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Fatwa CenterDividing land among the legal heirs
Question
How can two pieces of land of 100 sq-yards and 200 sq-yards respectively be divided between 7 sons, 1 daughter and mother? How can they be divided if one piece of land, say 100 sq-yards has more value than other one because it is facing a main road? Suppose every legal heir will be interested in acquiring this land? Kindly advise by Shariah in dividing this land among various legal heirs, keeping their value in mind.
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.
The inheritance mentioned should be divided as follows:
The wife should take 1/8 as her part. Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {…but if you leave a child, they get an eighth of that which you leave after payment of legacies that you may have bequeathed or debts….}[4:12]. The rest of the wealth should be divided amongst the children, one portion for a female girl and two portions for every male, Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {Allâh commands you as regards your children's (inheritance); to the male, a portion equal to that of two females;….}[4:12].
As regards the method of dividing the inheritance if they do not wish to share the land and divide its yield every year, then there are three ways as how to divide it:
1) They should exploit the land by turn, every person should take it or part of it according to his share for a period of time, and this type of division is known as Tahayu’u (coming to an agreement).
2) To agree (between themselves) that everyone would take a portion for his own self, whether it is less than his share or more on the condition that they should agree on that, and this is what is known by the division by accepted agreement.
3) The two portions of land should be valued and they cast lots to define the share of each individual, and this is called as the division by casting lots.
They could sell the land and distribute the proceeds according to the formula in first paragraph.
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