether the parties involved are Muslims (Disa, 2007:57; Ahmad and

Ibrahim, 2006:159). In addition, the cost factor may play a part in the delay of the

settlement especially when the value of the estate involved is more than RM600, 000.

In the absence of a will, beneficiaries who claim the estate are required to present two

sureties and each of them should possess properties that have an equal value to the

estate. Most of the time, they fail to meet this requirement and the High Court will

appoint the ARB to administer the estate only with the agreement of the heirs

(Yaacob, 2006:174-175). Therefore, preparing a wasiyyah in advance will eliminate

this condition being applied in such cases. It is very clear here that leaving a wasiyyah

Certificate of the strata title is given to the owner of the house living in the apartment and

flat.

Analysing the Practice of Wasiyyah (Islamic Will) Within the Contextual ...

helps prevents the heirs from experiencing extensive estate administration procedures

and thus minimizing the hassle.

This paper is thus divided into five sections. The first section is the introduction

which a brief discussion of wasiyyah in Islamic estate planning and how important it

is in the Malaysian Muslim’s circumstances. Section two discusses methodology and

data collection used in this study. Findings and discussion are in the penultimate

section. Finally, the last section provides the conclusion.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Locating Evidence on Will Practice

The will practice is an important concern in the United Kingdom and such a practice

is meticulously examined. Studies carried out by Finch and Mason (2000),

Rowlingson and McKay (2004), Brooker (n.d.), Scottish Consumer Council (SCC)

(2006) and Rowlingson and McKay (2005) concluded that a minority of people have

drawn up a will although nearly two-thirds of the adult population in each country did

not currently have a will. The previous studies established that age was the most

significant factor in influencing people to have a will and thus, it justified why

making a will was found to be very rare among the younger people (Brooker, n.d.:3;

SCC, 2006:6; Rowlingson and McKay, 2005:71; Finch and Mason, 2000:64;

McGranahan, 2006:23). The connection between age and will ownership should be

viewed as “a reflection of the importance of life stage that triggers the decision to

make a will” (Brooker, n.d.:3) and as “a fact that older people are more likely to die

and a will is necessary prior to death” (McGranahan, 2006:23). There are three

reasons to explain why younger people may be more likely to have made a will.

Firstly, this group of people is more likely to have made a will because they have

children (Rowlingson and McKay, 2005:71); secondly due to divorce; and thirdly due

to travelling

(Finch and Mason, 2000:64).

Rowlingson and McKay (2005:71) contended that gender had an influential role to

play in will practice. They found that women were more likely to have made a will in

comparison to men and women’s increasing longevity was said to be the reason

behind this (Rowlingson and McKay, 2005:71). Conversely, Finch and Mason

Travel that has a huge possibility of a dramatic death which consists of the first experience

of flying in an airplane; long-distance driving with all members of the family in the same car;

or a trip to a distant part of the world (Finch and Mason, 2000:65).

Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance, Vol. 8 No. 3, July - Sep 2012

(2000:64) stressed that gender was not a major distinguishing factor between those

who have made a will and those who have not. The mentioned empirical studies

(Brooker, n.d.:3; SCC, 2006:6 and 29; Rowlingson and McKay, 2005:71)

demonstrated that there was a clear association between social class or employment

status and will ownership. McGranahan (2006:26) however, found that occupations

did not influence the probability of writing a will.

With regard to will ownership by ethnicity, as highlighted by Brooker (n.d.:3) and

Rowlingson and McKay (2005:71), white people were more likely to have a will

compared to the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) in England and Wales.

Rowlingson and McKay (2005:71) and Brooker (n.d.:6) were of the opinion that the

different age and socioeconomic profiles between the white and BME respondents

could explain why BME had a lower will ownership. Brooker (n.d.:6) also believed

that other factors namely cultural differences and language barrier s were relevant in

this case. The former which relates to the joint ownership of assets is more common

among Asian families as the standard wills might not be compliant with Shari’ah law,

which could then cause them to solve problems within the family or community

(Brooker, n.d.:6-7). Brooker (n.d:7) while the latter relates to a lack of basic

awareness of the sources of help and advice.

