—to cause harm in a bequest is one of the major sins.”

Imam al-Shawkani (d. 1250 AH) said: “His words, ‘without causing any harm,’ mean that a person makes his bequest while not harming his heirs in any form of injury: such as admitting to a debt he does not owe, making a bequest whose sole purpose is to injure the heirs, or bequeathing to an heir—or to anyone else—more than one-third of the estate without the heirs’ consent. This qualifying phrase, ‘without causing any harm,’ applies to both the bequest and the debt mentioned earlier; it restricts them both. Therefore, any acknowledgments of debts or bequests whose aim is merely to harm the heirs are invalid and rejected; none of them is to be executed, whether they involve one-third of the estate or less.” That ends al-Shawkani’s words.

Among the rulings on bequests is that it is permissible for a person who has no heirs to bequeath all of his wealth, for the Prophet ﷺ said, “Indeed, to leave your heirs well-off is better than to leave them poor, begging from people,” and a report establishing this permissibility also comes from Ibn Masʿūd (d. 32 AH).