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Fatwa CenterInheritance for a daughter
Question
I have a bit of a problem, which I need to get solved within the Islamic Shariah terms and law. My wife's father died 7 years ago in 1996. He left them a great deal of land, properties, shops, houses, etc. With this the household gets a large amount of rent which they spend on themselves. My wife has 4 brothers and her mother who take this money. We got involved saying we must have some right as sister for her share. They said that she has no right at all on the cash money, but she will get the inheritance on land and properties but not the money.
1) Is she entitled to any financial cash money, which is currently coming from the tenants?
2) Her brother said that her father left the money only for them, though there is no written statement.
3) They said sisters are not allowed to ask for the money, which is coming from the tenants.
4) They said Sisters are not allowed to ask for the land or the property either unless the brothers and mother decide.
5) They said they cannot give any detail on the money which they have received since the day her father past away; also they cannot say how much money he left in the account.
My main question: Is she allowed anything from her father's side, cash and land etc, of if so please kindly could you give some reference as they said to give them evidence. They are also our brothers and following Islam.
Answer
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions. Whatever properties the dead person leaves behind are to be common inheritance among all his/her heirs, including his/her daughters. None has the slightest right to deny anyone of them his/her rights. Allah the Exalted Says: {There is a share for men and a share for women from what is left by parents and those nearest related, whether, the property be small or large - a legal share.}[4:7]. The deceased person's daughters have the full right in whatever he leaves behind, such as money, estates, commercial objects, revenues, ships, cars, or anything else. But they have no right to the brothers' money, which they earned for themselves (by their own labour). As for the claim by your brothers-in-law that their father bequeathed them the money excluding the furniture, it is a baseless one. The reason behind its being baseless, however, does not emanate from the fact that they do not have written documents supporting their claim. Even if it was verified that the father really recommended that, this will be considered as a will (bequest) made for the heir(s), which is not valid according to the Prophet's Hadith (saying): No will is to be made for an inheritor. [Narrated by Ibn Majah and others] Their claim that the sisters are not allowed to ask for their rights without the consent of the mother and brothers is not true either. They are completely entitled to get their rights, whether their mother and brothers consented or not, does not matter. As concerns the pieces of evidence on the right of the daughters to inherit from their father, the very verse with which we began our answer is one of them. Another is the verse in which Allah Almighty Says: {Allah commands you as regards your children's (inheritance); to the male, a portion equal to that of two females; if (there are) only daughters, two or more, their share is two thirds of the inheritance; if only one, her share is half….}[4:11]. We would like to remind those brothers to denying their sisters' rights entirely or partially involves consuming others' wealth wrongly and severing blood relationship. They have to fear Allah, The Almighty and settle this matter in this life before a Day comes when neither Dirham nor Dinar (money) is to be taken into account, except good or bad deeds. Allah knows best.
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