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Fatwa CenterUncle does not want to distribute the inheritance justly
Question
As Salaamualaykum, my grand parents left a property with 2 brothers and 4 sisters and expired among sisters one is my mother, my elder uncle use to take care of whole property its maintanance development etc., and he has purchased a peice of land and constructed a house on it and gave to his younger brother as his share and after 20 years my elder uncle died due to heart attack there is no childrens to him and even his wife expired 8 years back now my younger uncle my mothers younger brother has taken charge of the property and saying that it all belongs to him and sisters have no share.
Now the property consist of 9 flats and 7 shops plus open land we want to know how to distribute the property and what is the share of our mother and one more thing is he is having cash also in bank accounts,
my uncle is not willing to distribute it properly he is saying that u all 4 sisters will get one one flat and rest all belongs to him so sir please give us the accurate ifromation and please assist us in the matter as my other 2aunts are very poor and in a need of money so plese help us and guid us what to do in such situations
Thanking You
Allah Hafiz
As salaamalaikum
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.
It is not permissible for one of the heirs to take exclusive possession of the inheritance and it is an obligation on all of you to fear Allaah and give each one his right. Indeed Allaah threatened those who contravene His Ruling and transgress His Limits in inheritance, as He Says (what means): {And whoever disobeys Allaah and His Messenger and transgresses His Limits- He will put him into the Fire to abide eternally therein, and he will have a humiliating punishment.}[Quran 4:14]
What is distributed among the heirs is the inheritance, which is all what the dead possessed during his life, like cash money, estates and so forth.
However, you did not mention to us who died first, whether it was the grandfather or the grandmother so that we could clarify how the inheritance should be divided.
However, in general, we say that all the four sisters and the two brothers have right in the inheritance of their father and mother, and they also have right in the inheritance of their dead brother. Nonetheless, we did not understand what you meant by your statement ‘and gave to his younger brother as his share’ but we say that what the older brother gave to his younger brother –if this is from his own money, then this is a valid gift which becomes a property of the person to whom it was given and it is not included in the inheritance of the dead brother. However, if what he had given to his younger brother was from the inheritance of the grandfather or the grandmother, then this should be deducted from the share of the younger brother in the inheritance.
Finally, if your brother is procrastinating, then our advice to you is to take the matter to an Islamic court if any, or that you would explain in details your matter to the scholars so that they would judge between you, in a way that they could listen to all disputing parties because 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. 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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