These studies also established that the relationship status had a significant impact on

will ownership. Again, this is related either to the age of the respondents (SCC,

2006:7) or to a person’s life stage (Brooker, n.d.:4). Widowed, married, divorced, and

separated couples were more likely to have a will than cohabitants and single people.

Among these groups, widows were identified to be the largest group to have a will in

England and Wales as well as in Scotland. Single people in England, Wales and

Scotland were identified as the group that was the least likely to have a will (Brooker,

n.d.:4; SCC, 2006:7). According to SCC (2006:7), taking into account that

cohabitants were likely to be younger people and since will making was linked to the

age factor, there was no doubt that this group was less likely to have a will.

The variation of will ownership among those who had and those who did not have

properties was evidenced by Brooker (n.d.:5) and SCC (2006:7 and 20) who finally

concluded that those who owned their homes were more likely to have a will than

non-homeowners. Rowlingson and McKay (2005:71) provided the same conclusion

that having assets such as properties and savings to leave were seen to prompt people

to make a will. Age was a relevant factor here as claimed by Brooker (n.d.:5) as older

people were more likely to own their homes. Finch and Mason (2000:64) deliberately

Analysing the Practice of Wasiyyah (Islamic Will) Within the Contextual ...

included a large number of respondents who were homeowners, and who constituted

three-quarters of their study population. However, they found that housing tenure was

not the distinguishing factor that influenced will ownership.

Having children as contended by Brooker (n.d.) and Rowlingson and McKay (2005)

was an event that triggered people to make a will as having a will prevented custody

disputes if the parents of dependent children died intestate. Brooker (n.d.:4) again

claimed that age was a relevant factor here. On the other hand, McGranahan

(2006:25) found that the characteristics of children – in terms of having children,

their ages and having minor children – did not influence will writing. Despite this,

SCC (2006:20) revealed that three-quarters of the younger people with children did

not have a will. McGranahan (2006) postulated that individuals were more likely to

write a will if other relatives were to inherit. However, his study’s finding indicated

that having relatives who were able to inherit did not bring any impact on will

writing. In addition, religion variable was not a significant factor as examined by

McGranahan (2006:24).

There is one particular factor which determines the will practice that should be

highlighted here – inheritance law. It determines the strength of will practice as it

affects the bequest’s motives as contended by Pestieau (2000:900). Pestieau

(2000:900) stressed that when there was limited freedom of making a bequest due to

the inheritance laws, there was also little room for wills.

B. Locating Evidence on Wasiyyah Practice

Ahmad and Pyeman (2008) investigated the practice of making a wasiyyah within the

Malaysian Muslim society. They found that the participants of the study had

knowledge of the objective and purpose of making a wasiyyah. Most of their

respondents agreed that wasiyyah is made to protect the welfare of those whom one

wishes to give one’s assets to but are not eligible under the faraid law such as

adopted children. Other main influential factors that motivate a Muslim to make a

wasiyyah are namely to ensure the transfer of the property as the testator intends,

health factors, to rapidly carry out the process of property distribution, and to help the

needy (Ahmad and Pyeman, 2008:52–53 and 56). Furthermore, Ahmad and Pyeman

(2008:55) also proved through Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis that

wasiyyah making among Muslims respondents was influenced by three factors:

knowledge about wasiyyah, objective of wasiyyah, and benefits of wasiyyah. The

results revealed that these factors had a positive relationship with wasiyyah making.

Muda et al. (2008:8) did not discuss wasiyyah practice in Malaysia but pointed out

Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance, Vol. 8 No. 3, July - Sep 2012

four influential factors for wasiyyah writing practice in Malaysia: demographic,

religious, self-interest and awareness, and institutional factors. It is, however, very

disappointing that the authors did not discuss each factor further or provide empirical

results.

III. METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION

Data collection took place from April to June 2009, using a purposive sampling

which was a representative of a group of civilian Muslims, aged 18 and above, who

lived in West Malaysia when the survey began. 12 states in West Malaysia were

categorized as follows: East Coast States, West Coast States, North States, and South

States. Purposive sampling was chosen on the ground that this study is explorative in

nature and that it intended to obtain information from specific target groups

namely

those who had made a wasiyyah and had experienced receiving an inheritance, non-

Malay Muslims, having non-Muslim parents, having non-Muslim children and having

adopted children. This matter, in fact, was given a huge consideration in Finch and

Mason (2000) during their process of construction of variable and sampling. Most of

the questions were developed with the help of existing studies discussed in the

literature review and for simplicity, most of the questions were close-ended.

The practice of wasiyyah was the dependent variable used to investigate the wasiyyah

writing behaviour among Malaysian Muslims and the question constructed for such

practice was “Have you made a wasiyyah?” The independent variables were clustered

into eight groups, namely sociodemographic factors, economic factors, health-related

factors, knowledge, cultural values, religiosity, institutional and inheritance law.

Sociodemographic factors consisted of ages that ranged from 18 years and above

gender, marital status, ethnicity, education level and children. The variable ‘children’

was expanded to include adopted children, children under 18 and non-Muslim

children. In addition, other relevant variables such as non-Muslim parents,

grandchildren and sibling were also included. The importance of distinguishing

between biological children, adopted children, non-Muslim children and the exigency

of including the variable non-Muslim parents, grandchildren and sibling in the

research of wasiyyah practice opened up the possibility that people treated their

children differently or people perceived making a wasiyyah to be more important

As suggested in Sekaran (2003:277) and Neuman (2000:198)

According to the Malaysian legislation, only those above 18 years old are eligible to m ake a

wasiyyah.

Analysing the Practice of Wasiyyah (Islamic Will) Within the Contextual ...

when they had family members who were excluded by faraid. For these variables,

respondents were required to provide either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to the questions

asked.

The economic characteristics were portrayed by the employment status, monthly

income level, owning property or not, total asset values, having ever received

inheritance previously and the amount of inheritance received previously.

Respondents were required to self-report their health status and to confirm whether

they had any disability or not. For variable knowledge, a number of dimensions-

attitude statements were designed to indicate the general understanding towards

several aspects of knowledge that covered the basic knowledge of Islamic estate

planning, significances and objectives of Islamic estate planning and wasiyyah in the

lives of Malaysian Muslims. The responses to these questions used a five-point scale

which represented a grading from positive to negative given in the Likert scale style.

Behavioural norms were proxies used for cultural values. The environment and the

way in which an individual was brought up were expected to play important roles in

shaping the individual’s perception towards estate matters (Hassan, 2005b:78; Wan

Harun, 2008:332-333; Abdul Rahman, 2007:118-123; ZAR Perunding Pusaka,

2004b:8; ZAR Perunding Pusaka, 2004c:8). Thus, two questions were developed to

reveal the respondents’ perspectives: “What would be your response if your children

would wish to discuss and advise you to prepare your wasiyyah as soon as possible?”

and “What would be your response if someone from the wasiyyah writing provider

approached you and asked to discuss and advise you to prepare your wasiyyah

through a proper channel as soon as possible?” For each question, several options of

potential answers were provided for the respondents to choose from.

Considering that leaving wasiyyah is encouraged in Islam, then any good Muslim

should be able to observe this Islamic teaching in his or her life. A study by Krauss et

al. (2006) in the context of Malaysian Muslims was fully utilized in this study as an

approach to gauge religiosity. The religiosity was assessed from two dimensions: the

‘Islamic worldview’ and the ‘religious personality’. The former was related to the

tawhidic (divine unity) and aqidah (articulation of Islamic creed) of Muslims, while

the latter was the manifestation or reflection of the former which appeared in the form

of akhlaq Islamiyyah, or the moral and etiquette of Islamic manner. For Islamic

worldview, three statements relating to tawhid and aqidah were given and the extent

to which the respondents agreed with the statement were then codified in the Likert

scale ranging from (1) Strongly agree to (5) Strongly disagree. Also, four statements

relating to ibadat (ritual worship) and four statements relating to daily mu'amalat

Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance, Vol. 8 No. 3, July - Sep 2012

(religiously-guided behaviours towards human) were given to assess the respondents’

‘religious personality’. Their responses to the statements in relation to ibadat or the

practice of worshipping were denoted using a five-point scale ranging from (1) I

always do this to (5) I never do this. Respondents were required to place themselves

using a five-point scale ranging from (1) Extremely influential to (5) Not at all

influential, for each statement pertaining to daily mu'amalat.

This study included an ‘institutional factor’ on the ground that Muda et al. (2008)

contended that it was one of the factors affecting the Malaysian Muslims’ perspective

on wasiyyah. The following questions were formed to provide data for the

institutional variable: “Do you know any organization involved in preparing

wasiyyah?”, “Please provide their names” (asking the names of wasiyyah writing

providers if they knew any) and “How much do you think it would cost now to have a

basic wasiyyah drawn up by ARB or its partners?”

Horioka et al. (2000) and Pestieau (2000) argued that inheritance law played an

important role in shaping the bequest transfers. Since wasiyyah practice and bequest

transfer were linked to each other, therefore this variable was included in this

research, in the part of wasiyyah investigation. The following question represented

this variable: “How much is a Muslim allowed to bequeath?”

A pilot study using the English version of the questionnaire was conducted. It was

found that some respondents had different interpretations of wasiyyah in which some

of them thought it referred to a will while others thought it referred to a bequest. Due

to the double meanings of wasiyyah in the Malaysian Muslim culture and by taking

into account that they were more familiar with the Malay interpretation of wasiyyah

as ‘wasiat’, therefore, only the Malay version of the questionnaire was used in the

actual data collection process. Some 500 questionnaires were distributed, but only

397 were returned. The response rate was 79.4 per cent. Out of this number, 317 were

usable for the preliminary analysis. After the first screening of the respondents’

answers, three were eliminated from further analysis leaving only 314 questionnaires.

There were three limitations that needed to be acknowledged and addressed regarding

this study – a scarcity of existing empirical literature on wasiyyah within the Muslim

wealth management contextual; respondents mostly were from the West Coast of

Malaysia covering Kuala Lumpur and Selangor due to the geographical location, time

and cost constraints; and respondents from the lower educated background, from rural

areas and non-Malay Muslim respondents were less likely to participate.

Analysing the Practice of Wasiyyah (Islamic Will) Within the Contextual ...

IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

A. Reliability and Validity Test

Cronbach’s Alpha test was performed to test the reliability of the instruments.

According to Nunnally (1978) as cited in Smith (1999:113) and Churchill (1979:68),

the reliabilities of 0.5 and 0.6 would suffice for early stage of basic research. As this

study involves exploratory features, a lower alpha value is therefore acceptable.

Table 1: Results of the Reliability Test

Cronbach’s Alpha

Number of items

Religiosity and knowledge

0.611

With respect to the validity issue, it should also be noted that the particular model and

variables used in this study had already been tested as the literature demonstrated,

which provided an ad hoc validity.

B. Number of Respondents Making a Wasiyyah

The first step of analysis of wasiyyah practice started with a total of 317 respondents.

Out of this, a total of 50 respondents or 15.8 per cent were identified having made a

wasiyyah as presented in Table 2. Interestingly, three people out of those who had

made a wasiyyah, actually had not made a wasiyyah as what they thought. These

three persons mentioned about making a wasiyyah at the Land Office, Employee

Provident Fund (EPF) and by writing a nominee on the insurance policy.

The

researcher assumed that the person who listed making a wasiyyah at the EPF was

actually referring to naming a nominee on the EPF form. Land Office is actually the

place where people deal with small intestate matters and the person in charge in the

Land Office can raise the matter of wasiyyah made by the deceased to clarify and

smooth the estate distribution process. These three people were not excluded from the

beginning as this was actually the first signal which indicated a problem of

misunderstanding the roles of nominees and authorized bodies engaging in the

Muslims’ estates distribution in Malaysia as argued by Muhamad (2007).

