The female’s inheritance is half that of the male’s

 

Praise be to Allah who guided us to His true religion, and explained to us His laws and rulings in His Book and on the tongue of His trustworthy Prophet, and may blessings and peace be upon His Messenger, who was sent as guidance and mercy to the worlds. As for what follows:
The doubts raised by the enemies of Allah's religion, the Almighty, about women's inheritance, and their claim that Islam has denied them their rights when it imposed on them half of what was imposed on men, indicate great ignorance on the part of these ignorant people, who wanted to attack Islam with what is distinctive about it, and here is an explanation of that.
* Women's Inheritance Before Islam, and in some contemporary societies:
First: Women's Inheritance Among the Jews:
The Jewish inheritance system is characterized by depriving females of inheritance, whether they are mothers, sisters, daughters, or others, except in the absence of males. For example, a daughter does not inherit except in the absence of a son.
In it, the prophet of Israel spoke, saying: If a man dies and has no son, you shall transfer his property to his daughter. Numbers 27:1-11
But the wife shall not inherit from her husband at all.
Second: The inheritance of women among the Romans
: Women among the Romans were equal to men in what they took from the estate, regardless of their rank. As for the wife, she did not inherit from her deceased husband. Marriage among them was not a reason for inheritance, so that the inheritance would not pass to another family, since inheritance among them was based on preserving wealth within the family and protecting it from disintegration. If the mother died, her inheritance that she inherited from her father would go to her brothers, and her sons would not inherit her. Even if the deceased left male and female children, they would inherit it equally.
Third: Inheritance among the Semitic nations or the ancient Eastern nations:
We mean by them the Turanians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Phoenicians, Syrians, Assyrians, Greeks and others who inhabited the East after the flood that took place before the birth of Christ, peace be upon him. Inheritance among them was based on the eldest son replacing his father, and if he was not present, then the oldest male, then the brothers, then the uncles.... and so on until the in-laws and the rest of the clan were included. Their inheritance system was distinguished, in addition to what we mentioned, by depriving women and children of inheritance.
Fourth: Inheritance among the ancient Egyptians:
As for the ancient Egyptians, Egyptian antiquities have shown that their inheritance system included all relatives of the deceased, including fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, uncles, maternal uncles and aunts, and the wife. They all shared the estate equally, with no difference between old and young or between male and female.
Fifth: Inheritance among the Arabs in the pre-Islamic era:
We can say that the Arabs in the pre-Islamic era did not have an independent or special inheritance system, but rather followed the approach of the Eastern nations.
Inheritance, according to them, is specific to males who are able to carry weapons and defend themselves, without women and children, because they are people of raids and wars. Moreover, they used to inherit women by force, such that the heir would come and throw his garment over his father’s widow and then say: I inherit her as I inherited my father’s money. If he wanted to marry her, he would marry her without a dowry, or marry her to whomever he wanted, and receive her dowry from whoever marries her, or he would restrict her from marrying her or marrying her. Islamic law prevented this injustice when the Almighty said: “O you who have believed, it is not lawful for you to inherit women by compulsion, and do not prevent them from marrying in order to take away part of what you have given them, unless they commit a clear immorality.” And live with them in kindness. For if you dislike them - perhaps you dislike a thing and Allah makes therein much good. [An-Nisa’: 19] In a few cases, some of them would give inheritance to females and make them equal to males in share, as was the case with the ancient Egyptians and Romans.
* Women’s inheritance in Islam:
After we have seen what the state of women’s inheritance was like before Islam and the amount of injustice that befell them as a result of those corrupt laws and systems, in which greed and desire played a major role, Islam came with its light and justice to lift from them the oppression and injustice that befell them, and to decide that she is a human being like a man, she has rights that may not be touched or diminished, and she has duties that should not be neglected or neglected. By quickly comparing the Islamic system of women’s inheritance with the ancient and modern laws and systems, we find:
1- That the one who took charge of dividing the estates in Islam is God Almighty and not humans, so it was from the system, precision and justice in the distribution that it is impossible for humans to be guided to it had God not guided them, God Almighty said: ((Your fathers and your sons - you do not know which of them is nearer to you in benefit. An obligation
2- Islam looked at need and gave the one who is most in need a greater share than the one who is least in need. Therefore, the share of children was greater than the share of parents, because children are eager to live and parents are turning away from it. Therefore
, the male has the share of two females in most cases. There is no doubt that the son who will become a husband who will give his wife’s dowry, spend on her and his children from her, is more in need than his sister who will become a wife who will receive
her dowry, and her husband will take care of her and spend on her.
