Q:
1. A person wants to draw up a sharia will. He has a wife, 2 sons and a living mother. I have not mentioned his siblings as I understand that they do not inherit while he has a mother, wife and children. What is the islamic split in this scenario?
2. He wants to give one vehicle to the one son. The second son is owing him alot of money. He wants to write-off that debt. He wants to give some shares which he has with a muslim run property scheme to his wife. The scheme pays dividends quarterly.
3. Initially, he wanted to stipulate in his will his intentions for giving over these assets to his heirs as noted above. I pointed out that I doubt that you can make such stipulations as the distribution on death should be as per Islamic splits and if he wishes to give anything, he needs to do it while he is living (i.e. handing over ownership).
4. If he hands over ownership while living, he would like to use the car till his passing and if his son passes away first, he understands that he needs to then hand the car over to the sons estate. Similarly, if he hands ownership of the shares to his wife, he would like to ask his wife to allow him to benefit from the dividends while he is living.
5. For the writing-off debt for the other son, from a fatherly concern point of view, he was wondering if a) He needs to tell the concerned son (son a) that he is writing it off or if it will suffice to tell the son who is not owing him the money (son b) that it was given over to son a. The reason is he is concerned that if son a knows that the debt is not repayable, he may carelessly incur more debt. Also, he would like to not tell his wife about the debt incurred by son a as it may affect her health.
Mufti Saheb, please can you advise on the sharia rulings for the above and your advice and suggestions for the above scenarios.
A:
1. If these are his only heirs at the time of his death, his estate will be divided into 48 equal shares and distributed as follows:
Wife will receive 6 shares
Mother will receive 8 shares
Each son will receive 17 shares
2. Ownership of the vehicle and the shares will only be complete once the son takes total control of the car and the wife assumes full control and responsibility of the shares. Once they have taken complete control they will not be obliged in the least to allow the father use of the car or a share of the dividends. Similarly, the debt will only be waived off once the father makes it clear or puts it in writing which will be better. After they have got control if they wish, they could allow the father usage of the wealth or property. In fact, it is a duty that they take the best care of their parents.
And Allah Ta’ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
Answered by:
Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)