Frequently Asked Questions

‘Wasiyat’ (also spelled wasiyyah) is the Arabic and Urdu word for a will: a person’s written declaration of how their estate should be handled after death. In Islamic law it specifically means the discretionary bequest of up to one-third of the estate to non-heirs or a charitable cause, separate from the fixed Quranic shares (fara’id) that govern the rest.

In Islamic law, a wasiyyah (wasiyat) is a testator’s voluntary bequest of up to one-third of their net estate to non-heirs or a charitable cause, made before death and taking effect after it. It is separate from fara’id, the fixed inheritance shares the Quran (Surah An-Nisa, 4:11–12) prescribes for spouses, children, parents, and other classified heirs, which a wasiyyah cannot reduce or override.

A wasiyat is legally valid under Indian Muslim Personal Law once an adult testator of sound mind states it in writing, limits any bequest to non-heirs to at most one-third of the net estate, and avoids bequeathing to a legal heir without the other heirs’ unanimous consent. Signing it before two adult witnesses and registering it with the Sub-Registrar (Registration Act, 1908, Section 18) are both optional, but recommended, since they give the will its strongest evidentiary weight if it is ever challenged.

In India, an adult who has attained the age of majority, 18 years, or 21 if a court-appointed guardian manages their person or property, may make a valid wasiyat, provided they are of sound mind. This mirrors both the general age of testamentary capacity under the Indian Majority Act, 1875, and the traditional Islamic law requirement that a testator have reached puberty (bulugh) and be of sound understanding (‘aql).

A wasiyyah is a testamentary document rooted in Surah Al-Baqarah (2:180) that allows a Muslim to bequeath up to one-third (1/3) of their net estate to non-heirs or charitable causes (waqf, sadaqah jariyah, educational trusts). The remaining two-thirds are distributed according to fixed Quranic shares (fara’id) among classified heirs as prescribed in Surah An-Nisa (4:11–12). Wasiyat helps you create both components: the discretionary bequest and the complete inheritance schedule, with every share traceable to its jurisprudential basis.

The 1/3 cap originates from the hadith of Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas (Sahih al-Bukhari 2742), who asked the Prophet (ﷺ) about bequeathing his entire wealth. The response was: “One-third, and one-third is much.” This limit safeguards the Quranic rights of classified heirs (ashab al-furu’d) and prevents disinheritance of family members through excessive bequests. In the Ja’fari school, a bequest exceeding 1/3 is void unless all heirs unanimously consent after the testator’s death. This is enforced as an immutable hard constraint in Wasiyat: no user action can override it.

Wasiyat supports all six major doctrines of Islamic jurisprudence: the four Sunni schools: Hanafi (predominant across India), Shafi’i (common in Kerala and coastal Karnataka), Maliki, and Hanbali; the Shia Ja’fari (Twelver) school followed by Shia communities in Lucknow, Hyderabad, and Mumbai; and Ahle Hadees / Salafi, based directly on Quran and authenticated Hadith without strict adherence to a single classical school, with distinct radd rules following the position of Ibn Abbas (RA). Each doctrine differs on critical rules: the Hanafi school applies awl (proportional reduction) when shares exceed 1.0; the Ja’fari school excludes certain agnatic relatives; the Ahle Hadees school excludes the spouse from radd. Our engine implements documented mainstream rules within each supported doctrine.

No. This prohibition is based on the hadith: “There shall be no bequest for an heir” (Abu Dawud 2870, Sunan al-Tirmidhi 2120). If a testator bequeaths to a classified heir (e.g., spouse, children, parents), the bequest is void unless all other heirs unanimously consent after the death (ijma’ al-fuqaha). This prevents circumventing the Quranic distribution scheme. Wasiyat enforces this as a hard constraint: a bequest to a classified heir is flagged invalid with its citation, is not deducted from the estate, and blocks both finalising the calculation and generating the document pack, unless, under the Sunni schools, you record that the other heirs have consented (the Ja’fari school permits it within the one-third without consent). A consented bequest still comes out of the one-third bequest pool, on top of that heir’s normal share.

