It is also argued that the “nominee” column of the insurance policy violates the Meeraas and Wasiyah priniciples. It is assumed that the nominee becomes the heir.
Neither among Muslims nor among any other community did it ever happen that the nominee became the heir. The nomination of a trustworthy person who will act as a trustee is required for the insurance claim. The insured person can nominate his legitimate heir, like his son, wife or daughter or anyone. They are obliged to claim the money and distribute according to the will of the insured. In Islam, no Muslim is permitted to give away his wealth on his own. The Shariah has restricted that a man can write a will in favour of anyone, other than the heirs, to the maximum extent of one-third of his wealth. Rest of the wealth will be distributed among his heirs. Irrespective of his relations with the legitimate heirs whether bad or good, it is compulsory under Shariah rules that every legitimate heir, even if abandoned or cut off due to resentments, will get his share of the Meeraas.

The Prophet Mohammad (ﷺ) has said that no Muslim shall have passed three days without having written a will. A will means he should write whatever he has in his possession in the form of shares, properties, loans given outside, savings, etc. so that the heirs should not get deprived of it if something unexpected occurs to the person. Many people die in the accidents, riots, travelling, etc. All their unwritten possessions remain unknown and eventually the banks, companies whose shares he had bought, or those who owe to him get benefitted. As a result, the legitimate heirs are deprived of their rights and consequently suffer financially. Therefore to protect the family of every person, the insurance policy makes it compulsory to nominate somebody.

It is the duty of the insured person, not of the insurance company that he must write and announce his number of policies, bank accounts, and other possessions to his heirs, close friends and relatives so that there should be no conflicts after his death. If he wants to keep it secret from everyone until his death, he can do so provided he writes, seals the envelop and deposits in the safe hands of people he trusts. It is recommended that he write more than one copy and keep separately with his men of trust. So that there can be no room of any manipulation or doubt in the will.

The supreme court of Pakistan as well the Shariah court of Saudi Arabia held that a nominee in the insurance policy is nothing more than a trustee who is under an obligation to receive the benefits on behalf of the other heirs of the assured person and distribute the benefits among them in accordance with the Islamic principles of the Meeraas and Wasiyah. In India too there are several cases of High Courts and Supreme Courts where the judgment was passed in favour of the heirs instead of the nominees.

Suppose the insured person dies leaving debts behind and the amount of the insurance claim is not sufficient enough to pay the debts. Does the nominee become responsible to pay the remaining debt just because he is the nominee? In the same way, the nominee does not become the sole owner of the wealth if there are legitimate heirs alive.

To benefit the readers, some important Shariah principles of Meeraas and Wasiyya are mentioned below.

• As long as a person is alive, all his wealth, like shares, properties, insurance policies, savings, loans, debts, both assets and liabilities, etc., belong to him only. He is the sole owner under the principles of Al Milkiyah (ownership). He cannot be forced to distribute his wealth in Meeraas in his life. If he wishes, he can do so. But it is not recommended as there are many examples where the parents distributed their wealth to their heirs and became helpless in the old age.
• A will should be made during the lifetime of the legator but the legatee has no right to enjoy the benefits of the will until the legator dies. The ownership under a will could be transferred only after the demise of the legator because a will is an act con-stituting a person proprietor of another’s wealth gratuitously by that actual owner following his own demise.
• The person will not remain the sole owner if he has formed a Waqf (charitable trust) and announce his wealth donated to the Waqf. This too is conditional that he should not hand over any amount more than one-third of the wealth as the remaining belongs to the heirs. There are several cases where the people, out of anger or revenge, deprived their heirs of their right and created Trusts. This is not acceptable in Islam.
• All his debts will be paid from wealth before any distribution of the Meeraas takes place. Under the principles of Huqooqul ibaad (the obligations on a person towards other human beings), the debts should be settled before the settlement of Huqooqullah ( the rights of Allah) i.e. the debts should be settled before offer-ing funeral prayer of the deceased, or the heir should announce his guarantee on behalf of the deceased to pay back the debts.
• The funeral expenses too will be paid from the wealth of the deceased. If the liquid cash is not available from his possessions, whoever will pay, will get back his money before any distribution of the Meeraas takes place.
• The portion of the Meeraas will be deducted which has been promised by the deceased in the form of Wasiyah (Will) to someone. A will is enforceable only up to one-third of the total wealth. It is also worth noting here that the one-third’s will in favour of any of the heirs is not acceptable in Shariah unless otherwise the consent of the other heirs had been taken in the life of the deceased. Even if the deceased had given the consent but the other heirs do not agree, the will would not be valid.
• If the deceased has nominated a trustee and has authorised him to distribute his Meeraas according to the Shariah rules after his death, the nominee can not claim his commission or service charges unless the deceased himself has given consent to it. This
• consent too will not be of more than one-third value of the total wealth. This rule will apply whether the nominee is one among the heirs or a stranger.
• After all the aforementioned distributions and deductions, the final step on the remaining wealth of the deceased, is to distribute the wealth among the heirs according to the principles of the Meeraas. Quran has strictly warned those who violate the rights of the heirs. One of the verse of Surat An- Nisah (The Women) says:

لِّلرِّجَالِ نَصيِبٌ مِّمَّا تَرَكَ الْوَالِدَانِ وَالأَقْرَبُونَ وَلِلنِّسَاء نَصِيبٌ مِّمَّا تَرَكَ الْوَالِدَانِ وَالأَقْرَبُونَ مِمَّا قَلَّ مِنْهُ أَوْ كَثُرَ نَصِيبًا مَّفْرُوضًا
سوره النساء:4 , آيت:7

For men is a share of that which parents leave and near relations leave; and for women is a share of that which parents and near relations leave, whether it be little or much – a determined share.
(Chapter 4: Verse 7)

In the light of the divine principles of the Shariah, no Muslim can dare to become the heir by himself simply because he was assigned as “nominee” to claim the insurance policy. It is clear from the above details that in an insurance policy if the policy holder nominates a person, the nominee shall not have any right over the benefits of the policy. He is treated merely as a trustee. But if the policyholder exclusively mentions that the benefits from the policy are to be regarded as a will in favour of the nominee, then the nominee will have the right only up to on-third of the total wealth of the policyholder. If the policyholder nominates any of his heirs, the nominee in this case also may be treated as a mere trustee and will have the right of a portion over the benefits of the policy according to the principles of Al Meeraas. But if the nominee is among the heirs and the policy holder expressly mentions in the policy that the policy is made as a will in favour of the nominee (heir), the will in this case may not be valid unless the remaining heirs of the policy holder give consent to it.

Constitutionally, if the nominee claims the whole amount, the heirs can writ in the court and the constitution of India allows such case to be judged according to the Mohammeden’s law or Muslim Personal Law. There are instances of such cases too in the legal history.