Table 2: Number of Respondents Making a Wasiyyah

We asked how they have made their wasiyyah to confirm that they have really made a

wasiyyah.

Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance, Vol. 8 No. 3, July - Sep 2012

Initial Answers

Adjusted Responses

Frequency

Percent

Frequency

Percent

Yes

15.8

267

84.2

267

Total

317

100

314

100

These three respondents were then dropped from the initial total of respondents. As a

result, the total number of respondents for the following analysis remained at 314.

The fact that only a minority of people had made a wasiyyah remained, as only 47

respondents or 15 per cent of them stated that they had done so as shown in Table 2

(refer to to the adjusted responses). This finding is apparently consistent with the

previous literature namely that of Brooker, (n.d.), SCC (2006), Rowlingson and

McKay (2005), Finch and Mason (2000), Yaacob (2006), Muhamad (2007), ARB

(n.d.a), Omar (2006), and Omar (2009). Table 3 shows the methods of making a

wasiyyah. Obviously, making a wasiyyah with the ARB was the most popular means

among the respondents (31.9 per cent). This was expected since the ARB was the

only public trust corporation that existed in Malaysia.

Table 3: Methods of Making a Wasiyyah

Frequency

Percent

ARB

31.9

Handwritten themselves

23.4

Verbal

21.3

Solicitor

Handwritten themselves and verbal

4.3

Other agencies which are ARB's partner

2.1

Total

100

C. Wasiyyah Practice: Variations Across Control Variables

A Chi-square test was used to determine the siginificance of the relationship between

wasiyyah practice and the identified control factors. These results are presented in

Table 4.With respect to gender, there was no significant relationship between gender

and wasiyyah making. This insignificant result was in line with Finch and Mason

(2000). It appeared that wasiyyah making increased with age (2.1 per cent in the 18-

25 age group; 23.4 per cent in the 26–40 age group; 40.4 per cent in the 41–56 age

Analysing the Practice of Wasiyyah (Islamic Will) Within the Contextual ...

group; and 34 per cent in the 57 and above age group) and this was statistically

significant at the 5 per cent level. It can be concluded that younger people were less

likely to have made a wasiyyah. This finding is in line with Brooker (n.d.), SCC

(2006), Rowlingson and McKay (2005), Finch and Mason (2000), McGranahan

(2006), Ahmad and Pyeman (2008). Neither variable marital status nor ethnicity was

statistically significant. The results obtained for variable ethnicity could not be a good

indicator to conclude that Malays were more likely to have made a wasiyyah on the

grounds that the number of respondents from the non-Malays Muslim ethnicity was

somewhat underrepresented due to the constraints mentioned previously.

The findings showed that having higher education made people more likely to have

made a wasiyyah but the result was not statistically significant. Employment was

proved to have an impact on wasiyyah ownership in which working people and those

who used to work were more likely to have made a wasiyyah than others (93.7 per

cent versus 6.4 per cent) and it was statistically significant at the 1 per cent level. As

expected, unemployed people were most unlikely to have made a wasiyyah and the

results showed that none of them had done so. Reassuringly, the finding in relation to

employment variable is consistent to the findings of Brooker (n.d.) and SCC (2006).

The monthly income was found to have a significant role to play in influencing

wasiyyah practice with those who had higher income being more likely to have made

a wasiyyah than those who had lower income. Some 70.2 per cent of the respondents

with a monthly income of RM1,001–RM4,999 were reported to have made a

wasiyyah while only 17 per cent of the respondents with monthly income of RM1,000

and below had done so. This relationship was proved to be statistically significant at

the 5 per cent level. Other financial factors such as owning properties, total value of

assets and whether respondents had received inheritance previously had no significant

relationship with the wasiyyah practice. However, the amount of inheritance received

previously definitely had a significant impact on wasiyyah ownership and it was

statistically significant at the 10 per cent level. The variations implied that those with

a total value of assets below RM300,000, those who had not received inheritance, and

those who had received inheritance around RM50,000 and below were more likely to

have made a wasiyyah (76 per cent, 59.6 per cent and 63.2 per cent respectively). The

Chi-square test showed that health status had a significant impact on wasiyyah

practice at the 10 per cent level. The noticeable trend was that those who had good

health status were most likely to have made a wasiyyah than others (61.7 per cent).

