Chapter: The Beneficiary of the Bequest

A bequest is valid for anyone who is legally capable of owning property. It is likewise valid for the testator’s own slave when the bequest is an undivided share—such as one-third of the estate. The slave is emancipated in proportion to that share and receives whatever remains; but if the bequest is stated as “one hundred” [coins] or as a specified item, it is not valid for him.¹

A bequest to a fetus is valid, provided it can be established that the fetus was already in existence at the time the bequest was made.

If someone upon whom Hajj was not yet obligatory instructs that one thousand [coins] be spent from his bequeathable third so that pilgrimage be performed on his behalf, the amount is to be used to finance one pilgrimage after another until it is exhausted.²

A bequest is not valid for an angel, an animal, or a deceased person. If the testator names both a living and a deceased person and he knew of the latter’s death, the entire share goes to the living person; if he was unaware of the death, the living person receives one-half.

Should he bequeath his entire estate to his son and to a non-heir, and the heirs refuse to sanction the will, the non-heir is entitled to one-ninth of the estate.³