Inheritance of two wives, three sons and a daughter
18-3-2009 | IslamWeb
Question:
My father wrote a unregistered will, dividing the property between my two mothers.- elder mother is having only one daughter and the younger is having three sons, the elder mother getting the full ownership of the village property and the younger mother getting the custody of house at Hyderabad. Please advise the actual inheritance as per Holy Quran - surah Nisa and Teachings of Hazrath Mohammed
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.
The will of your father to divide the inheritance between his two wives or between his other heirs if it [the will] is contrary to the legal division of the inheritance, then this will is void whether or not it is registered, and whether or not he had witnesses over it, because making a will for an heir is religiously forbidden because the Prophet said: "Allaah has given each one his right and there is no will for an heir”. [Ahmad, At-Tirmithi and Abu Daawood]
Therefore, this will does not become effective unless all heirs agree to it and it is a condition that the heir should be adult and of sound reasoning for his consent to be valid. If the heirs do not agree, then the inheritance should be divided according to the Islamic Law of dividing the inheritance [i.e. according to the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah of the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam].
The division of the inheritance according to the Islamic Law for a person who died leaving behind two wives, three sons and one daughter, and he did not leave any other heir, is that his two wives get one-eighth altogether [i.e. one-eighth divided between both of them], as Allaah Says (what means): {But if you leave a child, then for them [i.e. the wives] is an eighth of what you leave.}[Quran 4:12] The remainder (of the inheritance) is to be divided among his three sons and his daughter, the male twice the share of the female, as Allaah Says (what means): {Allaah instructs you concerning your children [i.e. their portions of inheritance]: for the male, what is equal to the share of two females.}[Quran 4:11]
Therefore, the inheritance should be divided into 16 shares, each wife gets one share, each son gets 4 shares and the daughter gets 2 shares.
Each one of the above heirs has a common right in the whole inheritance according to what we have mentioned. Therefore, it is not permissible for one of the wives to appropriate the house where she lives, and the other to take something else; rather, each heir has a known share in each house and property.
It should be noted that 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. Rather, the matter should be taken to an Islamic court to look into the case, or it should be presented orally (in person) to the scholars in case there are no Islamic courts. 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.