Disability on the other hand was found to not have a significant relationship with

wasiyyah practice and only those who had no disability had made a wasiyyah.

Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance, Vol. 8 No. 3, July - Sep 2012

The results also showed that people with children were much more likely to have

made a wasiyyah than others (91.5 per cent versus 8.5 per cent) and there was a

significant relationship explaining this finding in which it was statistically significant

at the 5 per cent level. However, having children under 18, non-Muslim children,

non-Muslim parents and siblings were found to not be the significant determinants of,

or motivating factors for, wasiyyah practice. Significant relationships between

wasiyyah making practice and those who had adopted children and grandchildren

were confirmed by the findings, revealing 12.8 per cent of those who had adopted

children and 42.6 per cent of those who had grandchildren had made a wasiyyah.

Both were statistically significant at the 1 per cent level. Hence, this study found

strong evidence supporting the hypotheses that some family features had significant

relationship with the wasiyyah practice. It should be noted that several previous

findings were similar to these findings: the significant relationship between ‘having

children’ and will making were suggested by Brooker (n.d.), and the insignificant

relationship between ‘having children under 18’ and ‘sibling’ with will making was

suggested by McGranahan (2006).

Two pragmatic explanations could be established to understand how these significant

family features influenced wasiyyah practice: firstly having children was also part of

the life events which influenced the decision of making a wasiyyah as marriage did;

and secondly concerning the exclusion of adopted children and grandchildren from

inheritance had also triggered the Malaysian Muslim people to make a wasiyyah.

Associations between ‘having non-Muslim children’ and ‘non-Muslim parents’ with

wasiyyah practice were not explicitly investigated in the previous research because

these types of family features with regard to the wasiyyah practice were only relevant

in a Muslim society. With regard to the insignificant relationships found between

‘having non-Muslim children’ or ‘non-Muslim parents’ with wasiyyah practice, these

were probably due to that this survey had a very small number of respondents who

had these family characteristics.

These variations of wasiyyah making across demographic, financial and family

background variables indicated which group of respondents were at high risk should

they die intestate. Some groups of people did not realize that making a wasiyyah was

more important than others as a result of the demographic changes or economic

changes. It was quite devastating to find that those who had children under 18 (63.7

per cent), adopted children (3.4 per cent), non-Muslim parents (4.5 per cent) and

those with a total value of assets of more than RM600,000 (1.9 per cent) had not

made their wasiyyah as the impact of dying intestate was more serious for them than

Analysing the Practice of Wasiyyah (Islamic Will) Within the Contextual ...

the others. This did not however, simply point out that wasiyyah was less important

for the younger people. Younger people might sometimes underestimate the

importance of making a wasiyyah as they felt that in their circumstances, the age

factor was not as significant as for the older people and the risk of dying was low. In

fact, dying intestate has many ramifications such as economic and personal

consequences, and the impacts differ across groups.

In regard to the knowledge variable, those who were more knowledgeable about the

Islamic estate planning and wasiyyah were found to be more likely to have made a

wasiyyah, while those who were less knowledgeable about this particular subject

were least likely to have made a wasiyyah. This result was found to be statistically

significant at the 5 per cent level.This evidence is consistent with the earlier literature

such as that of Ahmad and Pyeman (2008:55).

With regard to cultural values,the results showed that those who could discuss

openly and at ease about wasiyyah with their children and those who were open-

minded and gave consideration to a wasiyyah writing provider’s advice were more

likely to have made a wasiyyah (70.2 per cent and 87.2 per cent respectively).

