Asalam o alaykm,A wealthy father has one eldest daughter and three sons. The father faces a terminal illness that can take his life. In such an event (i.e. father's life-threatening illness), instead of distributing the shares of inheritance, does the Islamic law allow the father to leave all his wealth and family financial matters "in the care" of one of his sons? JazakAllah khayrOmer

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

First of all, know that the father is not Islamically required to distribute his property among his family during his life, whether he is in a life-threatening illness or is healthy. If he gives them something or distributes his property among them, this is not called an inheritance but a gift.

The inheritance is but the division of the inheritance of the deceased, not the living, and his gift in his life-threatening illness takes the ruling of the will. It is not valid for him to give his children something of his property while he is in a life-threatening illness because a will to the heir is not valid, as the Prophet said: “Allah has given everyone his right, so there is no will for an heir.” [At-Tirmidhi and Abu Dawood]

If what you mean by ‘taking care of his wealth’, is managing his funds, there is no objection to the father delegating one of his children to manage his wealth in the event of his illness, and this is called power of attorney, and it is a permissible contract in Sharia. The power of attorney is not forbidden because of the illness of the person who appoints another one to act on his behalf – here it is the father – but it is permissible even at the time of his disability or illness. The jurists have stipulated the validity of the power of attorney of the sick person and in every human right.

Kash-Shaaf al-Qinaa’, one of the books of the Hanbali School of jurisprudence, reads: “The power of attorney is valid in every human right of contracts ... whether the principal (the person who grants power of attorney to someone else) is present or absent, healthy or sick.” [End of quote]

We would like to point out to the following matters:

Firstly, the son who is given power of attorney is not entitled to dispose of his father's wealth except within the limits of what he has been entrusted to do. He is not entitled to write anything in his name or sell any of his father's property, nor gift anything without power of attorney from the father (to this effect); any action from him outside the limits of the power of attorney is invalid.

Secondly, the power of attorney is invalidated by several matters, including the death of the person who granted him the power of attorney. So, if the father dies, the power of attorney is invalidated, and the agent does not dispose of the funds after the death of his father on the pretext that he was given the power of attorney. Rather, his money returns to all the heirs as an inheritance that they will divide among them according to the legitimate division of inheritance or that they renew the power of attorney for one of them to manage those funds if they want.

Thirdly, the father should be keen to give the power of attorney only to the one who is trustworthy in his religion and honest, as we are living at a time when honesty has decreased, and people are dominated by greed. Indeed, many fathers gave the power of attorney to their son and when they died, their son seized the inherited money, and spoilt the right of the heirs in it.

Allah knows best.