The Islamic Inheritance System Based On Justice and Wisdom: Why a Daughter Gets Half the Share of a Son
By
Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi, New Age Islam
17 July 2023
Response
to Why a Daughter in Islam Receives Half of a Son's Share
Main
Points:
1. The Islamic
inheritance concept is based on justice, with women outnumbering men in terms
of quantity and quality.
2. Sons receive
solely from their father's estate, while daughters receive both their portion
and full maintenance from their husbands.
3. Islam
prioritises the rule of justice over the rule of equality when the two are at
odds, such as when deciding how to divide a father's possessions between a
daughter and a son.
4. Islam has
made men responsible for all household expenses, while women's income from all
sources is primarily savings.
5. Islam has
freed women from financial obligations, commanding men to take on the full
responsibility of raising and educating children and arranging the marriage of
daughters, covering parents' expenses, and providing home and food for the
entire family.
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Justice and
wisdom are the cornerstones of the Islamic inheritance system. This system was
explicitly established in the Quran and is not human-made. Therefore, it cannot
possibly have any flaws. For the benefit and goodness of the servants, the True
Creator, Eternal Lord, established this arrangement. Now, the important thing
to keep in mind is that Islam sent a message to all of humanity through the
Holy Qur'an, saying, “O people! Worship one God, worship no other God besides
Him, your God is the true God and Muhammad is the true Messenger of God (peace
be upon him), so believe in his Prophethood and Messengership, Believe in the
Qur'an, and consider its verses and rulings better than anything else for you.”
Along with these fundamentals, Islam also taught people to take into account
the design of the universe as created by Allah, and how the sun, moon, stars,
and all other plants are functioning properly in accordance with this design.
Following that, each of the natural phenomena—rain, sun, heat, cold, and spring
harvest—has its own virtues and advantages for all the servants of Allah. If
the planets act against the divine order of the universe, they will be
disrupted.
The
commands of Allah mentioned in the Holy Qur'an are the best and most useful for
all human beings. However, it occasionally occurs that some people's minds and
hearts do not perceive the wisdom in these things. They don't make an effort to
understand, and I can see why: When someone is so consumed with hatred and
stubbornness, a veil of carelessness or stupidity is placed over their
intellect, causing them to view the commandments of Allah with a narrow eye and
start raising various objections in the glory of these divine commands.
Actually, his rage and hatred are what prevent him from understanding reality.
If he takes off the lenses of hatred and animosity, opens the doors of his
intellect and heart, and thinks, he won't need much time to understand that
there is undoubtedly fairness and goodness in the commands of Allah Almighty.
Some people
start by forming an idea in their heads and hearts that reads something like
this: “By giving a daughter half the share of a son, Islam has rejected the law
of equality in its inheritance system. The daughter and son should each receive
an equal share of the father's wealth because a division of this kind would be
unfair; for instance, if the boy receives two shares, the daughter should also
receive two shares”. They add, “Islam has opposed the law of equality at this
point in its inheritance system, so this law should be banned or changed”
In order to
comprehend the meanings of the instructions of the Qur'an and their spirit, it
is crucial to get rid of the mental seeds of hatred and widen the door to
reflection. The divine system does include the law of equality, yet there are
occasions when it also clashes with the law of justice. For instance, imagine a
strong male labourer carrying a load of thirty or forty bricks on one side,
while a lady is carrying a load of her own on the other. She has a lifting
capacity of ten to twenty bricks. And in this case, if it is argued that the
law of equality compels a woman to lift a weight comparable to a man's and that
if the woman declines to raise the heavy weight corresponding to a man, she
should be penalised, I believe that this will be unfair to women. A woman
should raise as many bricks as she can for her own benefit. It would be unfair
to her if she were forced to lift the same amount of weight as a man on this
particular occasion or else face punishment.
Take into
account in this illustration that the systems of justice and equality are in opposition
to one another and that there is a conflict between them. Which system should
be given priority in this clash, is the current question. Which system—that of
justice or that of equality? The law of natural justice demands that women be
respected in this situation and not burdened beyond what they can bear, and
equality demands that men and women bear the same load.
The system
of justice should always take precedence over the system of equality when there
is a disagreement between them, of course. While maintaining an egalitarian
system in other areas is likewise a necessity of precise nature and
justification, it will stay subject to this constraint as this preference is
only necessary for this particular circumstance.