However, none of these was statistically significant. However, it seems that there is

one explanation regarding this factor: from the study’s point of view, this assumption

might have been true in the past but is less relevant nowadays as the community is

becoming more mature due to the increasing knowledge and exposure.

Although wasiyyah is a religiously constructed practice in Islam, unexpectedly, the

finding evidenced that religiosity did not influence wasiyyah practice as it was not

statistically proved. This finding is in line with McGranahan (2006:26). There were

two questions asked to capture the impact of the institutional factor: ‘the knowledge

on the existence of the institutions’ and ‘cost of making a wasiyyah’. It was apparent

that knowing any wasiyyah writing organization had a significant impact on wasiyyah

making. It was found that knowing a wasiyyah writing provider could influence

people to have made a wasiyyah and it was statistically significant at the 1 per cent

level (78.7 per cent versus 21.3 per cent). This finding is similar to the finding of

Ahmad and Pyeman (2008) which claimed that the institutional factor played an

important role in increasing the wasiyyah practice through aggressive disseminations.

On the other hand, knowing the cost of making a wasiyyah was not a significant

determinant factor affecting wasiyyah practice.

With further delving into the inheritance law factor, the results indicated that fixed

inheritance law, which allowed up to one-third of the bequest amount, was an

Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance, Vol. 8 No. 3, July - Sep 2012

important determinant of wasiyyah practice and was statistically significant at the 1

per cent level. Some 48.9 per cent of those who knew this rule had made a wasiyyah.

This implied that people reacted to the rule of inheritance law by way of making a

wasiyyah if they were knowledgeable about the allowable amount for bequest in

Islam.

Table 4: Number of Respondents Making a Wasiyyah and Its Variation Accross

Control Variables

Have you made a

wasiyyah?

Yes

Chi-square

p-value

Frequency

238

Percentage

75.8

24.2

DEMOGRAPHIC

GENDER (%):

1.494

0.222

Female

38.3

47.9

Male

61.7

52.1

AGE GROUPS (%):

8.894

0.031**

18–25

2.1

13.1

26–40

23.4

30.3

41–56

40.4

37.1

57 and above

19.5

MARITAL STATUS (%):

6.209

0.102

Single

4.3

16.1

Married

89.4

75.7

Divorced

4.3

2.6

Widow/widower

2.1

5.6

ETHNICITY (%):

0.011

0.918

Malay

93.6

Non-Malay

6.4

EDUCATION LEVEL (%):

2.062

0.724

Primary school

12.8

18.4

Secondary school

48.9

40.4

Analysing the Practice of Wasiyyah (Islamic Will) Within the Contextual ...

Diploma/Bachelor

31.9

36.7

Master/PhD

4.3

3.4

Vocational

2.1

1.1

OCCUPATIONAL

EMPLOYMENT STATUS (%):

18.336

0.003*

Government employee

21.3

Private sector

29.8

21.7

Self-employed

21.3

24.7

Housewife

6.4

9.7

Unemployed

5.2

Retired

21.3

5.6

Have you made a

wasiyyah?

Yes

Chi-square

p-value

MONTHLY INCOME (%):

8.150

0.043**

RM1,000 and below

36.3

RM1,001–RM2,999

44.7

37.5

RM3,000–RM4,999

25.5

20.2

RM5,000 and above

12.8

FINANCIAL

ASSET OWNERSHIP (%):

0.432

0.511

Yes

97.9

95.9

2.1

4.1

TOTAL VALUE OF ASSETS (%):

5.716

0.221

RM50,000 and below

21.7

34.4

RM50,001–RM100,000

23.9

24.2

RM100,001–RM300,000

30.4

27.3

RM300,001–RM600,000

15.2

10.9

More than RM600,000

8.7

3.1

EVER PREVIOUSLY RECEIVED

INHERITANCE (%):

1.099

0.295

Yes

40.4

32.6

59.6

67.4

AMOUNT OF INHERITANCE

6.771

0.08***

Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance, Vol. 8 No. 3, July - Sep 2012

RECEIVED (%):

RM50,000 and below

63.2

RM50,001-RM100,000

36.8

13.8

RM100,001-RM300,000

6.9

RM300,001-RM600,000

More than RM600,000

1.9

HEALTH

HEALTH STATUS (%):

6.734

0.081***

Excellent

21.3

Good

61.7

64.4

Fair

19.1

14.2

Poor

2.1

Have you made a

wasiyyah?