Not as a will term. Each heir’s entitlement is a fraction of your whole estate, never a named property, so an ‘earmark’ in a will has no legal force, and it is exactly what families fight over a decade later when the flat and the shop have drifted apart in value. What you can do is record a Distribution Preference: your expressed, non-binding wish for how the heirs partition the estate among themselves (called takharuj). Wasiyat prints it in your Will Declaration together with a clause that every asset is to be valued by an independent valuer at the date of distribution, and that an heir who takes an asset worth more than their share pays the difference in cash to the others. The Distribution page shows that equalisation for each heir at today’s values. To make a transfer binding in your lifetime, use Hibah (a gift with possession handed over) instead; a gift is not subject to the one-third cap, but the Prophet (peace be upon him) asked parents to be just among their children.

From the moment of death, the heirs hold every asset as co-owners in their fixed fractions; there is no survivorship and no ‘joint family’ property under Muslim law. Any heir may sell their own undivided share, but not the whole (Transfer of Property Act, 1882, s. 44), and no co-owner can be forced to stay a co-owner. The usual course is a buy-out at an agreed valuation, recorded in a registered release or partition deed. Failing agreement, any co-owner may sue for partition; where a property cannot be fairly divided, the court can order a sale and a co-heir can buy the share at the court’s valuation (Partition Act, 1893, ss. 2–3). Wasiyat’s Executor Playbook walks the executor through valuation, equalisation and the buy-out route so the family can settle it without a suit. This is general information, not legal advice; a partition dispute needs a local advocate.

Under Indian law, a nominee is a custodian, not an owner. The Supreme Court of India clarified this in Sarbati Devi v. Usha Devi (1984) and more recently in cases involving insurance nominations under the Insurance Act, 1938. A nominee receives the asset upon the policyholder’s death solely as a trustee and must distribute it to the legal heirs. However, many Indian Muslim families mistakenly treat nominations as ownership transfers, leading to un-Islamic distribution. Wasiyat’s Nominee Education module explains this distinction to your family with specific references to applicable Indian legislation.

Hajb refers to the exclusion of certain heirs from inheritance due to the presence of closer relatives. There are two types: hajb bil-hirman (total exclusion, where an heir is completely blocked) and hajb bil-nuqsan (partial reduction, where an heir’s share is reduced). For example, a grandfather is blocked by the father in all Sunni schools, and brothers are blocked by the son. The Ja’fari school has a distinct class-based blocking system where heirs are grouped into three tiers, and a closer tier excludes all lower tiers entirely. Our 5-layer engine handles these rules automatically.

Our 5-layer calculation engine uses exact fraction arithmetic (BigInt, not floating point), eliminating rounding errors entirely. Every calculation passes through five layers: heir identification, filtering and blocking (hajb), fixed share assignment (fara’id), residuary distribution (‘asabah), and adjustment (awl/radd). Results are validated: shares must sum to exactly 1.0, every share is traceable to its jurisprudential basis (a specific Quranic verse, e.g. Surah An-Nisa 4:11, a hadith, or an established fiqh ruling), and results are checked against golden test vectors to 6 decimal places. The engine is purely deterministic with zero AI or probabilistic involvement.

Awl (proportional reduction) activates when Quranic fixed shares exceed 1.0, a situation that historically arose during Umar ibn al-Khattab’s (RA) caliphate. For example, if a wife (1/8), a father (1/6), a mother (1/6), and two daughters (2/3 combined) inherit, the shares total 27/24, exceeding 1.0. All shares are proportionally scaled down. Radd (return) is the opposite: when fixed shares don’t exhaust the estate and no residuary (‘asabah) heirs exist, the surplus is redistributed proportionally to eligible fixed-share heirs. The precise treatment, including whether the spouse participates in radd and how any excess is handled, varies by school of jurisprudence. Wasiyat applies the exact rule documented for your chosen doctrine.

Yes, as an in-app research tool. The ORIS Doctrine Comparison runs your family structure through all 6 calculation engines and displays a side-by-side breakdown of how each heir’s share changes across schools. This is primarily useful for scholars comparing fiqhi outcomes or for the rare case where a family is exploring which school best represents their practice. Most families follow one school of thought for life and should simply select their own during setup; the calculation you and your family see elsewhere in Wasiyat always reflects only that one selection.

