Assalaamu-Alaikum Shaikh,I humbly pen this letter to resolve an inheritance issue as my late father died without a will. I have read your site on this issue, but needed a response from a Shaikh for my siblings would not listen to me. I strive to follow the Shariah of Allah SWT and the Sunnah of Muhammad saw.The inheritors are my Mom, 4 males and 4 females, and the estate consist of a wooden house on a piece of land.Please explain the divisions of this estate as my siblings are not versed in Islam. They have indications that the estate should be sold to grand children even though there are children who wanted to purchase it and hand over their shares according to the Shariah Laws. Jazak Allah. Sheik.

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.

If someone dies and leaves behind a wife, four sons and four daughters, and he did not leave any other heir – like a father or a mother – then the wife gets one-eighth as her legal share as Allaah Says (what means): {But if you leave a child, then for them [i.e. the wives] is an eighth of what you leave, after any bequest you [may have] made or debt.}[Quran 4:12]

The remainder should be divided among his sons and daughters, the males twice the share of the females, as Allaah Says (what means): {Allaah instructs you concerning your children [i.e. their portions of inheritance]: for the male, what is equal to the share of two females.}[Quran 4:11]

Therefore, the inheritance should be divided into 96 shares, the wife gets one-eighth of it, which is 12 shares, and each son gets 14 shares, and each daughter gets 7 shares, it is not an obligation on the heirs to sell the inheritance to the grandchildren and they [heirs] are not obliged to renounce their shares for them.

As regards your statement that some of the heirs want to buy the properties, or that some of them give a hint that the estate should be sold to the grandchildren, then the answer is that if the estate is divided according to the Sharee’ah, then by virtue of this division, each heir possesses his share and becomes entitled to dispose of it as he wishes, and no heir has the right to oblige the others to sell their shares to him or to anyone else.

However, if any one of them wants to sell his share and this share has not been specified, then it is permissible for him to sell it. In this case, the other heirs who own the state with him are given priority over others in buying his share, and if it is sold to a third party, they are exclusively entitled to the right of Shuf’ah (pre-emption), i.e. the right to buy it at the sale price.

As regards your father not writing a will, then if your father had no obligations to fulfill towards Allaah – like Zakah and the like – and he had no obligations towards people, like debts and the like, then he was not religiously obliged to write a will but it is desirable for a Muslim if he has much money to make a will for his relatives who are not among his heirs. He may make a will assigning some of his money – provided it is not more than a third – as a charity for the Sake of Allaah. It is more appropriate for it to be for his poor relatives, like the grand children who are not legal heirs. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 86417.

Allaah Knows best.