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Distribution Of Inheritance In Quran: Is It Justice ?
I am opening a separate thread of the injustice I see in the inheritance distribution verses of Quran.
If a man dies leaving behind 4 wives, and a second male cousin, with a property of 100 Rs. , I think his wives will get 1/4th of it (25 Rs. and each wife will get 6.25 Rs.) while, remaining 75 Rs will be given to his second male cousin..
Is my above understanding correct ? If yes, how is it a fair distribution ?
If my understanding is wrong, please let me know how the inheritance will be distributed?
@AhmadShoaib @Rafo
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12 Replies
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Distribution Of Inheritance In Quran: Is It Justice ?
updated 4 years, 4 months ago
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12
Replies
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If a man dies leaving behind one son, his entire inheritance will be given to his son.
If, on the other hand, he dies leaving behind only a daughter, how much will the daughter get, and what happens to rest of his inheritance money?
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The daughter will get half the share. The remaining can either go to the closest male relatives or become a property of the state if such a law exists. However, the father does have the right to make his daughter his sole heir if he fears that she will be in need of it or if she has been of benefit to him.
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But then it depends on the father making his daughter his sole heir.. we are talking about Allah’s law when the father dies without making his will.. it is possible. The daughter only gets 50 Rs. and rest 50 Rs. goes to his second male cousin.. how is it fair ?
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Don’t see why you’re stuck on the second male cousin. Also, the daughter becomes the responsibility of her uncles anyway. So, naturally her living costs will reduce.
Also, I’m of the opinion that such matters should be challengeable in court. Not the inheritance law, but the will. If the father hasn’t made a will, I think that his daughter should have the right to demand the court to increase her share. This is my opinion, I’m not sure if Javed sahab agrees with this.
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Daughter becomes the responsibility of her uncles ? There is no uncle here, only a male cousin of her father.. and how can half of her father’s money be given to that male cousin be justified ?
If distribution of inheritance is done perfectly Islamic way, I don’t think it can be challenged in courts.
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I will appreciate if my confusion on these issues is clarified.
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The second caliph Umar apparently understood the law of inheritance wrong.
The four schools argue in favour of the validity of ‘awl and the reduction of all the shares by citing the precedent of a woman who died during the reign of the Second Caliph, ‘Umar, leaving behind a husband and two agnate sisters. The Caliph gathered the Companions and said: “The shares determined by God for the husband and the two sisters are a half and two-thirds respectively. Now if I start with the husband’s share, the two-thirds will not remain for the two sisters, and if I start with the two sisters, the half will not remain for the husband. So give me advice.”
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Can we assume that the second caliph Umar also understood the inheritance law in a wrong manner ? It is clear from this above story that Umar didn’t understand that inheritance share for spouses to be given first then to be given to sisters..
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1) Your distribution of wealth relating to the widows is correct. However, the remaining share does not necessarily need to go to the closest male relative. The Hadith that states so should be considered as a suggestion (which, in my opinion, is based on the principle of “closeness due to benefit” mentioned in Surah Nisa;11) and is not an order. In many countries, any estate that has no heir becomes the property of the state.
2) Regarding widows, there is a separate set of directives for them. One of them is that they are eligible for recieving one year’s maintenance from the husband’s estate besides the will; “And those of you who die and leave widows should bequeath for their widows a year’s provision and [bequeath] that [in this period] they shall not be turned out of their residences; but if they themselves leave the residence, there is no blame on you for what they do with themselves according to the norms of society. And Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise” (2:240).
Therefore, the division of the estate still holds fair.
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One year’s maintenance ?? Is it all ? Here we are talking about the entire inheritance money of the man, and each wife only receiving 6.25 Rs. out of it.. and if the man had a son, the widows would get 1/8th (i.e. 12.5 Rs in total, and 3 Rs individually).. and the rest entirely goes to the son.
In which world, is this distribution fair ?
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I think we can both agree that one year is long enough to get back on your feet. And if one wife is specially poor, she can get more than the others. And maybe you missed the part about their share coming from the husband’s estate. That would increase their share from 1/4th or 1/8th.
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If one year is long enough to get back on your feet for old widows, then it should be good enough for the young son as well… why give him almost the full share then ?
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