I have a question regarding a family’s property which was my mothers We are 9 sibling including me 3 brothers 6 sisters After mother passed away the property was devided into 4 equal shares for 3 brothers and one unmarried sisters the other 5 sisters said that they do not want anything from the property and to give it to the unmarried sister
Later the property went under redevelopment and we got individual 4 equal shares Now the unmarried sister passed away due to health problem She made a will in which she stated the executor(me.farouksourathia) of the will shall sell one of her property and give some amount of cash to her 5 sisters and 2 cousins and the rest in sawab e jaria
The problem now is that one of the sister wants me to sell the mothers inherited property and give equal share to the sisters My sister who passed away has trusted me and made me the executor of her last will saying that I will hold u responsible for anything I do wrong against her will Since the other sisters are asking me to go against her will and last wishes I would like to know how to go about it in a right way of Islam
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
When the mother passed away, her estate was incorrectly distributed. She had 3 sons and 6 daughters. Her estate worked out to 12 shares, 6 shares for the 3 sons. Each one gets 2 shares and 6 shares for the 6 daughters, 1 share per daughter.
The 5 daughters (sisters) forfeited their 5 shares to the unmarried sister who later passed away.
Accordingly, the sons (brothers) are entitled to only 6 shares i.e. 50% of the estate and the unmarried sister was entitled to 50%, her share and the forfeited share of her sisters in her favour. It appears the brothers got ¾ i.e. 75% of the estate and the sister got only 25%.
The brothers are bound to return 25% of the extra they took from the mothers estate to the sisters’ estate.
Now that the sister passed away, and is survived by 3 brothers and 5 sisters. Her estate will be divided into 11 shares. Each brother will get 2 shares and each sister will get 1 share.
The share of the two cousins of some cash will be regarded as wasiyyat (bequest)and be given from 1/3 of the estate after burial expenses and paying off debts, if any. You cannot accede to the request of one sister to sell the inherited property and give it only to the sisters. The brothers too will inherit. However, as stated above, the brothers received 25% more than they deserved. When working out the sisters’ estate, the 25% owe-able by the brothers to the deceased sister should be considered and worked out accordingly. The brothers are entitled to 6 shares from the 25%. The remaining 5 shares of the 25% will go to the remaining sisters.
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Bilal Ishaq
Student Darul Iftaa
Leicester, England, UK
Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.