The Umariyyatayn refers to two specific cases where Umar ibn al-Khattab (RA) ruled that the mother receives 1/3 of the remainder rather than 1/3 of the entire estate. This occurs when the heirs are: (1) husband, mother, and father; or (2) wife, mother, and father. Without this rule, the mother would receive more than the father, which contradicts the Quranic principle in 4:11 that the male receives double the female’s share. Schools of jurisprudence differ on whether Umar’s ruling applies here. Our engine applies the documented position of your selected doctrine.

Every finalized document pack receives a unique DIN in the format WV/YYYY/STATE/NNNNN (e.g., WV/2026/KA/00142). This human-readable identifier makes it easy to reference and verify your documents. The DIN appears in the footer of every page across all 10 documents in your estate pack.

Visit the Verify page on our website (/verify). You can verify documents two ways: enter the DIN directly, or scan the QR code printed on each document using your phone camera. The system checks the SHA-256 hash to confirm the document has not been tampered with since generation.

When you finalize your estate plan, you draw your signature on a digital canvas. This signature is encrypted using AES-256-GCM and stored securely. The encrypted signature is then embedded directly into your PDF documents. Witnesses and executors can capture their signature the same way through their respective portals. This records and preserves your signature; your will still needs to be physically executed and attested to take legal effect.

You can invite up to 2 witnesses by entering their name and email address. Each witness receives a secure link to a dedicated attestation portal where they can review the document summary, sign a legal declaration, and provide their signature. Their attestation is timestamped and their signature is embedded in the Will Declaration PDF.

Our documents use court-oriented formatting: Times-Roman body text with Cormorant Garamond headings, 25mm margins, section numbering, seal placeholders, and a jurisdiction clause naming the law that actually governs your will — the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 by default, or the Indian Succession Act, 1925 if you married under the Special Marriage Act. Formatting does not by itself make a document valid or enforceable; what does is physical execution, which happens outside the platform. We recommend signing on paper before two adult witnesses, optional notarization for high-value estates, and review by a qualified Islamic scholar.

Khair Labs cannot read your estate. Your estate data is encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM under a key derived from your password (or your Estate Passphrase, if you signed in via SSO): never from a key we hold, so decryption only happens inside your own unlocked, authorised session, never on an admin screen. Your key is backed up two ways: a one-time recovery key you're shown once and should store safely, and, if you've appointed an executor, delegate-assisted recovery through them. If you lose your password, your recovery key, and every delegate, your data is gone permanently; we hold no master key that could get it back. A few structural facts our calculation engine needs (relationships, dates, status flags) and your account identity (name, email, billing) stay readable to run the platform; see our Security page for the complete, honest breakdown. Data in transit uses TLS 1.3. Passwords are hashed with bcrypt at cost factor 12. We maintain a tamper-evident audit trail using hash-chaining (each audit entry includes the hash of the previous entry). Access is controlled via JWT tokens with short expiration windows, and optional TOTP-based 2FA adds an additional authentication layer. All captured signatures are encrypted using AES-256-GCM and stored separately from the hash verification data. Document integrity is protected by SHA-256 hash chains, and every document can be independently verified through our public verification portal.

After cancellation, your account remains accessible in read-only mode until the end of your plan's access period. We retain your data for up to 12 months after that to allow you to purchase again or export your data (available in PDF and JSON formats). If you request deletion (any time, from Settings), your account is deactivated immediately and our team processes the erasure request; once your wrapped encryption keys are removed, the encrypted data cannot be recovered by anyone, including us. Records we are legally required to keep are retained. You can request deletion at any time through Settings.

Yes, through two features working together. Emergency Access lets you send trusted contacts a secure link with emergency instructions and your executor's contact details, available to them any time and not conditional on proving anything happened. The Vault itself unlocks through your appointed executor's death-claim flow: they upload a death certificate through their secure portal, and an admin-verified approval unlocks the vault and notifies your beneficiaries. Khair Labs never holds the key that does this unlocking; when you appoint an executor, your own key issues them a wrapped copy scoped to exactly what their role needs, so it's your authorisation that opens the vault, not ours. There is no self-service automatic release today (no inactivity timer and no multi-person approval requirement), so make sure your executor is appointed and your emergency contacts have their links well before they're needed.

