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Fatwa CenterDivision of estate among wife, four daughters, full-brother and full-sister
Question
Assalaamu alaykum. Please calculate the inheritance according to the following information:
- Does the deceased have male relatives who are entitled to inherit: (A full brother) Number 1
- Does the deceased have female relatives who are entitled to inherit: (A daughter) Number 4 (A wife) Number 1 (A full sister) Number 1
- Additional information: The inheritance of his father has not been fully divided between the deceased and his siblings when he died. The inheritance is about 2-3 businesses (shops and the goods sold in these shops). How should we calculate the value of the goods and the shops? Should we take the value when the father died into consideration, or when the deceased died, or the current value (the deceased died in 2015 and his father in 2003)? Does this value have to include profits; and from when (2003 or 2015)? Some heirs wanted their inheritance to be used to generate profits and others do not have an opinion about it.
Also, his brother had money from their father since 1989. This money has not been divided yet either. Should the daughters of the deceased ask for the profit generated by this money or just ask for the value of the money in 1989? Please note that their uncle (the brother of the deceased and also his heir) tried to return this money to his father when he was alive, but the latter refused to take this money and asked his son to keep it. What would be the answer in case he refused to take this money for profit generation? And what would be the answer if it was mainly to make his son, the uncle of the deceased's daughters, comfortable in managing his business.
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.
If someone dies and leaves behind a wife, four daughters, a full-brother and a full-sister, and he did not leave any other heirs, then his wife gets one eighth as her legal share due to the existence of the children (direct heirs); 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]
His daughters get two thirds as their legal share as Allaah says about the existence of a number of daughters (what means): {But if there are [only] daughters, two or more, for them is two thirds of one’s estate.} [Quran 4:11]
The remainder should be divided amongst the full-brother and the full-sister, by Ta’seeb (by virtue of having a paternal relation with the deceased and not having an allotted share, so they get what is left after the allotted shares have been distributed); the male twice the share of the female, as Allaah says (what means): {If there are both brothers and sisters, the male will have the share of two females.} [Quran 4:176]
Therefore, the inheritance should be divided into 72 shares; the wife gets one eighth, which is 9 shares; the daughters get two thirds, which is 48 shares, each one of them gets 12 shares; the full-brother gets 10 shares; and the full-sister gets 5 shares.
As regards the shops and the goods, then the heirs share it and each one of them gets his share from the shops and the goods according to his legitimate share in the inheritance. It should not be asked whether the price of the shops is considered according to the time of death or after it, because if the heirs did not sell the shops yet, then they are entitled to it according to their legitimate share in it, and if the shops were sold, then each heir takes his share from the price with which it was sold.
The same thing applies to the goods, if they are not sold, then each one of them [the heirs] gets his legitimate share in them, and if the goods are sold, then each one gets his share from the price.
The profit should be also divided according to the division of the inheritance. The profit from the business is also divided in the same manner regardless of whether it is what the deceased had earned prior to his death and left it behind or that which the heirs had earned after his death because the profit takes the same ruling of the initial capital sum, and if it is one of the heirs who traded with it, then he gets wages for his work.
With regard to the money that was kept by the uncle and of which you stated that it belonged to his father and the father refused to take it from his son, then the ruling on this issue requires that we know things that were not explained in the question, such as: was this money a loan or was it for trade? What is the reason for the father refusing to take it from his son? Therefore, we cannot give an accurate ruling on this issue. Hence, we advise you to verbally ask the scholars about it, and if there are any disputes about it, then the matter must be taken to an Islamic court.
Allaah knows best.
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