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Inheritance issue : Distribution of property among wife and children (including deceased)

Q:

Assalam o alaikum,
I want to ask a question that my grand mother (my mother’s mother) received her share from my late grand father’s property ( my mother’s father) is she allowed to give her share to one of her children or is it to be distributed among all her children ( five daughters and three sons out of whom one daughter has died she was married she has two daughters and two sons both daughters are married and one son too)? And God forbid, if she dies, how that share is to be distributed?
Second question regarding my aunt ( my grand father’s daughter) she has died was married having two sons and two daughters both daughters are married and one son too. How is her share to be distributed from my late grand father’s property? Kindly, assist me regarding my question in the light of Islamic Shariah. I shall be Thankful to you.

A:

Wa Alaykumussalam

Thank you for your question

The inheritance of your grandfather should have been distributed according to the Shariah Laws and the property of your grandfather can’t be taken by just your grandmother.

Therefore, the inheritance should be distributed amongst the deceased’s wife, sons and daughters. But if the inheritance was distributed properly according to the Islamic laws and all got their shares, including your grandmother, then in this situation, your grandmother is the owner of her property, and can give anything from it, to any of the children as she wishes.

Some of the Inheritance laws according to Ayatullah al-Udhma Sayyid Ali Sistany:

Ruling 2753. If the only heirs of the deceased are his father or his mother and a number of his sons and daughters, the estate is divided into six parts: one part is inherited by his father or mother and the remainder is divided among his sons and daughters in a way that each son receives twice the share of each daughter.

For details: www.sistani.org/english/book/48/2369

The wife receives one eight from her husband’s inheritance:

Ruling 2782. If a man dies without any offspring, a quarter of his estate is inherited by his wife and the remainder by his other heirs. But if he has offspring from that wife or from another wife, then his wife inherits one-eighth of the estate and the remainder is inherited by his other heirs. A wife does not inherit anything from the land of a house, garden, plantation, or from any other land, neither from the land itself nor from the value of it. Furthermore, she does not inherit from what stands on the land, such as buildings and trees; she does, however, inherit from their value. The same applies to the trees, crops, and buildings that are on the land of a garden, plantation, or on any other land. However, she does inherit from the actual fruit that was present on the trees at the time of her husband’s death.

www.sistani.org/english/book/48/2372/

To begin with, debts, loans, khums and dowry(if unpaid) etc. of the deceased must be paid and the remaining estate and property will be eligible for inheritance.

The inheritance will not reach the grandchildren. If the daughter had passed away before the death of her father then she would not inherit anything. Inheritance will be distributed amongst the ones alive at the time of death. Therefore, if the daughter was alive and she hadn’t been given her inheritance, then the inheritance should be given to her children or compromised with them.

So, one eighth will be inherited by the wife(your grandmother) of the deceased(your grandfather), one sixth by father of deceased if alive, and one sixth by mother of deceased if alive and the rest will be distributed between the sons and daughters of the deceased in a way that sons get the double share of that of daughter’s i.e: if daughter receives $500, the son should get $1000.

The same goes for second part of your question; which is if the grandmother passes away the inheritance will be distributed in the same way as mentioned above. Since her husband had already passed, if her parents are alive one sixth will go to each and the rest will be divided between the sons and daughters in the same manner as mentioned above.

May Allah(swt) grant you success

Wassalam,

Syed Haider