Q278 :1. A relative of mine has one son by his
first wife and two more as well as four daughters by his second wife.
Relations between the first son and his stepmother were not very good
all the time. As he was managing his father’s properties, he moved with
his own family into one of his father’s houses. There was a long
dispute between father and son and the latter netplained to the village
administrative netmittee, headed by his own friends. They
exnetmunicated the father making a manifestly one-sided verdict.
Insulted and irritated, the father has transferred many of his own
properties to his second wife and her children and made a will that his
first wife’s son should not inherit anything from him. The father has
now died. May I ask what Islam says about his own and his son’s
action? How to divide the properties?
2. A close friend of mine, who has a son and a daughter by his
previous marriage (since divorced), has gifted all his land and
property to his second wife and his children by her. He has, however,
taken due care to adequately provide for his daughter by his first
marriage while denying the same to his son, due to his gross
disobedience and misbehaviour towards him. He says that this is
permissible under the provisions relating to an undutiful child. Could
you please netment on this action in the light of Islamic law of
inheritance?
A278 : The apparent similarity between these two
letters and the problems they outline is highly significant. The
problem is not peculiar to any particular netmunity. In fact, this
story is heard often, when friction between stepmother and her
husband’s children develops into a long-drawn dispute. It is more
likely for such a problem to benete irreconcilable when the father is
rich and when he is too busy or too involved to take an objective
attitude to protect the rights of every one concerned. While no one
disputes the right of the father to have a second wife, if his first
wife dies or if his marriage is not successful, or indeed for other
reasons, he must be careful not to allow friction to develop between
his second wife and his children by his earlier marriage. Such friction
does not only spoil the happy family life but it can easily lead to
problems which may earn the father himself Allah’s displeasure, if he
benetes unfair to any party among his closest relatives. In both these
stories, we find the father resorting to the extreme measure of
transferring his property to his second wife and her children. In the
first case, the father denies his son by his first marriage the right
to inherit him. In the second, the father tries to give his actions a
legal aspect by saying that he is invoking certain provision in the
Islamic law of inheritance. In the first one, he is making a will
depriving his son of inheriting from him. Neither action can be
sanctioned by Islam. It is quite possible that the father in such a
case benetes very unhappy with his son who may resort to measures which
are unacceptable and in conflict with his duty to be kind and
respectful toward his father. Such actions by the son may appear to his
father worse than they really are, especially if the son is
consistently accused of disrespect and furthering his own interests
without giving due regards to his father. However, the father must
never forget his responsibilities and must be careful to give every one
of his family what is due to them of care, love and fair treatment. I
cannot help the feeling that the father in the first case has been
heavily leaning toward one side in the dispute in his family. I imagine
that the son would not have dared netplain about his father to the
village netmittee without having very good grounds for making such a
netplaint. In a village netmunity, a son, especially an adult, is
expected to be dutiful to his father and not to oppose him in any
fashion. It seems, however, that the dispute was a fierce one, and
probably continued for a very long time. The son has been able to
persuade a netmittee to pronounce a verdict against his father,
although the members of the netmittee must have been keenly aware of
the difficulty of their task and that they must never violate the
village rules of propriety and morality. My reader describes their
verdict as one sided. It may have been so, but was the father’s
attitude throughout the dispute a fair one, or did he lean to one side
more than the other? In both cases, the father must have never allowed
the situation to worsen so badly. He should have stopped the fire
before it burnt the peace in his family. Be that as it may, the fire
could not be put off with the sort of measure to which both fathers had
recourse, namely, denying the son his right of inheritance. I am amazed
at the suggestion that this can be sanctioned by Islam under certain
provisions. This is certainly not the case. The Islamic law of
inheritance is very detailed and its details have been given to us by
Allah Himself. It is not possible, therefore, to add to it or delete
from it any provisions. What Allah has ordered must be obeyed, if it
sometimes appears to us that a certain clause which has not been
included in this law may be appropriate. One of the balanced rules of
this law of inheritance is that no one can give any of his heirs an
extra portion of his estate by will. It is, therefore, not open to any
father to give any of his children a little extra on top of his or her
apportioned share. On the other hand, no father may disinherit any of
his children. Their shares have been determined by Allah and they are
entitled to them, disregarding the parents’ wishes and desires. It
appears, however, that in both cases, the fathers have resorted to
other measures, assigned their properties to those of their heirs whom
they favoured, having little to be divided according to the law of
inheritance. Such a transfer of property during the lifetime of its
owner and when he is in possession of his senses is accepted as legal.
However, that legality is merely formal. Allah will undoubtedly hold
the father to account for his action. The father will have to justify
it and such a justification may be beyond him. How can he answer Allah
when he asks him : How can you prevent your son from receiving what I
have assigned to him by way of inheritance? What I am trying to say
here is that although a court of law may approve the measures taken by
the father as legal, he still has to justify them to Allah who knows
true intentions and motives as well as circumstances. If the other
heirs of the father want to be kind to him, they will hold a meeting
of reconciliation and divide the property left by the father according
to the rules of the Islamic way of inheritance. In the first case, the
reader asks how the property should be divided. In all, the father has
left behind one wife, three sons and four daughters. His wife inherits
one eighth of all the properties and the remainder is divided into ten
equal shares. Each of the four daughters receives one share while every
one of the three sons receives two shares. In other words, if the
second wife of the man and her children want to lighten the burden of
the father, they should give the son by his first marriage a share
which amounts to less than one fifth of his father’s property. By doing
so, they would do the father a great act of kindness and they help
bring about a reconciliation within the family. Who knows, but the sons
and daughters of the second marriage may find themselves in need of
their elder brother who will be ready to help, if he feels that they
have nothing against him. They can demonstrate that by giving him that
to which he is entitled by his father’s property. [Added : If you gift
some of your property during your lifetime to any of your children for
a very cogent reason, you may do so. If, however, you are doing so
because you feel that a particular child, e.g., the eldest son or a
daughter, should inherit more because according to you the share fixed
by rules of inheritence are not to your liking or that they are not
fair, then you will be placing your wisdom above that of Allah and you
will be answerable to Allah for He is all wise and knows best.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )