Q. We live in our family home, which was built by my grandfather. At the time of his death, my grandfather had five sons and one daughter. Only the youngest of my uncles remains alive. My father, his sister and other brothers are all dead. Of them all, only my father had any children and we are three brothers. My surviving uncle says that he does not want any share of the property as he is very old and has no children. The problem we are now facing is that my aunt’s husband is now claiming her share and wants to donate it to charity. We offered him some money for his share, but he said that he does not want any money. He is 95 and seems to be suffering from dementia. What claim does he have on our family property?
VK
A. You certainly have a complicated problem, which would have been more serious had your uncles had children of their own. The complication results from the fact that your family did not take the advice of the Prophet (peace be upon him) which stresses the need to divide inheritance as soon as possible after the death of a person. What your family should have done was that after each death, the inheritance of the deceased should be divided in accordance with the Islamic law of inheritance. Instead, your family opted for leaving it undivided and now it is difficult to ascertain the share of anyone who is entitled to a share. It is not only your aunt’s widower that has a claim, which could be substantial, but there may be others. It is your responsibility, together with your brothers, to establish who has a share and give them their shares. I will explain.
Since the family home belonged to your grandfather, you have to ascertain who were his heirs. If his wife was alive, she would inherit one-eighth, and the rest would go to his children. This should have been divided into eleven shares, with one share goes to your aunt and two shares each to your father and your uncles. When she died, her share and the rest of her property would go to her children in the same way, i.e. 2 shares to each son and 1 share to her daughter. Let us assume that this was the original sharing of the house, which assumes also that your grandparents died when all their children were alive.
When your aunt died, her husband would take one half of all her property including her share in the family home, since they did not have any children. The other half would be shared equally between her surviving brothers. But how much was her share? If she was the first to die after her parents, then her share would be the original one she got from them. But if any of her brothers, apart from your father, died first, she would inherit from them because they had no children. She inherited nothing from your father because he had you and your two brothers. But how much would she inherit from each brother?
Here we come to the possibility of other heirs. If either one of your two late uncles who were married was survived by his wife, then his wife would inherit one-fourth of his property, including his share in the house, since he had no children. When such a widow died, her share would go to her own heirs. These could be her parents, brothers and sisters, or nephews and nieces as the case may be. The other three-quarters of such an uncle’s property go to his surviving brothers and sister, to be shared out on the basis of 1 share for a sister and 2 for a brother. As for your uncle who died without being married, he is inherited by his surviving brothers and sister on the same lines.
What this requires is a proper study and calculation to ascertain each one’s share. You say that your surviving uncle says he does not want any share of the property. May be, and should he die, you and your brothers seem to be his only heirs, but you cannot tell. He may survive you all. Hence, the need for calculating who owns what share is urgent. Your aunt’s widower is within his right to claim his share, which could be substantial, because it is half of his wife’s property. If two or three of her brothers died before her, her share would have increased, and his would now be greater. So, you have no option but to buy his share from him.
Moreover, it is your duty to make sure that if there are other heirs, who would be the heirs of your late uncles’ widows, they are made aware of their rights and settlement should be sought. You need to ascertain their exact shares and buy them from them. If they are not aware of their rights, you have to contact them and make them aware of them. In this way, you make sure that what comes to you is only your right and it is halal. Unless you do so, you may be usurping other people’s property, and this is forbidden as you are well aware.