https://www.shariawiz.com/halaqa/2020/01/23/why-does-a-son-receive-double-the-share-of-a-daughter/
Today, many American Muslims argue that in the United States, Muslim females are working and earning income, sometimes more than their male counterpart. Living under American law, Muslim males do not have the same legal obligations to support their female relatives as they did under Sharī‘a. Additionally, the extended family is being replaced with the nuclear family, further eroding the extended male financial obligation to females in society.
Based on these tangible social and economic changes in Muslim American communities, many scholars have suggested that if you feel your female relatives will not be protected by their male relatives, it may be a good idea to gift property to the female relatives during your lifetime. It is also possible to discuss these financial obligations with your male children and recommend that they reduce their inheritance shares in favor of their sisters. By taking these simple steps, Muslim Americans preserve the moral spirit of the Qur’an and comply with their faith while living under different family structures in modernity. https://www.shariawiz.com/halaqa/2020/01/23/why-does-a-son-receive-double-the-share-of-a-daughter/
“In pre-Islamic Arabia, only males inherited. This was changed by the divine message carried by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
When the companion Aws Ibn Thabit passed away, he was survived by a wife, three daughters, and two nephews. Consistent with pre-Islamic custom, the surviving males — the nephews — proceeded to take the entire estate.
Aws Ibn Thabi’s wife complained to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that the daughters and her not receiving a share of the estate was not just. The Prophet (PBUH) said to give him some time to consider the issue.
Shortly thereafter, Surat al-Nisa was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), which required as a matter of divine directive that females inherit. With this revelation, the Qur’an changed the rules of inheritance to become anchored in gender equity.
While it is true that a daughter receives half the share of her brother, the economic structures of the pre-modern period, and the Sharī‘a financial obligations of males toward females in Arabian society warranted this distribution. But females do not always inherit less than their male counterparts.
Let me provide a historical contest. A husband does not have a legal or equitable claim to his wife’s assets. However, females have a legal and equitable claim against the property of their male relatives. A wife, for example, has a claim for support from a husband’s property. Similarly, female relatives have a right to support from male relatives (nafaqat al aqareb). Sisters, aunts, and grandmothers all have a claim for support from their brothers, uncles, and other male relatives. In other words, male relatives were legally obligated to support their female relatives, whether she be a daughter, wife, mother, aunt, sister, or grandmother. Males, on the other hand, did not have any claim for support from female relatives.
There are a few scenarios where a female inherits equally to that of a male. There are scenarios where a female inherits more than the male beneficiaries. There are scenarios where a female inherits while the male beneficiaries do not.
Today, many American Muslims argue that in the United States, Muslim females are working and earning income, sometimes more than their male counterparts. Living under American law, Muslim males do not have the same legal obligations to support their female relatives as they did under the Sharī‘a. Additionally, the extended family is being replaced with the nuclear family, further eroding the extended male financial obligation to females in society.
Based on these tangible social and economic changes in Muslim American communities, many scholars have suggested that if you feel your female relatives will not be protected by their male relatives, it may be a good idea to gift property to the female relatives during your lifetime. It is also possible to discuss these financial obligations with your male children and recommend that they reduce their inheritance shares in favor of their sisters.
By taking these simple steps, Muslim Americans preserve the moral spirit of the Qur’an and comply with their faith while living under different family structures in modernity.”
The reason that women receive half the share of men from inheritance is that when a woman marries, she takes and the man gives; for this reason, men have a larger share. Another reason is that a wife is the dependant of her husband and he must pay for her expenses, but a wife is not required to pay her husband’s expenses or financially support him in need. Hence, men have a larger share and this is [the interpretation of] the declaration of Allah: Men are the protectors and supervisors of women because of the advantage Allah has given some over others and because they support them from their means4
Inheritance is the entry of living persons into possession of dead persons'property and exists in some form wherever the institution of private property is recognised as the basis of the social and economic system. The actual forms of inheritance and the laws governing it, however, differ according to the ideals of different societies.The law of inheritance in Islam is based upon five main considerations:
- To break up the concentration of wealth in individuals and spread it out in society.
- To respect the property right of ownership of an individual earned through honest means.
- To hammer in the consciousness of man the fact that man is not the absolute master of wealth he produces but he is its trustee and is not,therefore, authorised to pass it on to others as he likes.
- To consolidate the family system which is the social unit of an Islamic society.
- To give incentive to work and encourage economic activity as sanctioned by Islam.
In the pre-Islamic world and even in modern societies the law of inheritance has so many evils in it, which may be summed up in the following points:
- Women had been completely denied the share of inheritance. They were rather regarded as part of the property of the deceased and, therefore,their right to property by inheritance was out of question.
- In pre-Islamic Arabia and other countries where there had been tribal societies not only women were deprived of the right of inheritance but even weak and sick persons and minor children were given no share in it, as the common principle of inheritance was that he alone is entitled to inherit who wields the sword.
- Then in certain societies there had been existing the law of primogeniture and it exists even today in some of the so-called civilised parts of the world which entitles only the eldest son to inherit the whole of the father's property or to get the lion's share.
Islam introduced so many reforms in the laws of inheritance which can be succinctly summed up as follows.
- It defined and determined in clear-cut terms the share of each inheritor and imposed limits on the right of the property-owner to dispose of his property according to his whim and caprice.
- It made the female, who had been prevously thought a chattel, the co-sharer with the male and thus not only restored her dignity, but safeguarded her social and economic rights.
- It laid the rules for the break-up of the concentrated wealth in the society and helped in its proper and equitable distribution amongst a large number of persons.
- It gave a death-blow to the law of primogeniture and thus provided the democratic basis for the division of the property of the deceased.
The above are some of the distinguishing features of the Islamic law of inheritance. While laying down the rules for the distribution of the estate of the deceased,the first principle to be observed is that the property both movable and immovable can be distributed after meeting the following obligations :
- funeral expenses;
- clearing off the debts incurred by the deceased;
- payment of bequest, if any, to the extent of one-third of the total assets. It may be remembered that the Mahr of the wife, if it had not been paid, is included in the debt. Moreover, it is not lawful to make a bequest in favour of a person who is entitled to a share in the inheritance.
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