Inheritance

Q: If a person had done a wassiyyat to give all his wealth to his nephew five years ago. Last year, he made a wassiyyat to give all his wealth to the mosque. Which wassiyat should be considered, the first or last? 

Q: There are three brothers (two died and both were childless), the third brother has 2 kids. Can the widow of one brother ask for the inheritance from the widow of the second brother?

Q: I have a son whose mother died and I got remarried with a lady having three adult children from her first husband. The eldest son lives with his father and the girls 22 & 19 years live with me as they were not ready to live with their father. I do not have any children from my second wife. I am giving some of my property to to my second wife.

My question is who will inherit this property when she dies (May Allah give her long life Ameen). Will it go to her son? Or it will revert to my son

Q: My father has passed away recently. He was working in a government school and was supposed to get a lump sum and a pension fund after he retired. He passed away before he could get the lump sum and pension fund. After the person passes away, the government pays this to the spouse or children. Does the money go into inheritance or does it go directly to the wife and daughters.

This is the summary of what the government pays out: The GEPF also pays annuities to qualifying surviving spouse(s) or orphan(s) of members who die while in service or after retiring.

Death while in service: The benefit paid is based on the member’s period of pensionable service. It is payable to the beneficiaries of the deceased member or, if there are no beneficiaries, to the member’s estate.

Q: Can a person (man or woman) leave a will or a secret recording (with just one sibling without telling the others) saying all his/her children (boys and girls) should share his/her belongings equally after his death or should Shariah still be followed?

Q: If a person calculates his zakaat and keeps it separately in an envelope with the intention of discharging it but before discharging it, he passes away. Will this money form a part of the estate?

Q: My father bought a house 17 years ago. In buying that house, my brother and sister also gave some money.

Later my brother made a third floor for that house and inveested money for renovations. The house is on my mother's name.

Recently both my parents have passed away. We are one brother and six sisters.

I want to know, do we have to divide the house according to Shariah because it had money of my sister and brother also and if yes, how to do that.

Q: After our marhoom father's demise a few years back, he had left the house as inheritance to our marhoom mother and us, their 6 daughters Alhamdullillah.

However, our mother sold the house last year and paid each of us our shares and she kept hers. Our mother lived with my 1 sister while she was in Cape Town and with me while she would be in Johannesburg, and Alhamdullillah we had a very good relationship.

Now, since our mother is marhoom, we discovered that 2 of our siblings had taken a loan from our marhoom mother (inheritance) a few months ago, but our eldest sister without knowing how much exactly it was, she felt the need to make mashwurah with us the same night of our marhoom mother's demise (astaghfirullaah) and asked, if we can all agree to forgo those 2 loans (as sadaqah) to our 2 siblings, and pay whatever is the outstanding doctors bills, etc. from our marhoom mother's inheritance (which our mother still had from our marhoom father) then whatever is left, each of our 6 sisters must share it equally including the 2 siblings who have taken loans from our mother of more than R20 000 each (as we are only girls, we are aware that our share should be ⅔ each). Although my 1 sister insists she wants to repay the loan but our other sister seems to still want to keep that as sadaqah and still expects to receive a share from the inheritance. She's not saying it outright though but when I confronted her asking how much exactly she took as a loan, I was really disappointed that she took such a big amount as a loan from our marhoom mother knowing she's a pensioner, although she kept her inheritance separate. I even asked her, how could you take such a big loan from ma but yet each of us received our inheritance already and she said that ma agreed when she showed ma the proof why she needed it (her 2 boys school fees).

She got very upset crying and hung up on me and refused to take my call again after I attempted to call her again. This is heartbreaking that it's come to this as our parents have always been fair with all of us, no matter what.

Mufti, I respectfully ask, what is the Islamic way of dealing with this as my sister is very angry with me for questioning her about it and that I told her it's not fair towards the rest of us if she walks away with that loan and the other sister is paying it back? With all due respect, it's not as if she cannot afford to repay it. Please correct me if I'm wrong and guide us how to handle this with the qudrat of Allah Ta'ala.

We are a very close-knit family but I'm afraid this has now left a bad taste in our mouths. We have to do this the Islamic way.

Q: A lady passed away a few weeks ago and left behind a will which was not an Islamic will.

1. What will be the consequences to the deceased if her estate will be distributed according to the will she left behind?

2. Who would be responsible to ensure that the estate will be distributed Islamically? If the heirs decide to go ahead with the distribution according to the CURRENT will, what will be the consequences?

Q: If my father's will is made out to be distributed according to the shariah, and I am an illegitimate child, then can my siblings give consent for me to receive a share?