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Fatwa CenterInheritance of a wife who remarried after her husband’s death
Question
Assalamu alaikum, my question relates to inheritance from my father - my father passed away 20 years ago - my mother has now remarried after 20 years, is she still entitled to inherit from my fathers property which has not yet been divided? We are three sisters and do not have any brothers. at the moment my mother has given everything that was my fathers' to my eldest sister and does not have any intention to give anything to me or my younger sister - whilst I do not want to be greedy or hurt my elder sister or mother - is it correct for me to ask for my rightful share and could you also please enlighten as to what the correct shares are.
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.
Your mother has still the right in the inheritance of your father, and her remarriage does not exclude her from her right in the inheritance. However, your mother does not have the right to dispose of the inheritance in a way that she gives all of it to your sister or to anyone else, rather, you are all obliged to divide the inheritance according to the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah of the Prophet .
Therefore, you and your sister have the right to ask for your legal shares and this is not cutting ties with kinship. If your father died and had left a wife and only three daughters, and he did not leave any other heir –like a father, a mother, or a cousin –then his wife gets only one-eighth of the inheritance 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] All the remaining will be divided amongst the daughters as their legal share; which means two-thirds as Allaah Says about the share of the daughters (what means): {But if there are [only] daughters, two or more, for them is two thirds of one’s estate.}[Quran 4: 11] The remaining of the inheritance after the one-eighth of the wife and the two-thirds of the daughters will be divided among the daughters as well because there is no other heir.
In this case, the inheritance should be divided into 24 shares, the wife gets one-eighth, which is 3 shares, and each daughter among the three daughters gets 7 shares.
However, if the mother takes her share from the inheritance, she should not give it to one sister favouring her over the other sisters. Rather, she is obliged to be just between them when gifting them unless there is a sound reason for favouring one sister over others, like being poor, sick, or having many children.
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.
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