Inheritance and lease document
20-6-2005 | IslamWeb
Question:
My father left behind 600 acres of agricultural land and 3000 sq. yards of residential property with a built up house on it. After my father's death, my uncle had the names of my mother and all of her children put on the lease, as rightful successors.
The heirs of my late father are his wife (my mother), two sons and four daughters (including me). Now the property is being divided. Should each one of us get one equal share (one-seventh) as stated on the joint lease document? Or should there be any other division? What would be the correct and Islamic division? Should the individual lease, being made now in the name of each of the seven successors, (my mother, the two sons and four daughters) show a single share of one-seventh to each? In the event of any other division, please give the method of calculation (if my mother is to get one-eighth, how will that be calculated, one-eighth of the total 3000 sq. yards or one-eighth of one single share of 428.57 sq. yards) also please quote whether it is in accordance to Fiqh Hanafi, Shaafi'ee or Jaffriah.
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.
If the deceased father left a wife, two sons and four sisters and did not leave any other heir, then the inheritance should be divided as follows:
The wife will get one-eighth of the inheritance and the rest will be divided amongst the brothers and sisters, the brothers will get a portion twice that of the females. This means that the inheritance should be divided into 64 shares. The wife will get one-eighth portion of the inheritance which is 8 shares. Each brother will get 14 shares and each sister will get 7 shares. All the inheritance must be divided according to the above, including the rent, the agricultural land and building estates. Thus, the inheritance is not divided equally amongst them, rather it should be divided according to the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah of the Prophet 
. So the share of the mother is an eighth of the total as previously stated. If they want to divide the rent, it should also be divided according to the above method of division of inheritance.
Finally, it should be noted that the question of inheritance is very complex an issue, so a mere Fatwa which is an answer based on the way question was presented is not enough. Rather, this matter should be taken to an Islamic court so that it would look into the matter as there could be a will, or debts or other rights in relation to the inheritance before is should be divided. It might be that the heirs do not know these facts, and these rights come in priority over the right of the heirs in inheritance. So the inheritance should not be divided before resorting to an Islamic court if any in order to fulfil the benefits of the dead and the benefits of the people [heirs] who are still alive.
To conclude, Islamweb is a site that relies in its Fataawa on evidence from the Book of Allaah, the Sunnah of the Prophet the consensus of the scholars
and the correct analogy, following the path of the great scholars of different schools, among whom are the four Imaams, Abu Haneefah, Maalik, Ash-Shaafi'ee and Ahmed, may Allaah have mercy on all of them.
Allaah Knows best.