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Inheritance – What is the ruling of social security whom it goes to, If the beneficiary is wife after his death.

Q:

I have questions if the husband dies in USA and will he made will accordingly to western way. Give his only house as a gift to his wife and retirement to his wife and  What is the ruling of social security whom it goes to if the beneficiary is wife after his death.

Please can you clear this. Thanks

A:

Salamun Alaykum

Thank you for your query.

The inheritance should be divided according to the Shar’iah laws. If the husband has gifted the item, land or money in his lifetime to his wife or children that will be excluded and all the remaining wealth and property has to be distributed according to the Islamic laws. And if there is no will, then all the wealth and property must be distributed according the inheritance laws.

According to Ayatullah al-Udhma Sayyid Ali Sistany:

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.

Read the details of “Inheritance of husband and wife” from the following link: https://www.sistani.org/english/book/48/2372/

May Allah(swt) grant you success

Wassalam,

Syed Haider