About Life Is Temporary

Every Muslim family in America will one day have to wash, shroud, pray over and bury someone they love, usually within a day, and then settle what they left. Most of us learn how in the worst week of our lives. This site is here so you can learn it before then.

Who makes it

Life Is Temporary is an Inheriting Islam project. The guide, the calculator, the wishes page and the directory are free, and will stay free. The site is built by Musayyir, a web studio that also takes on custom work for masajid.

How it is checked

• Every ruling links to its evidence on the sources page.
• The Arabic of the Qurʾān is taken unchanged from the Tanzil text, never typed by hand.
• The inheritance calculator is tested against textbook cases, and every family it accepts adds up to the whole estate.
• Directory listings are read from the organization’s own page, or a reputable public listing, and dated.
• We are arranging review by a qualified scholar, and will name them here.

How we write about death

• Plainly. We say “died” and “the body”, not euphemisms.
• For someone in the first hours, one task at a time, in the order it happens.
• Arabic terms are explained the first time they appear: ghusl (the washing), kafan (the shroud), janazah (the funeral and its prayer), wasiyyah (the bequest).
• Where the schools of law differ, we name the difference instead of hiding it.
• No stock photographs of grieving people.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, a ruling, a phone number or a listing, please tell us through the suggestion form. Corrections to rulings will be listed on the sources page with the date they were made.