Inheritance

Inheritance

Q: My father has passed away and left 1 wife and 3 daughters. His parents and all his sibling had passed away in his lifetime. My father has 2 nephews from his brothers.

I want to know that my father has 1 house, 1 car and 2 bank accounts. My father bought a house with a joint name with my mother and he orally gifted that house to my mother in his life and same goes with the bank account. One account belongs to my father and that account was his salary account and another account was a joint account he made for my mother's use. In that account he used to transfer some of his salary to my mother in a joint account for monthly expenses.

So my question is that is the joint house and account also part of the inheritance? People are saying that he has a joint name on that house that's why it is also distributed equally. But in the case of the house he gifted the whole house to my mother orally in front of his daughters and in the case of bank accounts he only operates his account for my mother's use only.

Claiming a share in a property

Q: My father in law was alive when he distributed his property between his both sons. At that time, one daughter was married and she said that she does not want anything from her father's property. One daughter was unmarried and my father in law was unhappy with her so he didn't give her any right in his property.

The property of my father in law was divided between both his sons only. My father in law passed away some 14 years back and now the married daughter is asking for her share in the property which she refused when my father in law was alive.

My question is, does the married daughter have the right to ask for her share in the property now from her brothers?

Muslim woman inheriting a house from her non-Muslim mother

Q: A non-Muslim woman owns a house in a non-Muslim country. When she passes away, the law of the land gives the entire house as inheritance to her Muslim daughter, who is her only child. What should the Muslim daughter do with the house, given that a Muslim is not allowed to inherit from a non-Muslim in Islam? Should she give it to the state? Or should she give it to her non-Muslim aunts and uncles, even though these do not expect to get it? Or can she keep the house?

Will a muslim inherit from his non-muslim relative in a non-muslim country?

Q: What is the shar’ee ruling regarding inheritance between Muslims and non-Muslims? In other words, is it permissible for Muslims to inherit from non-Muslims and vice-versa? Similarly, will there be any difference in the ruling in a Muslim country and a non-Muslim country? Lately, I was informed by a friend that the law of Muslims and non-Muslims not inheriting from each other only applies in a Muslim country. My friend says that as far as a non-Muslim country is concerned, Muslims will inherit from non-Muslims but non-Muslims will not inherit from Muslims. Is this mas’alah correct? My friend had given some reference of a statement of Moulana Ashraf Ali Thaanwi (rahmatullahi alayh) mentioned in Imdaadul Ahkaam. Is this correct, that Hazrat Moulana Ashraf Ali Thaanwi (rahmatullahi alayh) had mentioned that Muslims residing in a non-Muslim country will inherit from the non-Muslims?

Distributing the estate on a percentage basis

Q:

1. I have 3 brothers and 1 sister. Our estate was worked out on a percentage basis. The eldest brother getting the highest percentage and so on, and my sister was only given 1 percent. Is this distribution correct?

2. If not, then can mufti saheb please mention how the estate be distributed and how many shares will each heir receive. There are 4 brothers and 1 sister in total.

My father did not have any surviving parent neither a spouse.

3. Also, if the distribution that was done on percentage basis is not correct then one heir had taken the money of the other heir. So what should be done to rectify this?

Zakaat on an undistributed estate

Q: My dad passed away few days back. He left some property and valuables which my family (mother, brother and sisters) do not want to distribute for the time being. Now, how do we calculate zakaat on the property since the purchase price is known but the market price varies.

Do we have to pay zakaat on the house in which we are living?

My dad's office is still open but no major work is taking place since my dad was in a partnership with my uncle and he had given all his business (not office) to him and my uncle is working from there. I used to visit the office on a daily basis for a few minutes and then left for my office. So, do we have to pay zakaat on it also? 

We are using my dad's cars and other belongings of my dad, do we have to pay zakaat on these items and what value?

Also, we are giving charity from his belongings but which has more reward, sadaqah or khairaat?

Distributing properties of an estate that were put on different peoples names to avoid tax

Q: I am willing to distribute my inheritance. We are 2 brothers and 3 sisters. My father made some properties in his life and they were put on different peoples names like me, my wife, my brother and his wife and my mother. This was only done to avoid any kind of tax. There were also some properties on my father's name. I would like to ask which properties should we include in the estate when distributing between my sister, mother, brother and me?