3- Islam has limited inheritance to money and did not extend it to the wife as it was in the pre-Islamic era. Rather, it honored the marital bond and made the love and mercy between spouses during life a reason for inheritance upon death. It did not neglect it as some laws did.
4- Islam did not neglect the right of kinship as a reason for inheritance as Roman and Greek law did, but rather considered a man’s kinship to be one of the close ties between him and his family, and it has a natural right to pure feeling and abundant connection. A person is strengthened by his kinship, finds comfort in it in his life, and spends for it what he can of giving, service and support, and places it in the first degree of care.
5- As for equality between relatives in ancient Egyptian law, it is something that Islam also rejects because the inheritance of relatives is related to the concept of closeness and distance from the deceased. Accordingly, sonship takes precedence over fatherhood, and the latter takes precedence over brotherhood, and so on... Islam did not establish equality in inheritance between brothers in the manner adopted by French and Roman law, but rather divided brotherhood into three degrees (parents, father, mother). It took those degrees into consideration and inherited the strongest and closest.
6- Preferring the most mature male and distinguishing him from the rest of his brothers in the inheritance share is a principle that Islam did not establish, as was the case with the laws of ancient Eastern nations and the Arabs in the pre-Islamic era.
7- The son, being a firstborn, does not have any preference over the rest of the sons in Islam, in the manner adopted by Jewish law, where the firstborn was given the share of two of his brothers.
8- Islam has guaranteed the right of daughters to share inheritance with their sons from their fathers and did not prevent them from being covered by sons as the Jewish law stated. Allah the Almighty said: ((Men shall have a share of what parents and near relatives leave, and women shall have a share of what parents and near relatives leave, whether it be little or much - an obligatory share)) [An-Nisa’: 7].
After this comparison, a clear fact becomes clear to us, which is that the Islamic system of inheritance in general and what relates to women in particular is the only system that is consistent with the movement of striving and activity in human groups, and does not hinder them from the progress they deserve through their striving and activity.
*The wisdom behind the legitimacy of women’s inheritance:
Whoever contemplates the issue of legislating women’s inheritance will find many wisdoms, some of which we will mention:
1- Emphasizing the humanity of women and that they are the half of men, and that they are worthy of entitlement, ownership, and disposition just like men, and this is an honor for women.
2- Then, God Almighty has made man a vicegerent on earth, and honored him by entrusting him with the task of developing it and extracting its benefits, and provided him with abilities that enable him to carry out his mission, and the word “human” is general and includes both males and females alike.
3- In response to the call of the nature with which God created people, males and females, of the love of owning money. Allah the Almighty
said: ((Indeed, man is ungrateful to his Lord (6) And indeed, he is, to that, a witness (7) And indeed, he is, to the love of wealth, intense)) [Al-Adiyat: 6-8] And Allah the Almighty
said: ((And you devour inheritance, devouring it completely (19) And you love wealth with an intense love)) [Al-Fajr: 19, 20].
4- Islam’s giving women ownership helps them to fulfill their needs.
5- It gives women the opportunity to worship Allah the Almighty with their money like men by spending it on various charitable causes.
6- Limiting inheritance to men may lead them or some of them to feel superior, and fosters in them a sense of selfishness and domination, so they fall into injustice to women, either by diminishing their rights or by depriving them of what they have completely.
7- Stipulating the right of women to inheritance - whether big or small - in the Book of Allah Almighty and the Sunnah of His Noble Messenger constitutes a deterrent to Muslims that prevents them from being lax in giving them what they are entitled to from the deceased’s money.
8- Ruling that women inherit with men, each according to his degree from the deceased, fragments the wealth and distributes it among the largest possible number of offspring, which expands the circle of benefit from it, and prevents its accumulation and confinement in the hands of one or a few individuals.
