Q273 :When my father-in-law died, he left behind two
wives, one of them non-Muslim with one son and one daughter. He also
had two sons and three daughters by his second Muslim wife. His second
wife bought a house and registered it in her name after his death. She
subsequently died. My father-in-law had also two properties, the first
registered in his two wives’ names and the second in their two elder
sons’ names. The first wife’s son demands a 50 percent share of all
three properties. A lawyer has told me that the first wife’s children
do not have any shares in these properties. I will be grateful for your
advice on how these properties be shared out.
A273 : You seem to imply that all three properties
belong to your father-in-law in spite of their registration in various
names. You have to establish that either through the agreement of all
heirs, or by some other proof. If you cannot, then the house which is
registered in the two eldest sons’ names will remain theirs and each of
them will be able to take his share. If they have given pledge to their
late father that they would be looking after their brothers and
sisters, then they must do that. Obviously, there is no court which
will be able to enforce that without their cooperation. If they claim
that the house belongs to them, they have a legal evidence. The
Prophet has warned against this in a very serious manner. He says; “I
am only a human being and you put your disputes to me. Some of you may
have a stronger argument than that of his brother. If I give him
something which belongs by right to his brother, I am only giving him a
brand of fire which he may take or leave.” Here the two eldest sons
have that strong argument. If their father had placed them in this
position so that they will ensure that their brothers and sisters will
have their fair shares and they refuse to do that, they are unfaithful
to their trust. I understand that both wives are now dead. This
netplicates matter immensely, particularly with regard to the first
property which is registered in their two names. Perhaps the best thing
that could happen here is an agreement by all children of your
father-in-law by his two late wives, that the property belonged in
reality to him, and therefore, it should be divided among his heirs. If
they do not agree and a court will decide on the inheritance of that
property, the following will happen. One half of the property which is
in the name of the Muslim wife will be inherited by her five children
on the basis of one share for each daughter and two shares for each
son. This assumes that your later mother-in-law did not have any other
heirs, such as her parents. The other half of the property which was
registered by the non-Muslim wife of your father-in-law could not be
inherited by her children, because her children are Muslims, following
their father’s religion. Therefore, it is to be inherited by her
non-Muslim relatives. The third property is even more problematic.
There are two possibilities here: If the price of that property was
equal to or less than the share of your late mother-in-law in her
husband’s inheritance: A wife whose husband has children, inherits only
one eighth of her husband’s property. If he has more than one wife,
then the wives’ share altogether will be one eighth. But because the
other wife was a non-Muslim, she does not inherit anything from her
husband. The Prophet says that the followers of two different religion
do not inherit from one another. As I have already mentioned, her
children do not inherit from her because they are Muslims and she was
not. Nor does she inherit from her husband or from her children if she
survived them. Therefore, your late mother-in-law’s share was one
eighth of the full property of her husband. If that was sufficient to
buy the house, then we consider it as her own property and it goes to
her own children. The other children of your late father-in-law do not
take any part of this house. This sharing here is a one seventh share
of each of the two sons. This assumes that she had no other heirs. Her
parents would have inherited from her as well if they had survived her.
The other possibility is that the price of the property was larger than
your late mother-in-law’s share: In this case, the best thing is to
turn that property to your father-in-law’s estate which should be
shared by his heirs. The claim of the first wife’s son for a 50
percent share of everything is inadmissible. You will have to explain
to him that the sharing of inheritance has been pre-determined by
Allah. In this case, whatever is finally agreed to be part of your
father-in-law’s estate should be shared out in the following manner:
One eighth to his second wife. She receives her share because she
survived her husband. The remainder goes to all children by both
marriages. Altogether, he had three sons and four daughters surviving
him. The rest of his property, i.e. after payment of one eighth to his
Muslim wife, should be divided to ten shares, giving one share to each
of the daughters and two shares to each of the three sons. Again this
assumes that neither of your father-in-law’s parents had survived him.
If either did, then they receive one sixth share each before dividing
the remainder among his children. There is further division to be
made, – that of the share of your late mother-in-law. She is inherited
only by her own children, not by the children of the first wife. If
neither of her parents is alive, her property is divided into seven
shares, giving one to each daughter and two shares to each son.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )