Author: Aburian Azizi
Feminism (Part 14)
The Heritage of Women in Islam
By comparing the inheritance rights of women under Islamic law with those under old and new systems, several key points emerge:
In the Islamic system, the distribution of inheritance is governed by the will of Allah Almighty. This system is marked by a level of order, precision, and justice that surpasses human capability. Islam considers the needs of individuals in its laws, granting a larger share to those with greater responsibilities. For instance, sons typically receive a larger portion of the inheritance than their fathers, as sons represent the next generation, while fathers are in the twilight of their lives.
Under Islamic law, sons often receive twice the inheritance share of daughters. This is because sons are expected to become husbands and bear financial responsibilities, including paying a dowry to their wives and providing for their families. Conversely, daughters receive a smaller inheritance share, as they will become brides who receive a dowry from their husbands, who are responsible for their expenses and maintenance.
Islam has limited inheritance to wealth. In Islam, the wife is not inherited, while it was customary in Jahiliya (before Islam), and Islam has made marriage itself the cause of inheritance from each other, so that if one of the spouses dies, the other inherits from him.
As we can see, Islam has not abolished the relationship of ethnicity and kinship, not as they did not give any credit to kinship in the Romanian and Greek law, and one of the benefits of kinship is mutual inheritance, and in the issue of ethnicity and kinship, the kinship of the closest relativity which comes first.
The right of individual property and its validity as a cause of inheritance is one of the things established by Islam. Unlike the communal system, which does not accept taking inheritance from each other, and lately they have admitted to a little bit of inheritance, and they have to accept admit to inheritance and believe in it.
Islam does not accept the absolute equality between male and female genders in the matter of inheritance, as is the law of France and Romania; As Allah the Exalted says: «وَإِن كانوا إِخْوَةً رِّجَالاً وَنِسَآءً فَلِلذَّكَرِ مِثْلُ حَظِّ الأنثيين» “And if they are brothers, men and women, then the male gets the share of two females.”
Also, Islam does not accept equality between relatives. As it was common in ancient Egyptian law.
In Islam, close relatives are more important than distant relatives; the son is before the father and the father is before the brother, and still Islam does not allow equality between brothers in the way that the French and Romanian laws believe in. Rather, Islam has divided brothers into three categories in the matter of inheritance: 1. Brothers who are brothers from both parents; 2. Brothers who are the same only on the father’s side and their mother is separate; 3. Brothers who are the same from the mother’s side and from two fathers. Islam has considered these differences.
Preferring the elder brother of the family over the rest of the brothers in the matter of inheritance is not accepted by Islam while the laws of the ancient East and West nations and the Arabs of the Jahili period recognized it.
In Islam, an unmarried brother is not superior to other brothers because he is single while it was common in Jewish law As Judaism provided for an unmarried brother two quotas of other brothers.
Islamic Sharia believes that even if there is a son of the dead, the grandchild of the dead, whether he is a boy or a girl, does not inherit; Because their father is in the first rank and they are in the second rank, and the group that is in the first rank is the first; But in Romanian and French law, it is customary that the son’s son (grandson) inherits together with his father, and the brother’s son (nephew) inherits together with his father.
Islam guarantees the inheritance of girls along with boys. In Islamic law, daughters inherit from their fathers despite the presence of brothers, and Islam, like Jews, has not prohibited daughters from inheriting due to the presence of sons. As Allah the Exalted says:
«لِلرِّجَالِ نَصِيبٌ مِمَّا تَرَكَ الْوَالِدَانِ وَالْأَقْرَبُونَ وَلِلنِّسَاءِ نَصِيبٌ مِمَّا تَرَكَ الْوَالِدَانِ وَالْأَقْرَبُونَ مِمَّا قَلَّ مِنْهُ أَوْ كَثُرَ نَصِيبًا مَفْرُوضًا.» (Righteous men benefit from what is left by their fathers, mothers and relatives, righteous women benefit from what is left of them. What is little belongs to him or is much. This is what Allah has decreed and explained.) The children and relatives of the deceased have a share in the estate of the deceased have; just as girls and women have quotas, they are all equal, even though they differ in amount.
In Jewish law, even if there is a daughter, other relatives of the deceased do not inherit; But Islam does not accept this Jewish rule and has opposed it.
Depriving a brother who is only from the father with brothers who are from the same parents, as was common in Roman law, this rule is completely rejected by Islamic Sharia and does not accept it.
Ancestors and brothers are equal in the matter of inheritance; because the ancestors of the dead are on the same rank with the brothers of the dead from the father’s side, and the ancestors are not deprived despite the presence of the brothers of the dead.
In Islamic Sharia, each husband and wife inherit from each other in any situation, and Islam has not suspended their inheritance to the court’s decision as stipulated by French law.
With these few lines, a truth became clear to us, and that is the Islamic system is a general system in the issue of inheritance, especially what belongs to women, and Islam is the only system that agrees with all human activities and does not prevent the progress of women. ; Rather, women owe their progress and dignity to Islam.
