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Question
My question is about Faraa’id.
There is a man who has two maternal brothers and one sister and he has two wives. Wife number 1 has three daughters from this man and wife number two has two daughters from him and five daughters and one boy from previous marriage. The man died. The youngest daughter of the second wife died 2 years after her deceased father. My questions are:
1) Do the daughters of the first wife or the paternal sisters have the right to inherit from their paternal deceased sister ?
2) Do the maternal sisters and the maternal brother inherit from the deceased sister ?
3) Does the paternal uncles and paternal aunt inherit from the deceased daughter?
I would be very happy to get an early response on this issue since this has happened in my family and causing misunderstandings, conflicts and malice among the family members.
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.
The inheritance of the deceased youngest daughter is distributed as follows:
The mother of the deceased inherits one-sixth, her full sisters get half of the inheritance, the sisters from the father's side inherit one-sixth to complete the two-thirds of the inheritance, and the brother and the sisters from the mother’s side get one-quarter of the inheritance. The siblings from the mother's side equally share in their fixed portion of inheritance.
The above situation falls under the laws of 'Awl which means that the shares of inheritors exceed the sum of the total inheritance. By applying the laws of 'Awl the shares are regulated.
In the above case, the inheritance is distributed in seven shares: the mother gets one share, the full sister gets three shares, the sisters from the paternal side gets one share, and the maternal sisters and the maternal brother get two shares.
The uncles and aunts do not inherit since nothing remains of the inheritance after distributing it among those who have fixed shares in the inheritance.
As a matter of fact such a problem should be brought to a legislative Islaamic court, which takes into consideration all sides of the issue.
There could be an inheritor who might not be known from the beginning or a will which was not fulfilled, or even some debt or loans that were not known by the inheritors. These things take precedence over the right of the inheritors. So, the inheritance should not be divided among the inheritors before consulting an Islaamic court, if there is one, to preserve the interests of both the dead and the living persons.
Allaah knows best.
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