Nomination is to Assist the Poor?

"Main objective of nomination, especially required or provided by the law is to assist the poor to channel their small sums of money without going through the trouble of making will or taking out a grant of representation." Quoted from Barry C. Crown (2007). Death and the Central Provident Fund: Legislative Intervention. Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, pp.138-147.  The modern or western introduced administration of estate proves to be problematic to Muslims as it does not take into account the limitation of testamentary disposition of the Muslim property. The modern idea of nomination with the purpose of assisting the poor fits squarely to the freedom and unlimited power of testamentary disposition of the western legal system. Thus when the idea was first introduced, the Muslim scholars rejected it. For the Malays, who are the avid Muslims without question, the idea is troubling indeed, but for sure they are not fanatical. For practical reasons the idea was accepted with modification. Thus fatwa was issued to allow nomination but the nominee is now a trustee, receiving the property of the deceased as a trust to be distributed among the legal heirs. Of course there was occurrence of abuse and breach of trust and this continues to be so, but Islamic law is not all about law and order, it is about personal integrity and a belief that there will be a final judgment in the hereafter that all wrongs will be corrected. Thus a person whose right was wrongfully taken or robbed will always contend to think that his or her offender will deserve punishment sooner or later and on top of that the offended is rewarded for his or her patient. This is not to be mistaken as to say that Islamic law takes lightly on the breach of trust as whenever this is a proof to such a felony, suitable punishment will be meted out. Thus within this idea of law and the character of the Malays who appreciate practicality and peaceful co-existence with others, the practice of nomination is accepted with modification. Practicality because many of the Malays in the past were poor and nomination therefore is supposed to assist them? Probably.           

Western Analysis on how hadith became important source of law in Islam

The below quotation taken from Rueben Levy (1969). The Social Structure of Islam. Cambridge University Press. It is a good book on the social aspect of Muslim life in the past before the dominance or advance of western politics in the Muslim lands. It has some explanation on the theoretical aspect of Islamic law that has relevance to the practice of Muslim societies and states. Such an explanation is not new to the western academic and the reproduction below is a rendering how Sunna or Hadith becomes important source of law marginalizing the use of reason.

"The holy cities of Arabia, in which the memory of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) had been perpetuated by numerous account - some authentic, others certainly not so - covering all the incidents of his career. Especially at Medina, where he spent the latter and more influential period of his life, the part played by "tradition" in justifying local custom was important one. The learned of Medina, in fact, being compelled by circumstances to supplement the legal provisions of the Koran, did so not as the provincial Muslims had done, by an avowed resort to reason, but by deliberately inventing Hadiths of the Prophet to justify their new regulations or fresh ways of applying Koranic laws... The Hadith properly speaking, is the report of the Prophet's Sunna or course of conduct, or of his doings and sayings, to anyone of which a particular Hadith may refer. The obvious way out of the dilemmas provided by the Koran or by the need for reconciling Koranic doctrine with conflicting but ineradicable alien practice, was to refer to what the Prophet had done in similar circumstances, and consequently the Sunna acquired an authority only a little less than that of the Koran itself."   at page 170.