Life Is
Temporary Someone has diedSomeone died
Ink drawing of a lone shade tree beside a dirt road that runs on to a low red sun on the horizon.
For Muslim families, wherever you live

Life is temporary. We’ll walk you through what comes next.

Someone has diedWhat to do in the first hours and days, one step at a timeStart here I’m planning aheadWrite your wishes and see how your estate dividesBegin

Masjid funeral committees, Muslim funeral homes and cemeteries near you. Or open the directory.

When a Muslim dies, the family has a day, perhaps two, to wash, shroud, pray and bury, then months to settle what was left. We help you prepare, and walk you through it when it comes.

Guides for the US · UK · Canada · Australia · France · 15 more countries.

Free, no ads, no account. Every ruling sourced. Listings are never paid for.

The road ahead

A rider who rests in the shade, then moves on.

“I am not in this world except as a rider who seeks shade under a tree, then moves on and leaves it.” The Prophet ﷺ · Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 2377 (ṣaḥīḥ)

Remember

Every one of us will make this journey.

كُلُّ نَفْسٍۢ ذَآئِقَةُ ٱلْمَوْتِ

Every soul will taste death.

Qurʾān, Āl ʿImrān 3:185 · Saheeh International

Prepare

A little work now spares your family a great deal later.

The first page of the printed janazah wishes, blank: “Start here”, with a box headed “Call this number first” for the masjid’s funeral committee, then lines for the people to tell, in order.
The first page of the printed wishes, as it comes out of your printer.

Write your janazah wishes

Who to call first, where you want to be buried, who should wash you, what you owe and what you are owed, and where your papers are. One page your family will be grateful for in the first hour.

About 15 minutesStays on your device

Start writing

Worked example

A man leaves a wife, two sons and a daughter.

Estate
$260,000
Funeral costs
−$9,000
Debts
−$11,000
For the heirs
$240,000
Wife1⁄8$30,000
Each son7⁄20$84,000
Daughter7⁄40$42,000

Computed by the calculator on this site. The four schools agree on this case.

See how your estate divides

Funeral costs first, then debts, then any bequest of up to a third. What remains goes to your heirs by the shares Allah set in Sūrat al-Nisāʾ. See each heir’s share in dollars, with the evidence for every rule.

Spouses, children, parents, siblings

Open the calculator

When it comes

A day, perhaps two, to wash, shroud, pray and bury.

Ink drawing of a shrouded body on a wooden bier in a masjid courtyard, a prayer rug at its edge.
  1. In the first hour
    Have the death pronouncedA death has to be confirmed before anything else can happen.
  2. In the first hour
    Close the eyes, cover the body, make duʿāGently and without hurry. Those present can do this while the calls are made.
  3. In the first few hours
    Call the masjid’s funeral committeeThey arrange the washing, the shroud, the prayer and the burial, and usually know which funeral home to use.
  4. Within the first day
    Wash and shroud the bodyDone by trained Muslims of the same sex, or by the spouse. The committee usually provides the cloth.
  5. As soon as possible
    The janazah prayer and the burialThe prayer is often held after one of the daily prayers, and the burial follows straight after.

Open the full guide

The directory map of the United States, with a marker for each listed funeral committee, Muslim funeral home and cemetery, most dense in the Northeast, the Great Lakes, Texas and California.
The directory’s US map. Map © OpenFreeMap, OpenMapTiles, data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Know who to call

Masjid funeral committees, Muslim funeral homes, cemeteries and burial funds: 840 listings so far in 20 countries, 476 of them across 48 US states, each checked against a public page and dated. Save the number now, so nobody is searching for it on the day.

Search by ZIP code, postcode or townOr browse by cityThen tap Save to contacts

Find services near you

After

Then months to settle what was left behind.

  1. In the first week
    Get copies of the death certificate
  2. In the first weeks
    Pay the funeral costs and list every debt
  3. In the months after
    Settle and divide the estate
  4. Four months and ten days
    Look after the family
Why this exists

Because every family will need it.

When someone dies, the family has hours to arrange a burial and months of paperwork after it, and most of us have never been shown how. I made Life Is Temporary so that what a family needs on that day, who to call, what to do and how the estate divides, is in one place, free, and linked to its sources.

If something here is wrong or missing for your city, write to me at hello@lifeistemporary.com and I will fix it.

HamzaFounder, Inheriting Islam

Life Is Temporary is an Inheriting Islam app. The guide, the calculator, the wishes page and the directory are free and will stay free. What you type in the calculator and the wishes page stays in your browser. Privacy

Rulings linked to the Qurʾān, ḥadīth or a classical textDone
Qurʾān text taken byte for byte from TanzilDone
Calculator tested against textbook casesDone
Review by a qualified scholarArranging
Ink drawing of a brass oil lamp with a red flame on a closed book beside a palm frond.
The Friday letter

One reminder. One small task.

Every Friday: a short reflection on this life and the next, and one thing to do that week. Find the deed. Tell your spouse where the passwords are. Write one line of your wishes.