Mai Malkawi-Connecticut

In a touching scene, a young girl urges her parents to secure it before their death, and choose a guardian to live with him. This is an advertisement for an American company that appears on the pages of social networking sites since the spread of the Corona virus, as the writing of legal wills and life insurance increased in large proportions recently.

According to CNBC, more than 50% of the clients of this advertisement company (Trust and Well), based in San Diego, have started writing their wills and insurance for their lives in the event of their death, according to the CNBC website.

Another Boston-based insurance company, Gentrio, reported a 143% increase over the last week of March for people who wrote their wills, according to the same website.

Given the current circumstances and the state of social estrangement that obligated Americans to their homes, I started writing these wills online, while some accused insurance companies of exploiting their fear of death by issuing ads that touched their emotions, especially with regard to their children.

An advertisement for an American insurance company that shows a child asking her parents for insurance after they die (Communication sites)

Desire to feel comfortable
Doaa Al-Atoum, an American of Jordanian origin, felt the symptoms of the Corona virus after being mixed with a co-worker who mixed with another person who came from Korea, which made her rush to write her will with the help of her American Muslim husband who works as a lawyer.

And included in her will, as I mentioned in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, the insurance of her house and property and naming her husband as the first shepherd for her son, and her brother who lives near the second shepherd, because she feared that the infection would be transmitted to her husband, which is what happened already.

Despite her feeling that she and her husband had recovered from the virus and the symptoms disappeared, she says that writing the will was very necessary "because this procedure will guarantee the future of her son and the property of her possessions to him in the event of her departure."

Ahmed Sheikh, the legal lawyer specializing in real estate planning and the guardianship law in the state of California, told Al Jazeera Net that there is always a desire among people, especially when they have a certain disease that may cost them their lives, to reassure those who love after their departure.

He pointed to a significant increase in completing the procedures of inheritance plans and wills writing in America recently due to the spread of Corona virus, as he started working with customers via phones and smart applications to complete the procedures.

He explained that the elderly people have often completed writing their wills and inheritance plans, but the new thing now is the demand for this by middle-aged people who have children and families and would like to know that they will be safe after them.

Lawyers' completion of the will and legal inheritance plan for about four weeks has come close to just a day or hours, given this emergency situation, says Ahmed Sheikh.

He stressed that what often delays the completion of procedures is obtaining the stamp of the notary and witnessing the signature, and in the laws of some states, California, the presence of witnesses is required while writing the will, but in conditions of social divergence it is possible to do this through direct video broadcast applications.

Muslims put
With the spread of Corona heavily among many Muslims, especially in and around New York City, awareness of the importance of writing the will began for many reasons, the first of which is the absence of inheritance laws and the care of children according to Islamic law in American law, which drives Muslims to the need to write them themselves legally in the will, according to Researcher in Islamic Call Affairs in America calls Muhammad Al-Hayek.

Al-Hayek pointed out in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net that writing Muslims’s legal will is “an Islamic duty” due to its necessity in a non-Islamic country, for many reasons, the first of which is to ensure the distribution of inheritance according to Sharia in a country that does not apply Sharia, and to ensure that children are looked after with a trusted person after their death, in addition to recommending procedures Islamic burial, especially for those who do not have Muslim relatives, is afraid that it will not be buried according to the Islamic method.

Concern about the issue of caring for children, according to Al Hayek, is due to the fact that American law if parents do not name a guardian within their guardianship, as their care goes to the governmental child care institution, or a number of non-Muslim relatives or parents who are not satisfied with raising their children may dispute.

Ahmed Sheikh: A large number of American Muslims are unaware of the inheritance procedures and wills before death (communication sites)

Hayek stressed that the will and inheritance planning in the West is complicated, "especially in these circumstances when a person no longer knows what might happen with the spread of the virus."

In turn, Lawyer Ahmed Sheikh indicated that Muslims can actually carry out inheritance procedures according to Islamic law, so that the inheritance will be distributed in written will according to the instructions of the Islamic inheritance law, and they can also name the care of children for those who accept it.

And I agree with Hayek that there is not a lot of awareness among Muslims in America about the necessity of undertaking inheritance procedures before their death, as many people are not very familiar with the American inheritance law.

He said that many Muslims are not aware of what can happen to their property, if they do not set the inheritance and wills plan, as one of the parties can obtain all the wealth, while the children remain without any financial source, and in many cases it means that the care of the children To the government that decides to take care of children for a family that may not necessarily be Muslim.

It is noteworthy that the number of Muslims who died from the Corona virus has not been clearly documented yet, at a time when the number of infections so far across the United States has reached 469,000, of whom 16,676 have died.