Reply to Fatwa House Egyptian, a question about a father who has a son who has deviated from the straight path, and squandered much of his father’s wealth in gambling and other things, and the questioner wants to deprive his aforementioned son of inheritance and allocate it to his four daughters. He asked for an explanation of the legal ruling on this, and does he have the right to deprive his son of inheritance or not?
In its answer to the question, Dar Al-Iftaa said that what is stipulated in Sharia law is that inheritance is compulsory. No one has the right to deprive an heir of his inheritance, whether he is the father or someone else, unless the person required to deprive him is one of the legitimate inheritance impediments stipulated in Law No. 77 of 1943 AD – such as murder, for example -; He is legally deprived of inheritance for this reason.
The rulings of the Egyptian judiciary explicitly stipulate that any action that would circumvent the provisions of inheritance prescribed by Sharia law, deprive an heir of his inheritance, or consider someone other than the heir to be an heir is invalid.
The ruling of the will depriving the child of inheritance
Dar Al-Iftaa confirmed that the inheritor’s confinement of his inheritance during his lifetime after his death to some of his heirs and taking some of it away from him is not valid according to Islamic law. Because it is unfair and a change in what God Almighty has imposed, so he does not own it.
Scholars have stipulated that inheritance is compulsory, so the daughter of the aforementioned deceased – and the situation is as mentioned in the question – has the inheritance from her father’s estate mentioned in the legal way, where there is no objection.
Depriving women of inheritance
Dar Al-Iftaa indicated that depriving females of inheritance without their consent is contrary to the divine legal provisions of inheritance. Rather, it is one of the inheritances of pre-Islamic times that Islam came to uproot and lay waste to forever. This deprivation is the result of consuming people’s wealth unjustly, and it is one of the major sins for which God Almighty has threatened its perpetrator with severe punishment.
Dar Al-Iftaa continued: He, may He be blessed and sanctified, said after the inheritance verses from Surah An-Nisa – and His saying is the truth -: “These are the limits of God, and whoever obeys God and His Messenger, He will admit him into gardens beneath which rivers flow.” They will abide therein forever, and that is the great victory. And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger and transgresses His limits – He will admit him to the Fire to abide therein, and for him will be a humiliating punishment. [النساء: 13-14].
The Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him and his family, said: “Whoever flees from the inheritance of his heir, God will cut off his inheritance from Paradise on the Day of Resurrection.” It was included by Ibn Majah in “Al-Sunan” from the hadith of Anas bin Malik, may God be pleased with him, and Al-Bayhaqi included it in “Shu’ab Al-Iman” from the hadith of Abu Hurairah, may God be pleased with him. God narrated from him, with the wording: “Whoever seizes an inheritance that God and His Messenger have assigned, God will seize for him an inheritance from Paradise.”