Yes

Chi-square

p-value

DISABILITY (%):

0.894

0.344

Yes

1.9

100

98.1

HAVING CHILDREN (%):

4.016

0.045**

Yes

91.5

8.5

HAVING CHILDREN UNDER 18

(%):

0.963

Yes

63.8

63.7

36.2

36.3

HAVING NON-MUSLIM

CHILDREN (%):

0.713

0.398

Yes

1.5

100

98.5

Analysing the Practice of Wasiyyah (Islamic Will) Within the Contextual ...

HAVING ADOPTED CHILDREN

(%):

7.755

0.005*

Yes

12.8

3.4

87.2

96.6

HAVING GRANDCHILDREN

(%):

8.108

0.004*

Yes

42.6

22.8

57.4

77.2

HAVING NON-MUSLIM

PARENTS (%):

0.313

0.576

Yes

6.4

4.5

93.6

95.5

HAVING SIBLING (%):

0.432

0.511

Yes

97.9

95.9

2.1

4.1

KNOWLEDGE

42.127

0.042**

Have you made a

wasiyyah?

Yes

Chi-square

p-value

CULTURAL VALUES (%)

When children wish to discuss or

advise to draw up a wasiyyah

0.724

0.395

 I am quite/very open-

minded

70.2

 I am reluctant to discuss it

with my children

29.8

When wasiyyah writing providers

approach, want to discuss and advise

to draw up a wasiyyah

3.948

0.139

 I am quite/very open-

10.5

Journal of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance, Vol. 8 No. 3, July - Sep 2012

minded to discuss this

matter but I still refuse to do

 I am quite/very open-

minded to discuss this

matter and will consider

making a wasiyyah in the

future.

87.2

82.8

 I am reluctant to discuss this

matter

10.6

6.7

RELIGIOSITY

20.032

0.393

INSTITUTIONAL (%)

Knowing the existence of a wasiyyah

writing provider

20.9

0.000*

 Those who had given valid

answer

78.7

42.7

 Those who had given

invalid answer

21.3

55.8

 Those who had given mixed

answers

1.5

Knowing the cost of preparing a

wasiyyah

1.621

0.203

 Those who had given right

answer (RM301-RM400)

4.3

1.5

 Those who had given wrong

answer

95.7

98.5

Have you made a

wasiyyah?

Yes

Chi-square

p-value

INHERITANCE LAW (%)

Knowing the limited amount of

bequest allowed

10.148

0.001*

 Those who had given right

answer (1/3 of the estates)

48.9

72.3

 Those who had given wrong

answer

51.1

27.7

Analysing the Practice of Wasiyyah (Islamic Will) Within the Contextual ...

Note: Significance levels are: (*) denotes р< 0.01 (1 per cent); (**) denotes р< 0.05

(5 per cent); (***) denotes р< 0.1 (10 per cent)

V. CONCLUSION

People often overlook that no matter how major or minor the impact of intestacy is,

those who are left behind are the ones who will deal with it, not the deceased. Taking

into account the current Malaysian Muslims’ circumstances, there is no doubt that the

economic and financial impacts are greater. Therefore, in order to overcome such

undesirable consequences, everyone should consider making a wasiyyah regardless of

their circumstances. This study suggests the industry to tackle wasiyyah writing

services among younger people and prompt people to make a wasiyyah following life

events, such as marriage, having children and buying a home.

Perhaps, promoting

online wasiyyah writing among younger people aggressively could reach larger

population within smaller cost of operations.

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