Laws of Inheritence in Islam

Laws of Inheritance In Islam

Significance:

A source of significant controversy both inside and outside the Muslim community is the Islamic law of inheritance. This "law" is in fact a continuing process of interpretation of Quranic rules and principles to form the complex "laws" of inheritance under Islam. It is a dynamic process which, based on specific text in the Quran and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, continues to be discussed in each Islamic age by Muslim scholars addressing changing issues and times.

Before delving into this complicated and controversial area, one must first realize that Islam revolutionized womenÕs inheritance rights. Prior to the Quranic injunction -- and indeed in the west until only recently -- women could not inherit from their relatives, and in the case of Arabia at least, were themselves bequeathed as if they were property to be distributed at the death of a husband, father, or brother. Thus, Islam, by clearly stating in the Quran that women have the right to inherit for themselves, changed the status of women in an unprecedented fashion. The Quran states:

"Men shall have a share in what parents and kinsfolk leave behind, and women shall have a share in what parents and kinsfolk leave behind."
(Quran 4:7).

Thus, whether women can inherit at all is not the controversy. Rather, the dispute centers around the "share" that is to be inherited.
The same chapter of the Quran goes on to state in detail the division of property based on the number of relatives and the level of kinship of the inheritor. (See Quran 4:11) The injunction that a male relative receives a share equal to that of two females applies only to the inheritance of children by their parents. Parents who inherit from a deceased child, for example, each inherit one-sixth of the property if the deceased child is survived by a child of his or her own. In that instance, the division is equal between the mother and the father of the deceased. The verse then...