ٱلْبَقَرَة : ١٨٠

  • كُتِبَ Prescribed
  • عَلَيۡكُمۡ for you
  • إِذَا when
  • حَضَرَ approaches
  • أَحَدَكُمُ any of you
  • ٱلۡمَوۡتُ [the] death
  • إِن if
  • تَرَكَ he leaves
  • خَيۡرًا good
  • ٱلۡوَصِيَّةُ (making) the will
  • لِلۡوَٰلِدَيۡنِ for the parents
  • وَٱلۡأَقۡرَبِينَ and the near relatives
  • بِٱلۡمَعۡرُوفِۖ with due fairness
  • حَقًّا a duty
  • عَلَى on
  • ٱلۡمُتَّقِينَ the righteous ones
Prescribed for you when death approaches [any] one of you if he leaves wealth [is that he should make] a bequest for the parents and near relatives according to what is acceptable - a duty upon the righteous.1
Footnotes
1 - This ruling was abrogated by the revelation in Sūrah an-Nisā’ stipulating obligatory shares for parents and close relatives. Those who do not inherit by law may be remembered in a bequest. See 4:11-12.
Prescribed, made obligatory, for you, when any of you is approached by death, that is, [by] its causes, and leaves behind some good, material possessions, is to make testament (al-wasiyyatu is in the nominative because of kutiba, and is semantically connected to the particle idhaa, 'when', if the latter is adverbial; but if this latter is conditional, then it [al-wasiyyatu] indicates the response; the response to the [conditional] particle in, 'if', is, in other words, [implied to be] fa'l-yoosi, 'let him make testament'); in favour of his parents and kinsmen honourably, that is justly, not giving more than the allotted share of a third, nor preferring the richer person - an obligation (haqqan here emphasises the import of what has preceded) on those that fear, God (this verse has been abrogated by the 'inheritance' verse [aayat al-meeraath, see Q. 4:11] and by the hadeeth: 'Do not make testament for one [already] inheriting', as reported by al-Tirmidhee).