9- It also achieves the meaning of family solidarity, as it does not deprive a male or a female, because while taking care of practical interests, it takes into account the principle of unity in the single soul, and does not distinguish between one gender and another except to the extent of its burdens.
* Cases of women's inheritance:
It is known from the texts mentioned in the right of women's inheritance in Islam that their inheritance differs according to their circumstances, and for this reason we will discuss in this section, God willing, the cases of women's inheritance according to their different types.
* Cases in which women are equal to men in inheritance:
1- The inheritance of parents (mother and father) with the presence of a male or female inheriting branch such as a son and son's son, and if he descends, male, son's son or female, God Almighty said: ((And for his parents, for each one of them is a sixth of what he left if he had a child)) [An-Nisa/11].
2- The inheritance of two or more siblings on the mother’s side, whether they are males only, males only, females only, or males and females, they share in one-third, which is divided equally among them, with the male receiving the same share as the female.
Allah the Almighty said: ((And if a man or a woman is to be inherited by ascendants, but he has a brother or a sister, each one of them shall have a sixth. But if there are more than that, then they shall share in a third.)) [An-Nisa’: 12], and the wisdom behind this is that the deceased does not have from his brother on the mother’s side more of the feelings of compassion arising from the maternal connection than he does from his sister on the mother’s side.
3- The inheritance of the maternal grandmother with the maternal grandfather is one-sixth in some cases, such as if a person died leaving behind a maternal mother, a paternal father, and a son, then the maternal mother gets one-sixth as a fixed share, and the paternal father also gets one-sixth, and the rest goes to the son.
* Cases in which the female inherits less than the male:
If we contemplate the inheritance of the woman, we will find that it is generally less than the inheritance of the man. Sometimes we find that she inherits half of what he inherits, and other times her inheritance is less or slightly more than half.
The male gets two females in the following categories:
1- A category in which this is in every degree of it, no matter how low it is, provided that the individual among them does not have a female, and they are the sons with the daughters, and the daughters of the son with the son of the son or more, and so on...
If the female is related, she does not inherit, such as the daughter of the daughter, and the son of the daughter.
2- A category also in which it is in the first degree only, such as the sister or more with the brother, and the paternal sister with the paternal brother, individually or multiple.
And it is not in their children, such as the son of a full sister or a paternal brother with the son of a full brother or a paternal brother, because they are from the womb.
3- And a category that is also in the degree of paternity, such as the father with the mother on condition that they are alone in the inheritance, and are free of the male and female inheriting branch), and of a number of brothers (two or more), so in this case the father gets twice what the female gets. God Almighty said: ((But if he has no child and his parents inherit him, then his mother gets a third)) [An-Nisa’/11] ((meaning the father gets the remaining two thirds)).
4- A category that occurs in marriage, on condition that one of them dies and the inheritance is from his estate. The husband takes from the estate of the wife who died before him twice what she takes from his estate if he died before her. If the wife dies and has no inheriting descendants, he takes half of her estate. If she has an inheriting descendants, he takes a quarter, and the wife gets half of that. If he dies and has no inheriting descendants, she takes a quarter, which is half of the half. If he has an inheriting descendants, she takes an eighth, which is half of the quarter.
* Cases in which the female inherits more than the male:
Some may be surprised and rule out the existence of cases in which the female inherits more than the male, but examples attest to this, including:
1- If a man dies and leaves behind: a wife, a daughter, a mother, two maternal sisters, and a full brother.
We find that the wife gets three shares out of twenty-four shares, the mother gets four, and the full brother gets five shares, and the two maternal sisters are blocked by the daughter. So
the daughter inherits more in this case than the full brother. The same applies if the daughter is replaced by the daughter of a son, even if he is descended; or if the full brother is replaced by a father, a paternal brother, a full uncle, or a paternal uncle.
Sonship takes precedence over fatherhood and brotherhood.
2- If a woman dies and leaves behind: a husband, a daughter, a full sister, or a paternal sister.
Then the husband gets one share out of four shares, the daughter gets two shares, and the full sister gets one share, while the paternal sister is blocked by the full sister.
Here the husband inherits half of what the daughter inherits, and the same applies if the daughter is replaced by a daughter of a son and so on, or a full sister or a paternal sister, alone and without the presence of a male or female inheriting branch, with a full or paternal uncle, then in such a case they inherit more than the husband and more than the uncle.
