The Islamic Inheritance Project
BACKGROUND
The idea of the project came in 2020 when a group of students learning Islamic inheritance recognized the scarcity of educational resources available in the English language. The Internet is rich with resources in the Arabic language in various formats but this content is inaccessible to most Muslim communities raised in the West due to language barriers. The few existing websites in English put emphasis on assisting Muslims in writing their legal wills. These websites are service-based and use legal terminology which is partly inaccessible to those without a legal background. In addition, most available content addresses common scenarios instead of providing a structured and comprehensive overview of the topic.
The Islamic Inheritance Project was hence created to fulfill the need to have a reliable and accessible learning platform focusing on the topic of Islamic inheritance for English speakers.
The beta version of the website was published on the 27th of Ramadan in 1442, which corresponds to May 9th, 2021.
MISSION
The Islamic Inheritance Project aims at providing a digital learning platform that is authentic, accessible and free for the study of Islamic inheritance in the English language.
Authentic: Accurately represent the rules outlined in the Islamic tradition
Accessible: Present educational content in structured and clear format to facilitate learning to students coming from various backgrounds
Free: Provide educational content and tools for no charge
OBJECTIVE
The Islamic Inheritance Project seeks to achieve the following objectives:
Provide a comprehensive web-based content on Islamic inheritance principles and rules
Provide educational content, activities and assessment tools
Provide research tools for generating, experimenting and solving Islamic inheritance scenarios
Provide an educational platform for addressing issues and sharing ideas relevant to Islamic inheritance
Provide open-source programming tools for developers of Islamic inheritance calculations
Provide online on-demand courses on Islamic Inheritance that cater to different levels of students
AUDIENCE
This project is aimed at audiences that include the following:
Students: of Islamic studies at the beginner, intermediate and advanced levels
Educators: who are engaged with teaching Islamic inheritance in traditional or non-traditional settings
Academics: who aim to integrate modules on Islamic inheritance in their teaching or research
Islamic Centres: that require resources on the topic, seek to establish a study circle, or offer workshops on the topic of Islamic inheritance
Imams and Scholars: who require an authentic reference in the English language
Lawyers: interested in understanding some rules of Islamic inheritance to better serve their clients
The Public: Anyone wishing to have basic understanding of the topic or looking to find answers to any of their questions.
SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
The project adopts the Shafi’i school of thought as the default jurisprudential method. Since differences among Islamic schools of thought are relatively minor on this topic, the educational content will be relevant to all. Whenever necessary, the website presents opinions from other Sunni schools of thought.