When we
examine the Islamic inheritance system, the laws of justice and equality
inevitably clash. Such a situation occurs when the son and the daughter share
the father's inheritance. The law of equality demands that both the son and the
daughter receive an equal amount, in contrast to the law of justice, which
stipulates that the son must receive more and the daughter less. The rationale
for this is that a son only has one inheritable source of wealth, whereas a
daughter has several sources. Let's take a more broad illustration: A son
receives solely from his father's estate, whereas a daughter is required to get
both her portion of the father's estate as well as full maintenance from her
husband.
The second
is that Islam has made the man responsible for paying for all household expenses.
The woman's different sources of income are all in the form of savings income.
Islam has freed women from all financial obligations, thus men now bear the
full burden of raising and educating their children, arranging for their
marriage, covering the parents' expenses, and providing home and food for the
entire family.
The man's
source of income is quite little under the Islamic system of inheritance, and
he is also in charge of all maintenance responsibilities. In this case, the
divine justice system mandated that he eventually receive a portion in a
greater quantity in order to fulfil his maintenance responsibilities and
develop the capacity to move heavy objects. The law of equality states that
both the son and the daughter receive an equal portion without taking the man's
financial commitments into account, but the divine justice system holds that
men should be entitled to a larger share, taking into account their financial
responsibilities. In this instance, the law of equality and the law of justice
are at odds. Islam favoured the rule of justice in this particular conflict and
tried to reserve the rule of equality for other contexts.
Now, if
someone claims that the Islamic inheritance system has mistreated the justice
system during the division of the father's wealth, that person will be seen as
a victim of deceit and neglect. Islam, on the other hand, actually gives the
rule of justice first emphasis. The woman was released by Islam from her
financial obligations. Islam has done the woman a great favour and provided an
outstanding example of fairness by designating all of her income as saving
income.
Islam has
always treated women fairly, and in the same vein, when men were burdened with
financial obligations, Islam increased their share and provided relief. Because
it is a justice that only God could have created and not a law that man could
have created, no human intellect could have envisioned it.
In
conclusion, the Islamic concept of inheritance is founded on justice. When the
Islamic rule of inheritance is examined analytically from a data-driven
perspective, it is found that both in terms of quantity and quality, women
outnumber men. Among all the sources of inheritance, it is acknowledged that
the majority of inheritance sources are those where a woman either receives an
equal percentage to or more than a man. There are just four sources, on the
other hand, where women's shares are lower than those of men. These are:
1. When there is a son and a daughter, the
daughter's share is equal to half of the son's share.
2. When there is a father and a mother, the
mother's share is equal to half of the father's share.
3. When there are consanguine brothers and
sisters, the consanguine sister's share is equivalent to half of the
consanguine brother's share.
4. The woman receives half of the inheritance
that the husband receives from the wife.
There are
four males and eight women among those who will get the first type of
inheritance that Islam has designated. Similar to this, women are granted more
of the larger shares, such as two-thirds, half, and one-third, among the six
categories of shares that Islam prescribes. Men only receive such portions in
two cases, compared to ten women who receive such parts. In total, 23 people
are the beneficiaries of these six different shares, with 17 of them being
women and just 6 being men.
The Islamic
law on inheritance and alimony is intimately tied to one another. Not only does
the woman receive the inheritance, but the men are also in charge of managing
all of her associated expenses. Islam demonstrated fairness and balance in this
situation by reducing the woman's share of the inheritance because a number of
people cover her expenditures. And in areas where fewer individuals are
responsible for a woman's expenses, a woman receives a larger percentage of the
share than a male does.
This is
simply one of the many justifications—along with others—that make it obligatory
to acknowledge the fairness and wisdom of the Islamic system of inheritance.
Islam makes the males liable for all expenses and maintenance of women and
retains all of a woman’s sources of income in the form of savings income so
that the woman would be economically empowered in many ways.
In this
article, I have made an effort to demonstrate how Islamic inheritance law is
based on justice and fairness by using a few examples. If these examples have
been presented correctly, it is because of the blessings of Allah Almighty. If
I have made any errors, all of them are my fault, and I beg forgiveness from
Allah Almighty. However, one thing is legitimately a matter of my
belief—rather, a Muslim belief—that the Islamic rule of inheritance is wholly
founded on justice and does not require modification.
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A regular columnist with NewAgeIslam.com, Ghulam
Ghaus Siddiqi Dehlvi is a classical Islamic scholar [Aalim, Faazil and
Mutakhassis Fi al-Adab al-Arabi wa al-Ulum al-Shariah] with a Sufi background
and an English-Arabic-Urdu Translator.
URL: https://newageislam.com/debating-islam/islamic-inheritance-justice-wisdom/d/130225
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