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Fatwa CenterDivorced woman wants to inherit from her deceased former husband
Question
If a woman is divorced by her husband and her husband dies during or after her Iddah, will she inherit his property? How much she will inherit?
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. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
Sometimes a divorced woman inherits from her husband and sometime she does not. It depends on the kind of divorce, its time and its effectiveness because there are three cases of a divorced woman:
Firstly, when the divorce is revocable; in this case she inherits from her husband, according to the consensus of Muslim scholars, if he dies during her waiting period regardless of whether he divorced her while he was still in the state of good health or sick. If he dies after the end of her waiting period then she does not inherit from him.
Secondly, when the divorce is irrevocable and the husband divorced her while he was in his good health. Such a woman does not inherit from her husband according to the consensus of Muslim scholars. The reason is that the marital relationship totally ends with this divorce and the husband is not blamed for intending to deprive his wife of his inheritance. The same rule applies if he divorced her in his normal sickness which was not severe.
Thirdly, when the divorce is irrevocable and took place during the last illness and the husband is blamed that his intention was to deprive his wife of his inheritance. Such divorcee inherits from her husband, according to the correct opinion of Muslim scholars, whether he dies during her waiting period or expires after wards as long as she does not get married or does not apostate. This is the opinion of the Hanbali school. Al- Maaliki school is of the opinion that she inherits from him even if she gets married.
The evidence that she inherits from her husband is the judgment of 'Uthmaan Ibn 'Affaan 
who passed a judgment in favor of Tumadhar, daughter of Al-Asbagh 
that she will inherit from her husband, 'Abdur-Rahmaan Ibn 'Awf who had divorced her in his last sickness.
This judgment became widespread among the companions of the Prophet 
and no one disagreed with it.
The portion of inheritance of a wife who inherits from her husband during her waiting period is as same as the portion of a wife.
If there is a child for the deceased then his wife gets one-eighth of the whole inheritance, otherwise she gets one-fourth of the inheritance.
If there are more than one wife then the share of one-fourth or one-eighth is equally distributed among all of them.
Allaah knows best.
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