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Is It Permissible to Prevent Father from Inheritance in Islam?

21 June, 2022
Q My sister-in-law is an only child. She also had one child’s daughter who died recently. She has one landed property and has told me recently that she is going to give it to my daughter and a cousin. My sister-in-law's father is alive but she was unfortunately born out of wedlock. She is also not married. Can you, please, tell me if it is right for her to distribute her property this way even though her father is alive? Please, advise me on whether my daughter should take this gift. She has also said that the property should never be sold by the two recipients even though this would have already been gifted to them. I am confused and not keen to let my child inherit anything that is not in accordance with the Shari`ah.

Answer

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. 

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.


In this fatwa:

Though your in-law has the right, Islamically and legally, to distribute her estate while she is alive, she is advised to make a share for her father.


In his response to your question, Prof. Dr. Monzer Kahf, Professor of Islamic Finance and Economics at Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, states:

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From the legality point of view, according to the Shari`ah, she can do whatever she likes with her property as long as she is alive and capacitated.

Potential heirs have no right and cannot limit a person’s actions. Also from legality’s point of view, if she was born out of wedlock, her wedlock father cannot inherit her because of lack of formal marriage (such a child has inheritance mutual relation with her/his physical mother only).

But from good-relation and kindness to father, it would be better for her to make a will to give him part of her estate when she dies (as he is not qualified as an heir).

It might be advisable that if she decides to give the property to your daughter and her cousin that she may consider giving a part to her father.

With regard to preventing them from selling, the condition of no sale in a gift is not permissible and not valid in the Shari`ah because that is an interference with an owner’s basic human rights.

Almighty Allah knows best.

Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.

About Prof. Dr. Monzer Kahf
Dr. Monzer Kahf is a professor and consultant/trainer on Islamic banking, finance, Zakah, Awqaf, Islamic Inheritance, Islamic estate planning, Islamic family law, and other aspects of Islamic economics, finance, Islamic transactions (Mu'amalat). Dr. Monzer Kahf is currently Professor of Islamic Finance & Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Management, Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, Turkey