estate

Q: A man dies leaving behind no biological children nor parents. He had 10 siblings and many nephews and nieces. He did not have an Islamic will and wished to distribute his estate to his siblings, nephews and nieces. He is currently survived by 40 people (3 brothers, 1 sister and 36 nephews and nieces). His siblings wish to waive their shariah rights and distribute the estate equally among all 40 individuals. The main reason for this is to maintain and improve family ties among all. Would this be in order?

Q: My dad has given the house to my mum and brother while he was alive... however this was said verbally in front of those residing in the house.

My question is, does the contents of the house form part of the estate such as the fridge, lounge, table and chairs, etc. (He was the bread winner of the family).

Q: I have an elderly relative, who is unmarried, and whose closest family is her niece and nephew, and their children. These are her niece and nephew from her deceased sister. Beyond that she has cousins, and more distant relatives only.

She has asked me to get her an Islamic will, and advise her as to how the estate should be administered. I think she has the intention of leaving everything (or most of it) to her niece, who is struggling financially. Would this be permissible?

Q:

1. If a person passes away and he has a debt of R1000 and his total savings are R1500, should the debt be paid off first eventhough it's more than 1/3 of his wealth and then R500 that remains be divided into 3 portions and fulfill the will from the 1/3 of R500? 

2. And when paying for the funeral expenses, if it totals R100 for instance, will the R100 be deducted from 1/3 of his wealth or will it be paid first and then his savings be divided?.

Q: My grandmother (fathers mother) passed away two weeks ago at age 86. May Allah grant her Jannatul Firdous. Aameen

With regards to the inheritance, she had made verbal bequests and had not made a written will. During her lifetime she had gifted her daughter her “share” of what was due i.e. money and jewellery and other items. She had continually mentioned to all the family members that she had given those items and the remainder of her possessions will stay in the house and is for my father. (She was a widow and lived with my parents). Subsequent to the death, my aunt is now wanting to claim other items. Please advise how we should handle the situation. Should we now distribute all the items the shariah way. They are just 2 siblings, one brother and one sister.

Q: Could you please advise on the following situation.

A disabled widow passed away recently. She had 3 sons, 1 of which is deceased (has 1 son). During her life she had disowned both her living sons who caused her alot of grief due to their bad habits (drugs, gambling and fraud), which resulted in them stealing from her and being abusive towards her. One son is behind bars and the other is in the city but we are not familiar with his whereabouts. She had only 1 sibling, a sister and her family who saw to all her needs. We now need to sort out her estate but the will that she originally made was amended but is nowhere to be found at this point in time. In the amended will she had left 1/3 of her estate to her grandson (from her deceased son).

Please advise on how her estate should be divided.

1. The will

2. The house which is part of the deceased mother's trust and from which the deceased was receiving a monthly income.

3. Sorting/distribution of her personal belongings.

Q: I want to know about inheritance (wirasat) matter according to Islam. We are three brothers and one sister. My father has passed away and he left 2 lak Rupees in the bank. He wrote my name as a heir (waris) in the bank. He didn't verbally say or wrote anything at home stating that I am an heir (waris) in his bank balance. Do my brothers and sister have the right to divide the money among them? The bank does not want to give anybody the money except me since my name is written as an heir only.  

Q: I've got a question and situation pertaining to inheritance and estate.

My mother in-law has passed on and wasn't married ANC contract but rather in COP. Half the property goes to my father in-law. To make the winding up of the estate easy, the 3 brother's decided to legally put the entire property on my father in-laws name. Now that my father in-law wants the property to be sorted out, the issue is that the youngest brother and his wife live with my father in-law. The property is valued around R1.1 million. The youngest brother who isn't very stable wishes to buy the elder and middle brother's shares at 150k each as that's all he can afford and wishes to pay monthly whatever little he can afford. 

What's the correct shariah process to follow since it's on my father in-laws name legally? My husband wishes to just give the shares and say that don't pay monthly but whenever he has means later in life then he can give it to him. My husband himself doesn't own a property or anything so should he not accept his shares so that he can put it aside for hajj or as a deposit for our own house? Tomorrow if anything happens, my husband says I should go with my 3 kids to my parent's as he has nothing.

What should be done to please Allah and what process should be followed ? The father in-law does live with the youngest son that wants to buy the house but he is ever complaining about him and my sister in-law to us which isn't right at all.

Q: I need clarity on a few issues pertaining to inheritence and the shar'i ruling. As I write this email I am currently handling the affairs of my father. He is currently sitting in debt over 1.2 million rands.

1. Firstly, there is a family business which is about 30 - 35 years old. This business was given to my marhooma mother by the previous owners on the strength and relationship the owners had with her marhoom father. No where up until today has anyone come forward to say mummy has or had handed over the business to my father. Years ago my father left his job and joined mummy in the business where he incurred large amounts of debt.My mother used to take out money quietly to pay of these debts and pay for our schooling and maktab costs. This had to be done because my dad would get angry when mummy gave us anything. I have suppliers and people that will attest that since daddy was there he will take stock and not pay for it. In all this time my mother never received any payment up until she passed away 2 years ago. Instead mummy was accused of stealing money by my dad. We have a few Aadil witnesses some of whom are ulama to attest to the business being owned by mummy. My father would give large amounts of stock for free to various organisations without any consent. He purchased 2 vehicles which again was on the strength of the business account. Everything he has bought was from the business. What is the shar'i ruling?

2. I decided to help in the business since 2012/2011. During this time i did not receive a salary or payment for work done, which included banking, collecting stock, packing stock, managing the business and even working over weekends while my dad was absent. My monthly income was made from me buying and selling items from home & school tutoring as well as my wife baking and selling from home. What is the shar'i rulling here?

3. The property on which the shop is, was offered to my parents on the strength of them been good tenants for a very long time. I must say this was only done on the strength of the old owner knowing the business. However for what ever reason the property now is on my dad's name which he is still paying off. The renovations made to the property was with money taken from the above business. There are tenants as well. My mother has passed on for 2 years now. What is the shar'i rulling to all of the above?

4. My dad was given a loan around 2010 by a friend of his who is an Aalim. There was no written agreement between them. The only verbal agreement which the Aalim gave my dad was "take the money and pay me back when you can and have the money". This Aalim is now bad mouthing my father which he has a right to as my dad owes him. The bad part is this Aalim is adding on zakaat to the original amount every year. Is this permissible and if my dad passes on are we as children liable for this debt?

5. My father has since remarried before ramadhaan this year. We as his children advised him to first settle his debts before remarrying. Does this effect any of the above in any way? There are still items in the house which belong to my mother which we have left behind to make daddy's life a little easy. It was not given to him. Do we have a right to claim this? As this marriage took place fast so we did not have time to clarify this. We kept quiet in order to avoid conflict with daddy.

Q: Person A lent person B money years ago as an investment into person B's business. No amount or percentage over and above the capital amount was fixed. Person b has now passed away leaving 8 heirs, some of whom are minors. The estate has not been wound up as yet due to other reasons. What will be the correct Islamic ruling with regards to paying back the additional money. Do we use a fixed percantage per year or use market related percentages to calculate the amount? Will it be permissible to pay back the money as person A expects her capital amount as well as a return on investment even though no amount was agreed upon.