Question on Inheritance
اَلسَّلاَ مُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَا تُهُ
I have a couple of questions,
1. My Sister and my Brother in law passed away leaving some 5 properties of which 3 belongs to my sister and 2 from my brother in law, they have 2 sons both are now married. There has been disputes between the brother for the past 5 years, now the elder bother says that her mum (my sister) has written a will that says 2 of the property should go to him. So he would like to take the 2 property under his name, the balance 3 property he wants to share between them. He has never uttered a word on the will in this 5 years and now he talks about it, we still need to check the authenticity of the will. Now the question is
1. if lets say if there is an authentic will, then should the properties be distributed like what he says which is 2 should solely go to him and the rest should be split into 2? or should they split all the 5 properties equally?
2. There is a person who is currently trying to mediate between the two brothers, but this person has borrowed some money from the elder brother as loan, so in such case is this person eligible to mediate between the two brothers? Is there any eligibilty for a person to mediate between the two in this case?
I am the uncle of the two brothers but since 1 of them thinks i am favorable to the other I did not want to get involved in this matter, I would like to have your opinion on this.
Jazak-Allah khairan
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Wa ‘alaykum us-salāmu wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
Respected brother,
it is not permissible to bequeath
1: to any heir and
2: more than one third
However, if the deceased did bequeath any amount, to a heir, the bequest will be valid if mutually approved by the other son.
The son claiming to be a beneficiary of the bequest will have to bring forth two witnesses (two men or one man and two women) to substantiate his claim.
If the other son does not approve the will, the will authentic or not, will become invalid.
Assuming that there are no expenses due on the deceased, the property will be distributed equally between the two son.
2: Anyone can mediate but the right to approve or disapprove of his mother’s bequest lies with the younger son.
Kindly make sure that this procedure is carried out with utmost precaution, guarding against the misappropriation of funds in any way. One should be ever-conscious and fearful of Allah Ta’ala when dealing with such matters.