3- If a woman dies and leaves behind: a husband, two daughters of a son, a son’s son’s son.
The husband gets three shares out of twelve shares, and the daughters of the son get eight, each of them four shares, and the son’s son gets the remainder, which is one share.
The share of each of the daughters of the son in the estate of the deceased is greater than the share of the son’s son’s son, because she is of a higher degree than him, and greater than the share of the husband.
* Cases in which the female inherits without the male:
1/ This is as if a person died and left behind: a mother of two daughters, two paternal sisters, a maternal brother.
The mother gets two shares out of eight, and each of the two daughters four shares, and the two paternal sisters remain with two shares, each of them has one share, while the maternal brother is excluded by the paternal sisters.
In this case, all females inherit except for the maternal brother.
2/ As in the case of the unfortunate agnate.
If a woman dies and leaves behind: a husband, a daughter, a son’s son, a son’s daughter, a father and a mother.
The husband gets three shares out of twelve shares, and the daughter gets six, and nothing is left for the son’s son and the son’s daughter.
The daughter inherits more than the husband and more than the father, and she inherits but the son’s son does not inherit, and the mother also inherits but the son’s son does not inherit.
3/ Likewise, none of the male relatives inherits if there are females who have a fixed share except the wife, nor with inheritors by way of agnatic kinship.
4/ This is in addition to the cases in which the female who is entitled to inherit inherits and the male is deprived even if he has a fixed share or an inheritor by way of agnatic kinship, if one of the impediments to inheritance occurs against him, such as premeditated or quasi-premeditated murder and apostasy.
In conclusion, the examples we have cited prove with conclusive evidence that leaves no room for doubt that God’s law in inheritance does not favor one gender over another, but rather there are considerations for both males and females that truth, logic, and justice require to be taken into account.
• The doubt raised about women’s inheritance and the response to it.
One of the doubts raised about Islam and its justice is the issue of fairness to women in inheritance and granting them their rights as men do.
Islam was criticized by the unfair Orientalists and the skeptical enemies of Islam for favoring men at the expense of women, and for siding with them when it made the woman’s share of the inherited wealth half of the man’s share. They thought that with this slander they had struck a fatal blow against Islam, but they did not realize that they had only fooled their minds and criticized themselves and what they claimed of knowledge, wisdom and justice.
It is not a difficult matter to scientifically and objectively verify the issue of Islam’s fairness to both men and women in all areas of life, especially what relates to the matter of money and the division of inheritances, for whoever wants the truth or listens and is a witness; the greatest advantage of Islam is that it is clear and realistic in everything it contains, and it always takes into account human nature and does not clash with it or deviate from it.
While it calls people to refine and elevate their natures, and brings them to models that are close to imaginations and dreams, it does not call for changing natures, nor does it take into account that this change is possible, or beneficial to human life even if it is possible.
Rather, he believes that the best good that humanity can achieve is that which is in line with human nature after refining it. He also proceeds in the issue of men and women in his realistic way, treating them equally where equality is the correct logic of human nature, and differentiating between them where differentiation is also the correct logic of human nature.
One of the most important points of this differentiation is the division of inheritance.
Islam says about inheritance: “For the male is the share of two females” [An-Nisa’: 11]. So why was this division made? What is the aspect of justice in it? Has the male always had the share of two females?
In response to this doubt and these questions, we say, and with Allah’s help,
that the Islamic system of inheritance is a wise system, in addition to being just. It clarifies who the legitimate heirs are, and places them in the estate of the deceased according to their kinship to him, and according to their social status in life and what these situations impose on them of consequences and burdens that they receive from the deceased, just as they received his estate or part of his estate.
