Tarikah (Estate)

The tarikah is the estate of a deceased Muslim — everything of value they leave behind, including cash, property, investments, retirement accounts, and life-insurance proceeds. Before distribution, the tarikah pays (in order) funeral expenses, then debts (including any unpaid mahr), then any bequest up to one-third, with the remainder divided among heirs by Faraid. A common U.S.

mistake is forgetting that retirement accounts and life insurance — which pass by beneficiary designation outside probate — are part of the tarikah and subject to the Quranic shares. Aligning beneficiary forms with an Islamic will keeps the whole tarikah within Faraid.

Tarikah is the estate itself — everything a Muslim leaves at death — and Islamic law imposes a strict order of operations on it before any heir receives a dollar: (1) funeral and burial expenses; (2) debts, both to people and to Allah (unpaid zakat, unperformed Hajj obligations by some schools' reckoning); (3) the wasiyyah (bequest), capped at one-third of what remains and barred to Qur'anic heirs; and only then (4) distribution of the residue per Faraid. This sequencing has sharp U.S. implications because American probate recognizes a similar priority for creditors but knows nothing of the one-third bequest cap or the religious-debt category.

Practically, an American Muslim's tarikah splits into two buckets: probate assets governed by the will (where Faraid language can operate) and non-probate assets that bypass it entirely — retirement accounts with beneficiary designations, POD/TOD accounts, joint tenancy with survivorship, and life insurance. A Faraid-compliant plan has to align both buckets, typically by coordinating beneficiary designations with the will's distribution scheme and documenting outstanding religious obligations (unpaid zakat, mahr owed to a wife — which is a debt against the tarikah, not a bequest).

Scholars also recommend a letter of instruction listing debts and zakat arrears, since heirs cannot settle obligations they never learn about.