Inheritance case after both parents passed away.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Description of an Inheritance Case Presented by Brother X

• Your father died and left behind an estate comprising of his house and land.
• Surviving heirs of your father are 5 sons and 2 daughters from the marriage with your mother and also 1 son and 1 daughter from a previous marriage.
• All heirs of your father are presently alive and are Muslims.
• Your mother automatically took possession of the property after the demise of your father.
• Your mother included 3 of her sons from the marriage with your father in the deed of land, with all individuals jointly and equally owning the property.
• Your mother died leaving behind the children from the marriage with your father (5 sons and 2 daughters) together with 2 sons from a previous marriage. Both of whom are presently alive and are Muslims.
• The area of the land is approximately One Lot which the house entirely occupies.

Ruling on the Case Presented

The estate (House and Land) of your deceased Father and Mother:

• Upon the death of your Father, his estate would not automatically transfer to your Mother (i.e. wife of the deceased). Rather she would only be entitled to of his estate.
• In the lifetime of your father he gifted of his house and land to his wife (i.e. your mother). Therefore, only  of the house and land would comprise of the estate of your father as the other half is the sole property of his wife (i.e. your mother).
• Upon the death of your father, his estate will be distributed amongst his wife (your mother) and all of his children, sons and daughters, including those from the previous marriage (i.e. your paternal half-brother and paternal half-sister). The children of your mother from the previous marriage (i.e. your two maternal half-brothers.) will not inherit from the estate of your father. Similarly, your paternal half siblings would not inherit from the estate of your mother.
• Since the house occupies all the land stipulated in the deed we would regard the House and Land as one entity.

Ownership and Distribution of the Property (House & Land) after the demise of your Father:

Table #1

NB: Before the demise of the father, the wife had already owed ½ (half) of the house and land. Therefore her total ownership of the house and land after the demise of the father would be 50% + 6.25% (1/8) = 56.25%

Ownership and Distribution of the Property (House & Land) before the demise of your Mother:

Table #2

As stated in the query, your mother included in the ownership of the house and land 3 (three) of her sons from the marriage with your father. Her total ownership of 56.25% would be shared equally between your mother and the specified sons leaving your mother with 14.0625%. The three specified sons would now own in addition to their previous amount (5.83%) an additional 14.0625% which will equate 19.892% as for the other heirs, their ownership of the house and land would remain the same.

Ownership and Distribution of the Property (House & Land) after the demise of your Mother (Wife of first deceased)

Table #3

NB: The last row shows the present ownership of the property in query i.e. the House and Land

NB: The Asterisk symbol (*) refers to those sons who were granted additional ownership to the house and land in the lifetime of your mother.

NB: The two sons of your mother (your maternal half-brother) from her previous marriage would inherit from her share of the property at the time of her demise i.e. from 14.0625%.

And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best

Mufti Kaleem Muhammad

Darul Iftaa, Jaamia Madinatul Uloom

Trinidad, West Indies