Wasiyat is designed to align with the Information Technology Act, 2000 (including the 2011 Privacy Rules under Section 43A) and with DPDPA 2023 (Digital Personal Data Protection Act) principles. You have full control over your data: the right to access, export, correct, and delete. We collect only data necessary for estate planning functionality and never sell personal data to third parties. Our privacy policy details all data processing activities, retention periods, and your rights.

A Digital Nominee is a separate, deliberately distinct designation for your data rights under the DPDP Rules, 2025. It is not your executor (who has authority over your estate) and not an heir (who has an inheritance share); it is specifically the person who can exercise data-access and data-erasure requests over your personal data after your death, a privacy right rather than a property one. Naming one explicitly, rather than defaulting silently to your executor, matters because an unconsidered default could let someone erase data your heirs still need for settlement. You record their name, relationship, and contact details (AES-256-GCM encrypted) and confirm you understand the scope is data rights only, never your estate or inheritance. Wasiyat captures and stores this nomination today; submitting the statutory access or erasure request itself is on our roadmap.

A Power of Attorney lapses in India the moment its principal becomes mentally incapacitated, which is exactly when a family needs guidance most, and well before any death claim applies. Wasiyat's Incapacity Card lets you record where your Advance Medical Directive is kept, whether a POA exists, and who you'd want consulted as a surrogate decision-maker. Filing a declaration always requires two independent people, mirroring the death-claim verification pattern so no single person can trigger it: your emergency contact files it through their existing access link, and your appointed executor must separately confirm it before anything is released. You can revoke a declaration yourself at any time, for example after recovery. This is informational only; it cannot confer legal authority, so you still need a lawyer to execute an actual Power of Attorney or Advance Medical Directive.

ORIS (Obligation, Rights, Inheritance & Succession) is our AI advisory layer, powered by ORIS AI (api.meetoris.com, operated by Khair Labs), which selects the underlying model. It receives your estate details only after you switch on AI processing in Settings. It assists with five key features: (1) Natural Language Family Building: describe your family in plain English or Urdu transliteration and ORIS structures it; (2) Doctrine Comparison: side-by-side analysis across all 6 doctrines; (3) Scenario Analysis: model ‘what-if’ situations like future births, deaths, or asset changes; (4) Document Migration: import existing wills or inheritance documents; (5) Conversational Explorer: ask questions about your estate plan in natural language. ORIS is strictly advisory and architecturally separated from the calculation engine.

Absolutely not. This is a foundational architectural principle of Wasiyat: the deterministic rule-based engine handles all inheritance calculations, bequest cap enforcement, and constraint validation. ORIS handles only user experience and advisory features. The two systems are strictly separated: ORIS cannot read or write to the calculation pipeline. If ORIS experiences downtime or errors, all core features (calculations, document generation, family management) continue operating normally. This ensures that religious obligations are never dependent on AI accuracy.

ORIS provides educational information sourced from authenticated classical texts (Al-Sirajiyyah, Sharh al-Fara’id, and other recognised fiqh references). However, ORIS is explicitly prohibited from issuing fatwas, making religious rulings, or offering personalised spiritual advice. For matters of fiqh requiring ijtihad (scholarly reasoning), you should consult a qualified mufti or Shariah scholar. Every ORIS response includes a disclaimer, and the Vault Family plan includes an annual scholar consultation.

ORIS uses a circuit-breaker pattern with automatic fallback: if AI confidence is low or the model is unavailable, it gracefully degrades to pre-written responses or directs you to our help documentation. ORIS never modifies your family tree, calculation results, or documents without your explicit confirmation. All ORIS suggestions are presented as recommendations that you must review and approve before they take effect. The separation between ORIS and the calculation engine ensures that AI errors cannot affect the mathematical accuracy of your inheritance distribution.

Essential (₹3,999, one-time) includes core inheritance calculation for your family’s madhab, basic document generation, a secure document vault, and email support. Vault (₹7,999, one-time) adds all 6 doctrines, full ORIS AI access, complete 10-document pack with DIN, executor portal, witness attestation, and Video Wasiyat (1 recording). Vault Family (₹14,999, one-time) includes everything in Vault plus multi-family management, Video Wasiyat (5 recordings), professional marketplace access, and a scholar consultation (once per year). Every plan is a single one-time payment, not a recurring subscription.

