In one Hadith of Sunan Ibn Majah our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, "Learn the Laws of Inheritance and teach them to the people for they are the half of the useful knowledge". So, we will try to share with you all the inheritance right of Muslim women but before discussing the inheritance right of Muslim women, we need to know about inheritance law which was prevalent in pre-Islamic Arabian customary society in those days. In pre-Islamic Arabian customary society women did not have any inheritance right at all.
All the properties of the deceased belonged to the male agnates i.e. the male relatives of the deceased between whom and the deceased no female intervenes.
Islam came and rescued the women. Islam recognized the women's right of property at that time. In the holy Qur'an Chapter-4, Verse-7 Allah says "From what is left by parents and those nearest related there is a share for men and for women, whether the property be small or large- a determinate share."
We can clearly see that Almighty Allah in the above verse categorically states the women's inheritance right in 1400 years ago. Actually the Islamic law (shariah) is based on the holy Qur'an i.e. the revelation of Almighty Allah and the authentic Hadith i.e. the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) albeit scholars say that the Islamic law of inheritance is the amending form of the pre-Islamic customary law. So Islam allowed the women to inherit from their Father, Husband, Mother, Son, Brother, Daughter etc.
No religion on the face of the earth whether it be Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism or Buddhism recognized the inheritance right of women at any time as clearly as Islam does and it is the beauty of Islam.
We know in most of the developed countries in the west they boast that they give the women more right than anybody does but we see fifty years or hundred years back they did not allow their women their right of property. But now by making legislation the west are giving their women right of inheritance whereas Islam gave women their property right 1400 years ago.
For the easy understanding we need to know about the heirs who can inherit. There are three classes of heirs in Islamic law of inheritance such as:
(1) Zav-il-furuz i.e. Qur'anic heirs meaning those heirs whose share have been defined by Almighty Allah in the holy Qur'an in Ch- 4, V-11-12.
(2) Asabah i.e. those heirs whose share have not been fixed but they take from what is left after satisfying the claims of those whose share have been fixed in the first class. The principle of distribution of the second class is male takes the double share of female (2:1).
(3) Zav-il-Arham i.e. Distant Kindred if there is no heirs of the deceased in the first or second class then the heirs of this class inherit.
In the first class (Qur'anic share) there is a list of twelve heirs and those heirs are:
(1) Husband
(2) Wife
(3) Father
(4) True Grandfather
(5) Mother
(6) Grandmother
(7) Daughter
(8) Son's daughter
(9) Full Sister
(10) Consanguine Sister
(11) Uterine sister
(12) Uterine brother. All the members mentioned above are of the deceased persons.
We can clearly see that in the list of twelve heirs female dominates and 8 out of 12 are women. The beloved son is not there in this list and it is surprising.
But he inherits in the second class. There is a concept of primary heirs who are never excluded from inheriting among them are:
(1) Husband or Wife
(2) Mother
(3) Daughter
(4) Father
(5) Son
In this list also there are three women. In brief we will see the fraction of share of women.
Wife's Right of Inheritance
Wife gets 1/8 (as Qur'anic sharer) if the propositus i.e. the deceased has got children but if the propositus i.e. the deceased has got no children then wife will get 1/4 (as Qur'anic sharer) of the whole of the total estate .
Daughter's Right of Inheritance
Daughter gets 1/2(as Qur'anic sharer) if more than one they get 2/3 collectively (as Qur'anic sharer) of the whole property. But if there is son or sons she does not inherit in this class rather she is agnatised in the second class and inherits with son or sons on the principle 2:1 means male gets double the share of female.
Mother's Right of Inheritance
Mother gets 1/6(as Qur'anic sharer) if the propositus i.e. the deceased has children but if the propositus i.e. the deceased does not have any children mother gets 1/3(as Qur'anic sharer). If the propositus i.e. the deceased has got one brother or one sister mother gets 1/3 but if more than one brother or one sister she gets 1/6(not 1/3).
