Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 180 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:180

كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذَا حَضَرَ أَحَدَكُمُ ٱلْمَوْتُ إِن تَرَكَ خَيْرًا ٱلْوَصِيَّةُ لِلْوَٰلِدَيْنِ وَٱلْأَقْرَبِينَ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ ۖ حَقًّا عَلَى ٱلْمُتَّقِينَ

“Prescribed for you when death approaches [any] one of you if he leaves wealth [is that he should make] a bequest for the parents and near relatives according to what is acceptable - a duty upon the righteous.[65]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Before death arrives, the God-conscious put their wealth in order with fairness, because what you leave behind is your last act of justice.

A reflection

Writing for the day you will not be there

A father of two, aged thirty-eight, sits at the kitchen table to write his will. A friend his age died suddenly last month. Most of the form is easy: the house, the savings, the car. One line takes him an hour. Who will raise his children if both parents are gone?

The ayah opens with a phrase that stops the reader: 'when death comes to one of you'. A later commentator notices the word order in Arabic. 'One of you' comes before 'death', as if to show how completely death takes hold of a person when it arrives.

A classical theologian explains that 'death coming' cannot mean the final moment. By then a person is unable to make a will. Most commentators read it as the signs of death: a dangerous illness, the approach of the end. One early scholar read it more boldly. It means writing the will while healthy, saying in advance: when death comes, do this.

The Prophet ﷺ pointed in that direction. Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim report his words. A Muslim with something to bequeath should not pass two nights without his will written and kept with him. The Companion who narrated it, Ibn ʿUmar, said that not a single night passed after he heard it without his will beside him.

Writing a will is a small rehearsal of death. Most of us avoid it for exactly that reason. Yet the act often brings a strange peace. The father at the kitchen table found that naming a guardian made him love his children more fiercely the next morning.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.