Yes. All plans start with a 14-day free trial, no credit card required. You get full access to your chosen plan’s features during the trial period. If you purchase a plan and are not satisfied, we offer a full refund if you request it within 14 calendar days of your purchase date — whether you purchase during the trial, right after it ends, or any time later. Contact refunds@wasiyat.in for a full refund, processed within 5–7 business days via your original Razorpay payment method.

We accept all major Indian payment methods through Razorpay: UPI (Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm), credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, RuPay, American Express), net banking from 60+ banks, and popular wallets. All transactions are PCI DSS Level 1 compliant. Each plan is a single one-time charge processed through Razorpay; there is no auto-renewal or recurring billing.

Yes. Upgrading to a higher plan only charges the price difference from your current one-time purchase, based on the time remaining in your current plan's access period. Contact support to arrange a plan change.

Wasiyat generates documents aligned with the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, which governs succession for Indian Muslims, but Wasiyat does not guarantee legal validity or enforceability. Under Muslim personal law, a will does not require registration to be valid, and it does not require witnesses either (this does not apply if you married under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, which brings the Indian Succession Act's two-witness requirement into play); under classical fiqh a wasiyyah may even be made orally. We nonetheless strongly recommend attestation by two adult witnesses, and optional notarization for high-value estates, because it provides powerful evidence if the will is ever challenged. For immovable property (land, flats), registration under the Registration Act, 1908 may be advisable depending on state rules. Our State Execution Packs include state-specific guidance on stamp duty, registration, and witness requirements.

Document generation is available nationwide, across all Indian states and union territories. We publish dedicated legal guides for 14 states and union territories (Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal), and our deepest, court-specific document templates cover 5 southern states (Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh), with more being added. Each state has distinct requirements: for example, wills are exempt from stamp duty in Karnataka and across India (a will is not a conveyance), so no stamp paper is required; Kerala has specific provisions under the Cochin and Travancore succession acts for certain communities; Telangana and AP follow the unified AP Stamp Act. Our State Execution Packs document each state’s stamp duty schedule, registration office locations, witness requirements, and any state-specific court precedents on Muslim succession.

The Shariat Act of 1937 provides that Muslim personal law governs matters of inheritance, wills, and succession for Indian Muslims, taking precedence over the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (which otherwise applies to non-Muslims) — except if you married under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, which brings the Indian Succession Act into play instead, or if you are resident in Uttarakhand, where the Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand, 2024 governs succession instead of the Shariat Act. Our calculation engine applies the traditional fara’id rules of the selected doctrine. For Muslims in certain states who may have opted for codified law or for families with mixed-law considerations (e.g., joint Hindu family property acquired by a Muslim), we recommend consulting a qualified legal advisor alongside using Wasiyat.

This is one of the most common pain points for Indian Muslim families. Joint property (held by co-owners, often siblings or spouses) must first be separated to determine the deceased’s individual share before Islamic inheritance rules apply. For example, if a husband and wife jointly own a flat in Koramangala, only the deceased’s 50% share enters the Islamic estate. Wasiyat’s Joint Property Separator tool helps you isolate the deceased’s share from jointly held assets before running the inheritance calculation, ensuring accurate distribution.

We generate a comprehensive document pack: (1) Will Document (Wasiyyah) with proper Islamic preamble (bismillah, shahada), bequest clauses, and heir designation; (2) Inheritance Calculation Report showing each heir’s exact fraction, jurisprudential basis, and INR value; (3) Bequest Annexure detailing discretionary allocations; (4) Asset Inventory with property descriptions, estimated values, and nominee details; (5) Family Summary with the complete heir tree; (6) Executor Playbook with step-by-step administration guide. All documents are professionally structured PDFs with state-specific legal language and proper attestation blocks.

The Executor Playbook is an 8-stage operational guide for the wasi (executor) you designate. It covers: (1) death certificate procurement, (2) asset inventory and valuation, (3) debt and liability settlement (including the Islamic priority: funeral expenses → debts → bequests → inheritance), (4) bequest execution, (5) share calculation verification, (6) asset transfer and mutation, (7) documentation with Sub-Registrar offices, and (8) final distribution confirmation. Each stage includes checklists, estimated timelines, required government forms, and your specific distribution data pre-filled.

