A chief of staff who knows what Friday is.
Today is Monday 28 September, 17 Rabī‘ al-thānī 1448. Maghrib in London is at 18:45, and everything Wakil books for you will know it.
Wakil works inside WhatsApp. It keeps your week around the five prayers, drafts your email and books the table, by phone if it has to. You message it the way you'd message someone who works for you.
The week you already know
A colleague's calendar tool books over Jummah because the slot looked free.
A 15:50 call runs long and takes Asr with it.
Lunch invitations keep arriving all through Ramadan. Nobody meant anything by it.
Iftar for eight gets planned in a group chat at five o’clock, and the place has no private room.
Checking whether a restaurant is really halal takes twenty minutes, every time.
You translate your week for your software all day, on top of the job. Wakil already speaks it.
A day with Wakil
An ordinary Friday. Everything below happens in one WhatsApp chat.
Before Fajr
WakilGood morning. Fajr is at 05:48 and Jummah at 13:15. Two things need you.
1 Reply to Sarah: the review moves to Monday.
2 Send the invoice to your accountant.
Send, skip or hold?
Yousend both
WakilSent. Sent.
07:40
WakilSarah's new invite for 12:45 lands on Jummah. I've drafted a reply offering 11:00 or 15:00. Send?
Yousend
WakilSent. Your Friday afternoon stays clear.
14:20
You, forwarded from MumVoice note, 0:41WakilFrom your mother, in Somali: 'Come for dinner on Sunday and bring the children.' Want to reply in Somali?
Youtell her yes, after Asr
WakilHere it is in Somali, ready to paste into her chat. Sunday evening is now held for family.
16:05
Youdinner for 8 on saturday, somewhere with a private room
WakilThree nearby, all halal, all with a room. The first only takes bookings by phone. Shall I call?
Youyes
WakilBooked. Saturday 19:30, private room, eight people. The call transcript is in your records.
After Isha
WakilTomorrow: nothing before 10:00, then dinner at 19:30. Anything you want me to hold?
An example. Names are invented.
What it does
Keeps the prayers clear.
The five prayers and Jummah are never offered as free time, and invitations that land on them get two alternatives before you've seen them.
Drafts your email.
It reads your inbox and writes replies the way you write them. You send with one word.
Books the table.
Halal venues with the certification shown, and a phone call to the ones with no online booking.
Reads voice notes from home.
Somali, Urdu, Arabic or Bengali, back as text and in English, with a reply in her language if you want one.
Changes shape in Ramadan.
From the day the authority you follow announces it: no lunch meetings, mornings for deep work, iftar held clear.
Answers with sources.
Questions of faith answered from authenticated sources with the citations intact, and differences between scholars shown rather than settled.
Nothing leaves your account without your word.
Wakil reads freely. Anything that writes to your calendar or reaches another person waits for one word from you, every time. It never invents a meeting, a time or a name. When it isn't sure, it asks.
The terms of an old contract
Islamic law has a contract for appointing someone to act on your behalf. It is called wakalah, and Wakil keeps its terms.
You set the mandate.
What Wakil may do is yours to decide, and you can change it whenever you like.
It works for you alone.
No advertising, no sponsored venues, and your data is never sold.
It accounts for everything.
Every action is recorded with one sentence saying why.
You can end it any time.
Disconnect anything and it stops that second. Delete everything and you get a receipt.
Wakīl وكيل
Arabic. An agent: one entrusted to act on another's behalf.
An agent, in the oldest sense of the word.
Built inside Beder
Beder is a private community of Muslim founders, operators and investors in London. We meet for dinner once a month, around prayer, with somewhere to pray and a halal kitchen. Our members asked for Wakil, tested it at the table, and are its first hundred members. A member can vouch for you, and a vouch moves you to the front of the list.
Taher, convener of Beder
Join the list
What happens next
We invite people in weekly groups of fifty, London first, then Birmingham, Manchester and Leicester.
When it's your turn, Wakil messages you on WhatsApp itself. You get a 14 day trial with a card on file, then Wakil from £95 a month.
You'll hear from us twice: once now, and once when it's your turn.