Islāmic Law of Inheritance

In the account of the battle of Uḥud, the martyrdom of Sa‘d bin Ar-Rabī‘(ra) has been mentioned. Sa‘d(ra) was an affluent man and possessed a distinct status within his tribe. He did not have any male offspring, only two daughters and a wife. Until now, no new injunctions regarding the division of inheritance had been revealed to the Holy Prophet(sa). As such, inheritance was divided among the Companions according to ancient custom, whereby if the deceased did not have any male offspring, his paternal relatives would take possession of the inheritance and the widow and daughters would be left empty handed. Therefore, upon the martyrdom of Sa‘d bin Ar-Rabī‘(ra), his brother took possession of all the inheritance, and his widow and daughters were left completely without support. Troubled by this distress, the widow of Sa‘d presented herself before the Holy Prophet(sa) along with her two daughters, and expressed her grief whilst relating the entire account. This painful account hurt the pure disposition of the Holy Prophet(sa), but since no injunctions had been revealed to the Holy Prophet(sa) from God in this respect, the Holy Prophet(sa) said, “Wait for some time and a verdict shall be given according to the injunctions which are revealed by God.” As such, the Holy Prophet(sa) supplicated to God, and it was not long before a few of the verses regarding inheritance were revealed to the Holy Prophet(sa), which have also been vouchsafed in Sūrah An-Nisā’1 of the Holy Qur’ān. At this, the Holy Prophet(sa) called the brother of Sa‘d(ra) and instructed him to give two-thirds of the inheritance to the daughters of Sa‘d(ra), one-eighth to his sister-in-law, and to keep whatever remained thereafter.2 From then on, new laws on the division of inheritance were instituted, whereby a wife is entitled to one-eighth of her husband’s inheritance if he has children, and one-forth if he does not have any children; and a daughter is entitled to a portion equivalent to half of her brother from the inheritance of her father, and if she has no brothers then two-thirds or half (depending on the circumstances); and a mother is entitled to a sixth portion of the inheritance of her son, if he has children, and a third if her son does not have any children. Similarly, the portions of other heirs were also fixed3 and in this way the natural right of a woman, which had been snatched from her was returned.

At this occasion, it would not be irrelevant to note that from among the salient features of the teaching of the Holy Prophet(sa), one distinction is that he fully safeguarded all the rightful and legitimate rights of women. As a matter of fact, the truth is that before and after the Holy Prophet(sa), there has been no individual in the history of the world who safeguarded the rights of women as he did. In matters of inheritance, marriage, spousal relations, divorce, in the right of owning personal estate, in the right of using one’s personal estate, in the rights of education, in the rights of child custody and upbringing, in the right of participating in national and domestic affairs, in the matter of individual freedom, in religious rights and obligations; in every religious and worldly field where a woman can possibly tread, the Holy Prophet(sa) has accepted all her legitimate rights and has proclaimed that the protection of her rights is a sacred trust and duty vouchsafed to his community. It is for this very reason that the women of Arabia considered the advent of the Holy Prophet(sa) to be a message of salvation. I am compelled to digress from my subject matter, otherwise, I would have elaborated that the teaching of the Holy Prophet(sa) with respect to women truly stands upon such a lofty pedestal that no religion and no civilization has been able to reach it. Most definitely, this beautiful statement of the Holy Prophet(sa) is based on such a deep truth that:

“Among the things of this world, the things for which my disposition has been leavened with love are women and fragrance, but the delight of my eye is in Ṣalāt, i.e., the worship of Allāh.”4