Q. When my father died 20 years ago, he left behind 7 daughters and two sons, as well as one daughter by another marriage. My mother died five years later, and subsequently three of my sisters died. So we are left two brothers and three sisters. However, two of our sisters changed their faith to become Christians. We have not yet divided our father’s inheritance, but we want to do so. How should we go about it?
A. Muhammad
A. The Prophet has urged all Muslims to divide the inheritance as soon as possible after a person dies. Yet we always hear about families not taking the Prophet’s advice and insisting on keeping their parents’ estate undivided. This often results in complications leading to sour relations within the family. If only people would realize that whatever the Prophet has advised is correct and works to their benefit, they would save themselves much unnecessary trouble. The complication here is due to the fact that the situation changes as the years pass and relations sour as some of the brothers or sisters feel they do not have a say regarding their rights. As in this case, some of the original heirs may die and they are replaced by their own heirs who will have title to their parents’ original share, which may be difficult to determine.
When we want to sort out this case we find that there are several points at issue. First of all, your father seems to have married more than one wife. You have not told me whether both were alive and married to him when he died. If so, they both share equally one-eighth of his estate. If at the time of his death he had only one wife, with the other having either died or been divorced, then his widow takes the full share of one-eighth. The remainder goes to his surviving children, who were at the time nine sisters and two brothers. This means that after the widow(s) have taken their share of one-eighth, the estate is divided into thirteen shares, one to each of the nine sisters and two each to the two brothers. As the estate remained undivided, its worth should be determined on today’s valuation.
The shares of the three deceased sisters should go to their own respective heirs. I understand one of them left behind one son and one daughter. Was her husband alive at the time of her death? If so, her property is divided in the following manner: One-quarter to her husband, and the remainder to her children on the basis that the son takes twice as much as the daughter. If any of them was unmarried, her share goes to her brothers and sisters, to be shared out on the basis of one share to each sister and two shares to her husband.
As for the two sisters who changed their religion, if their conversion took place before the death of your father, they inherit nothing, because the Prophet says: “The followers of two different religions do not inherit from each other.” If they were Muslim at the time of the death of their father, they inherit from him on the basis I outlined above.
The inheritance of your mother is divided between her children on the basis of two shares for a son and one for a daughter. Your half-sister does not inherit anything from your mother, since she has a different mother.