This accusation that Western thinkers and those who followed their approach threw at Islamic law, and because of which they considered the law to be backward, not keeping pace with civilization, and not suitable for moving with it in the higher levels of life, is a false and unjust accusation in more than one way:
This equality that it is said that women have stood side by side with men in civilized nations, if this claim is true in its entirety - and it is not true - then it is still in the experimental phase and life has not yet issued its judgment on this status of women, is it good or evil? Is it suitable for survival and continuation or not? Indeed, the evidence indicates that this situation for women is an abnormal situation that has changed their lives and distorted their nature, and that signs of distress have begun to spread within the woman herself, and that the near future will reveal this, especially since when they decided to make her equal to men in inheritance, they also said that they should make her equal to them in work and spending, so they burdened her with more than she could bear. She works in the home and no one works, and raises the children and no one raises them, but she also works outside and spends on herself and on those she supports. This is injustice and oppression for women, in addition to what she may be exposed to when she goes out to work in terms of harm and exploitation, and there is much evidence of this reality for women among them.
* When Islam decided to give the female half of what it gave the male, it lifted from her the burden of spending and the hardship of work, and did not charge her anything of that under any circumstances, even if she had money. Rather, it made her sufficient in terms of provision and need, whether she was a daughter or a sister, her expenses are the responsibility of her father, brother, or whoever supports her from the males, or a mother, her expenses are the responsibility of her husband or children.
Islam, then, has exempted the female from many of the material burdens and social obligations at a time when it has burdened the man with many of these burdens and obligations.
In short, the man pays and the woman takes, and there is a big difference between the one who gives and the one who takes; justice and fairness require that the one whose material burdens are greater should be given more. The matter is a matter of balance between the burdens of the male and the burdens of the female in life, not a matter of favoritism in favor of one gender over another. However, the preference of the man over the woman in inheritance is not constant in all cases - as we have seen - as she may be equal to him, as in the inheritance of brothers and sisters on the mother’s side, and as in the inheritance of the father and mother in some cases, and the grandfather and grandmother in some of their circumstances.
Allah the Almighty said about the inheritance of maternal siblings: ((And if a man or woman is to be inherited by ascendants or descendants, and he has a brother or a sister, each one of them shall have a sixth; but if there are more than that, they shall share in a third)) [An-Nisa’: 12] And Allah the Almighty said about the inheritance of parents:
((And for his parents, to each one of them a sixth of what he leaves, if he left a child)) [An-Nisa’: 11], and thus we consider this doubt that was raised against Islam by its lurking enemies, and was transmitted by some ignorant and imitating Muslims, to be nothing more than a whirlwind of
conclusion:
1- That There is no principle or law that has been keen to give women their right to their deceased’s money in the amount, detail and fairness that Islam has been keen on.
This keenness is represented by the text of her inheritance in most cases of her inheritance and the statement of the amount she deserves in each case in the Holy Quran first, which is the only science that the Holy Quran was keen to detail in the way it detailed and not leave it to people, because it is related to one of the most dangerous issues that humiliate man and trap him in the nets of his desires and his soul that commands evil, which is the issue of money, especially since man is created to love it, and then it is with children the adornment of worldly life, and then the Noble Prophetic Sunnah clarified what was not clarified in the Holy Quran, and it is very little.
2- By looking at women’s inheritance in all its cases, it becomes clear to us that achieving social justice is the basis for determining a woman’s share or that, and that the matter of her inheritance is not limited to the common rule of the male, such as the share of two females alone, and that the issue is a matter of calculation, not a matter of emotions or claims, and justice requires that each be given according to his need, and the many examples that we have provided confirm this fact and in that there is a decisive response to everyone who tried to portray Islam as having distinguished men and given them more of the inheritor’s money at the expense of women, thus inflicting injustice on them for no reason other than that they are female.
Islam rejected and fought the principle of depriving women of inheritance simply because they are female or for the reasons that we mentioned in the context of discussing women’s inheritance among the Arabs in the pre-Islamic era and others. Rather, it imposed her share in all cases of her inheritance and forbade her from being deprived except in the cases that it detailed, such as apostasy and murder, which are the same cases that also prevent men from inheriting, and it threatened those who deprive them for reasons other than those with severe punishment in the afterlife.
Islam also rejected the principle of absolute equality between women and men in the amount of inheritance they receive, as Roman law did and those who followed its approach, because that contradicts the justice we have talked about. Islam
also rejected the principle of giving preference to males in inheritance if there are females with them, as is the case in distorted Judaism.
It also rejected that males always get a greater share than females, so it made rules, principles and
considerations for inheritance that cannot be deviated from.