Fatwa

  1. Fatwa
  2. Fiqh of Transactions and Inheritance
  3. Fiqh of Inheritance
  4. Some issues related to inheritance

The deceased left his gratuity and other monetary deposits
Fatwa No: 118722

Question

Assalam u Alaikum
Dear Brothers in Islam
I have a question regarding my friends brother who recently passed away due to chronic renal failure. He was a Government Servant and when he died naturally he left a lot of income in the form of Gratuity/GP Fund/ Other deposits in the office he was serving. Now my question is what do we have to distribute this income which is gained from the service he was delivering i.e, do we have to distrubute his property among his inheritors including all the benfits he is now getting (Gratuity/GP Fund/ Other deposits ).
He has no issues(Son/daughter) and is survived by his widow/ three brothers/4 Sister and a mother.
You are kindly requested to please clarify us how shall we distribute his property including the benfits he is getting from the Government.
Some persons say we only have to distribute his property among his brothers/sisters and a mother and all other benefits i.e, Gratuity/GP Fund/ Other deposits shall go untouched to his widow.
Please reply early,
yours Brothers in Islam
Ishtiyaq Bhat

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

 

There is no doubt that the possessions of the dead which he owned when he was alive should be distributed on his heirs according to Islamic Law –as will be clarified later. As regards the retirement pension (gratuity), GP fund, and other monetary deposits, then the money that the dead deserved from his work, like monetary deductions, then this is a part of the inheritance and it should be distributed among the heirs. However, if any of this money is a gift from his work to his family, then they should be given to the persons specified by his work; for more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 90709.

Therefore, if the dead left behind a mother, a wife, three brothers and four sisters –all of whom are full brothers and full sisters, or that all of them are from the father’s side only –and he did not leave any other heir, then his wife gets one-fourth and his mother gets one-sixth, and the remaining is for his brothers and sisters –the male twice the share of the female. In which case the inheritance should be divided into 120 shares, the mother gets one sixth, which is 20 shares, the wife gets one-fourth, which is 30 shares, and each brother gets 14 shares, and each sister gets 7 shares.

On the other hand, we would like to draw your attention to the two following matters:

If the money of the GP fund is invested in forbidden fields, like investing it in Riba (interest and usury) based banks and commercial insurance companies and other Islamicly forbidden fields, then one should get rid of the interests and other forbidden profits by spending it in the general welfare of the Muslims, and the heirs are only entitled to the capital money and the profits from lawful transactions.
It should be noted that the matter of inheritance is very complex an issue, so a mere Fatwa which is an answer issued according to the question is not enough. Rather, the matter should be taken to an Islamic court to look into the case, or it should be presented orally (in person) to the scholars in case there are no Islamic courts. It might be that there is an heir who would not be known except after investigation, and there might also be a will, debts, or other dues that are not known to the heirs. It is known that these rights come in priority over the right of the heirs. Therefore, the inheritance should not be divided without resorting to an Islamic court, if any, in order to fulfil the interests of the dead and the live people.

Allaah Knows best.

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