Grandmother's Right of Inheritance
she gets 1/6(as Qur'anic sharer) if the propositus i.e. the deceased has got children but if the propositus i.e. the deceased does not have any children she also gets 1/6 of the whole property but if there is mother of the deceased person, grandmother gets nothing and she is excluded .
Son's Daughter's Right of Inheritance
Son's daughter gets1/2 (as Qur'anic sharer), if more than one son's daughter they get collectively 2/3 (as Qur'anic sharer). If there is one daughter of the propositus i.e. the deceased, son's daughter gets 1/6(as Qur'anic sharer) but more than one daughter son's daughter is excluded. If there is son's son, son's daughter does not inherit a fixed amount rather inherits with son's son on the principle of 2:1.
Full Sister's Right of Inheritance
Full sister means the deceased's own sister, she gets 1/2 (as Qur'anic sharer) if more than one they get 2/3(as Qur'anic sharer) collectively. Full sister gets agnatised with Full brother. She is excluded by Father, Son, Son's Son, and True Grandfather.
Consanguine Sister's Right of Inheritance
She gets 1/2 (as Qur'anic sharer) but if more than one they get 2/3(as Qur'anic sharer) collectively. She gets agnatised with consanguine brother. If there is one Full sister, she gets 1/6(as Qur'anic sharer) but more than one Full Sister, she gets nothing. She is excluded by Son, Son's Son, Father, True Grandfather and more than one full sister.
Uterine Sister's Right of Inheritance
She gets 1/6(as Qur'anic sharer) but more than one uterine sister or uterine brother they get 1/3(as Qur'anic sharer) collectively.
This allocation of share might seem a bit difficult to those who have not come across this before.
We are not trying to explain the whole Islamic law of inheritance what we are trying to show that women are inheriting from their Father, Husband, Brother, Grandfather etc.
No religion on the face of the earth whether it is Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism or any other religion describe in detail the inheritance right of women as Islam does .Islam provides the women their proper right like no other religion does .
This is a scientific method and it shows that how technician the Almighty Allah is! Islam does not allow subjugation of women in the name of Culture, Modernism, Capitalism, Socialism or any other Ism. It gives women a higher position.
But in reality we see that Muslim women are being deprived of their Inheritance, Dower but this is not the fault of Islam rather this is a problem of the Muslims. If the Muslims follow the Qur'an (the revelation of Almighty Allah) and Sunnah (the sayings of Prophet Muhammad) they will be refrained from doing this.
There are some principles of Islamic law regarding inheritance such as:
(1) Nearer in degree excludes the more remote i.e. son excludes son's son
(2) Males get double share of female in case where there is no fixed amount for the heirs (Assabah).
The critics of Islamic law often say that this is an injustice that female gets half of the male where there is no fixed amount.
It is a false notion .The justification is that in the Islamic law all the maintenance of female and other members of family must be incurred by the male members. So we see that females have no obligation to maintain the family by her own means .So if she gets half of the male member she will not have to expense out of that share at all .But in case of male he has to spend his property to maintain his family.
So we see women get less than man but they spend nothing whereas men get double but they need to spend the property for the welfare and maintenance of the family. Moreover Muslim women get Dower (Bride's gift) at the time of marriage from her husband and this is her own property.
So, logic says that Muslim women win more than lose. So, we should rather say Muslim women as victorious women than other women.
In modern society people suggest that male and female should get equally but Islam does not believe in equality but in equity i.e. justice, fairness, uprightness. Though apparently it seems that Muslim women do not get equal to the men but if we scrutinize this than we will be able to see the philosophy that no obligation and an equitable share for women, all obligations and a little high share. Any logical man will be able to see that it is more than equality. Women here are the winner. The Muslim law professor of Dhaka University, Dr. Taslima Monsoor, often says that Muslim women are like Queens.
Arfan Ahmed, Department of Law, University of Dhaka, E-mail:ArfanNDCDU@gmail.com
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