Questions - Inheritance Browse Categories

My mother, sister and I are the only legal heirs to my father. He has left behind a house. Now, we have mutually decided to sell it. Please let me ascertain the shares of each one, if the price is Rs.20 million

I have a question about the inheritance law. I am totally convinced in the point of view of Javed Ahmed Ghamidi. However, I have developed a confusion regarding his view in this regard which follows:

Who receives the balance 5/12 of the inheritance in the following and other cases in which, after the distribution, there remains surplus?

In all these cases and many other combinations there is a surplus. What will happen to this surplus? Who will inherit it? To deal with this problem the law of "Usbah" comes to effect. This law is to regulate the unclaimed shares, which have no corresponding people to receive them. Of course if the Quran was clear with no errors, there would have been no need for all these “sciences” and amendments.

The law of Usbah is based on the following Hadith.

Sahih Bukhari 8. 80. 724

Narrated Ibn 'Abbas:

The Prophet said, "Give the Fara'id (the shares of the inheritance that are prescribed in the Qur'an) to those who are entitled to receive it. Then whatever remains, should be given to the closest male relative of the deceased."

According to this law, a man who dies and is survived by only his daughter with no other close male relative except a second cousin, his daughter will receive half of his inheritance and the other half will go to the man’s second cousin. This seems quite unfair to the daughter, but it would be especially unfair if the man had a needy aunt or a female first cousin that would receive nothing because they are of the wrong gender.

Now suppose that a man has no other heir except his wife and a distant male relative. The wife will receive 1/4 and the distant male relative gets the balance, i.e. three times the inheritance that his widowed wife gets. Is this justice?

What if the deceased has no male relative at all? What will happen to the rest of his inheritance? What happens in the reverse case when a wife has no relatives? The husband will receive half of her inheritance; who will get the other half?

Note that in the Quran there is no priority for the distribution of the inheritance. In nowhere it says “first give to these and from what is left, give to those”. Even if we had to reinterpret these laws and prioritize them in the order that they are mentioned, it still does not work because in that case, each subsequent inheritor will have his or her share shrunk. Also in most cases the total inheritance will never be used up. (http://faithfreedom.org/Articles/sina/inheritance.htm)

My questions relate to problems in inheritance laws. These questions are as follows:

I live with my family consisting of my mother, unmarried sister, my wife and three sons aged 7,5,3 yrs respectively. My father died in 1985 leaving behind 75 acres of agricultural land. I manage all this land. I am also working with Bank Alfalah Ltd as branch manager. We share our income for running my home and other issues. I am worried that my mother aged 77 would not be able to manage her land, my sister is also cardiac and is not capable to manage her share of the land. I also bear all my family expenses.

Now I wish to share the income generated from all recourses of my family after deducting expenses. I want to be guided by Islam in this regard.

I wish to establish a special trust for the benefit of my children. I intend to make a will with the conditions that all the property left over by me after my death shall not be sold or inherited but the rental income from the properties be distributed between my sons and daughters in the ratio of 2:1. According to this will, the daughters can benefit during their lifetime only and the offspring of my sons will be the only beneficiaries after my sons’ death. Finally in the event there are no more heirs from the family, the whole property be given for public cause. Can such a will be made? Is this proposal in accordance with the Shari‘ah? Please advise.