Before inheritance shares are calculated, Islamic law mandates a strict priority sequence for the gross estate: (1) Funeral and burial expenses (tajheez-o-takfeen), kept reasonable per Sunnah; (2) Debts owed by the deceased (duyun), including both debts to people and religious obligations like unpaid zakat or kaffarah; (3) Bequests (wasiyyah) up to 1/3 of the remaining estate to non-heirs; (4) Inheritance distribution (mirath) of the remaining 2/3 per fara’id. This sequence is derived from Surah An-Nisa (4:11–12): “after any bequest he may have made or debt.” Wasiyat enforces this priority order in every calculation.

A complete estate pack contains 10 documents: (1) Will Declaration (Wasiyyah), (2) Inheritance Calculation Report, (3) Asset Schedule, (4) Bequest Summary, (5) Heir Certificate, (6) Shariah-Readiness Certificate, (7) Compliance Checklist, (8) Executor Guide, (9) Nominee Directory, and (10) Emergency Access Instructions. Each document has a DIN footer, QR code, and seal placeholder.

Yes. The Settlement Checklist is auto-generated for your executor from what you actually recorded: your funeral instructions, open payables and religious debts, bequests, calculated shares, people to inform, and any digital accounts or amanat to close out. It follows the mandated seven-stage Shariah settlement order (funeral, debts to people with deferred mahr sequenced first, huquq Allah, wasiyyah, distribution, informing heirs, closing accounts). It reads your data but never writes to it: generating or regenerating the checklist never edits your register, calculation, or bequests, and the one-third bequest cap is never re-derived here, it reads the same validated figure your document pack already enforces. Your executor can export it as its own Settlement Pack PDF.

Yes. Signature capture is available for all parties: testator, executor, and witnesses. Signatures are drawn on a canvas, encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM, and embedded directly into the generated PDF documents. This records and preserves each signature; the will itself still needs physical execution and attestation to take legal effect.

When you appoint an executor (Wasi), they receive an email invitation with a secure link to their dedicated portal. From there, they can accept or decline the appointment, review the estate plan, access and download all documents, provide their signature, and follow the 8-step executor playbook for estate settlement.

Yes. If an executor has been appointed across multiple estates, they can access a unified dashboard showing all their active appointments. Each appointment is tracked independently with its own status, documents, and timeline.

Identity verification adds an extra layer of trust to your estate documents. You can verify your identity through a self-declaration (name, date of birth, address) or by providing basic Aadhaar information (last 4 digits only; we never store your full Aadhaar number). Verified identities are noted on your Will Declaration.

Yes. You can revoke an executor appointment at any time from your dashboard and appoint a new one. The revoked executor will lose portal access immediately, and a new invitation will be sent to the replacement.

The Vault Family plan (₹14,999, one-time) supports multiple family profiles, allowing you to manage separate estate plans for different family branches. This is particularly useful for professionals (advocates, chartered accountants, Islamic finance consultants) managing multiple clients, or for family patriarchs overseeing estate plans across extended family networks. Each family profile has independent heir trees, asset inventories, and calculation histories.

The Family Tree page supports two modes: (1) Manual Entry: add members one by one with their relationship to the deceased (e.g., son, daughter, wife, mother, paternal uncle), gender, and living status. The system validates relationships and warns about potential classification conflicts. (2) ORIS Natural Language: describe your family in plain English or transliterated Urdu (e.g., “My wife Fatima, two sons Ahmed and Yusuf, my mother Khadija is alive, and my father passed away last year”) and ORIS parses the structure automatically, presenting it for your confirmation before saving.

Estate plans are living documents. Wasiyat’s Life Event Tracking system helps you update your plan when significant events occur: marriage, divorce, birth of a child, death of an heir, or acquisition or sale of major assets. When you log a life event, the system automatically flags which calculations and documents need to be regenerated. ORIS can also run ‘what-if’ scenario analyses to help you understand how future events might change the distribution before they happen.