How much of a person's wealth can be given away in a will, and to whom?

A Muslim can direct at most one-third of their net estate through a wasiyyah, and only to people or causes who are not already fixed Quranic heirs — for example a friend, a charity, a non-Muslim relative, a grandchild cut off by a parent's earlier death (see Q14), or an adopted child (see Q12), all of whom fall outside the automatic fara'id distribution. Leaving more than one-third, or leaving any part of the one-third to an existing fixed heir, requires the consent of all the other heirs to be valid — without their agreement, it is reduced back to the permissible limit.

The Prophet ﷺ's guidance on this (as recorded in the well-known hadith of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, who wanted to bequeath more) was that even one-third is considered generous, and leaving one's heirs well-off is preferable to leaving them dependent on others. In the Indian context, drafting this correctly as a legally valid wasiyyah document — not just a verbal or informal wish — matters both religiously and to ensure it's actually honored and enforceable alongside the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 framework.

Source: hadith of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, Sahih al-Bukhari 2742, Sahih Muslim 1628; general Sunni fiqh on the one-third wasiyyah limit.