“A grandmother came to Abu Bakr
Siddiq and asked him for her inheritance. Abu Bakr said to her: ‘You
have nothing according to the Book of Allah, and I don’t know of
anything for you according to the Book of Allah, and I don’t know
of anything for you according to the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah
(ﷺ). Go back until I ask the people.’ So he asked the people and
Al-Mughirah bin Shu’bah said: ‘I was present with the Messenger
of Allah (ﷺ) and he gave her (the grandmother) one sixth.’ Abu
Bakr said: ‘Is there anyone else with you (who will corroborate
what you say)?’ Muhammad bin Maslamah Al-Ansari stood up and said
something like what Mughirah bin Shu’bah had said. So Abu Bakr
applied it in her case.”
Chapter 5: One who leaves behind no heir - كتاب الفرائض
It was
narrated from Ma’dan bin Abu Talhah Al-Ya’muri that ‘Umar bin
Khattab stood up to deliver a sermon one Friday, or he addressed them
one Friday. He praised and glorified Allah, and said:
“By Allah, I
am
not leaving behind any problem more difficult than the one who
leaves
behind an heir. I asked the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), and he
never
spoke so harshly to me about anything as he spoke to me about
this. He
jabbed his finger into my side or my chest and said: ‘O
‘Umar,
sufficient for you is the Verse that was revealed in summer,
at the
end of Surat An-Nisa’.”
“There are three things, if the Messenger of
Allah (ﷺ) had clarified them, that would have been dearer to me
than
the world and everything in it: a person who leaves behind no
heir,
usury, and the caliphate.”
Chapter 5: One who leaves behind no heir - كتاب الفرائض
It was
narrated from Muhammad bin Munkadir that he heard Jabir bin
‘Abdullah
say:
حَدَّثَنَا هِشَامُ بْنُ عَمَّارٍ، حَدَّثَنَا سُفْيَانُ، عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ الْمُنْكَدِرِ، سَمِعَ جَابِرَ بْنَ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ، يَقُولُ مَرِضْتُ فَأَتَانِي رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَعُودُنِي هُوَ وَأَبُو بَكْرٍ مَعَهُ وَهُمَا مَاشِيَانِ وَقَدْ أُغْمِيَ عَلَىَّ فَتَوَضَّأَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَصَبَّ عَلَىَّ مِنْ وَضُوئِهِ فَقُلْتُ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ كَيْفَ أَصْنَعُ كَيْفَ أَقْضِي فِي مَالِي حَتَّى نَزَلَتْ آيَةُ الْمِيرَاثِ فِي آخِرِ النِّسَاءِ {وَإِنْ كَانَ رَجُلٌ يُورَثُ كَلاَلَةً} الآيَةَ وَ {يَسْتَفْتُونَكَ قُلِ اللَّهُ يُفْتِيكُمْ فِي الْكَلاَلَةِ} الآيَةَ .
“I fell sick and the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) came to
visit
me, he and Abu Bakr with him, and they came walking. I had lost
consciousness, so the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) performed ablution and
poured some of the water of his ablution over me. I said: ‘O
Messenger
of Allah, what should I do? How should I decide about my
wealth?’
Until the Verse of inheritance was revealed at the end of
An-Nisa’:
“If the man or woman whose inheritance is in question
has left neither
ascendants or descendents.” [4:12] And: “They
ask you for a legal
verdict. Say: ‘Allah directs (thus) about those
who leave neither
descendants nor ascendants as heirs.’” [4:176]
“O Messenger of Allah,
will you stay in your house in Makkah?” He said: “Has ‘Aqeel
left us any houses?” 'Aqeel had inherited Abu Talib along with Talib. Neither Ja'far nor 'Ali inherited anything because they had been Muslims, and 'Aqeel and Talib had been disbelievers. So on account of that, Omar would say the believer does not inherit from the disbeliever. And Usamah said: the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said "The Muslim does not inherit from the disbeliever nor the disbeliever from the Muslim."
“Rabab bin Hudhaifah (bin Sa’eed) bin Sahm
married
Umm Wa’il bint Ma’mar Al-Jumahiyyah, and she bore him
three sons.
Their mother died and her sons inherited her houses and
the Wala’ of
her freed slaves. ‘Amr bin ‘As took them out to
Sham, and they died of
the plague of ‘Amwas. ‘Amr inherited from
them, and he was their
‘Asabah.* When ‘Amr came back, Banu Ma’mar
came to him and they
referred their dispute with him concerning the
Wala’ of their sister
to ‘Umar. ‘Umar said: ‘I will judge
between you according to what I
heard from the Messenger of Allah
(ﷺ). I heard him say: “What the
son or father acquires goes to
his. ‘Asabah, no matter who they are.’”
So he ruled in our
favour and wrote a document to that effect, in
which was the
testimony of ‘Abdur-Rahman bin ‘Awf, Zaid bin Thabit and
someone
else. Then when ‘Abdul-Malik bin Marwan was appointed caliph,
a
freed slave of hers (Umm Wa’il’s) died, leaving behind two
thousand
Dinar. I heard that that ruling had been changed, so they
referred the
dispute to Hisham bin Isma’il. We referred the matter
to ‘Abdul-Malik,
and brought him the document of ‘Umar. He said:
‘I thought that this
was a ruling concerning which there was no
doubt. I never thought that
the people of Al-Madinah would reach such
a state that they would
doubt this ruling. So he ruled in our favour,
and it remained like
that afterwards.”
It was
narrated from ‘Aishah that the freed slave of the Prophet
(ﷺ)
fell from a palm tree and died. He left behind wealth but he had
no
child or close relative. The Prophet (ﷺ) said:
حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو بَكْرِ بْنُ أَبِي شَيْبَةَ، وَعَلِيُّ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ، قَالاَ حَدَّثَنَا وَكِيعٌ، حَدَّثَنَا سُفْيَانُ، عَنْ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنِ الأَصْبَهَانِيِّ، عَنْ مُجَاهِدِ بْنِ وَرْدَانَ، عَنْ عُرْوَةَ بْنِ الزُّبَيْرِ، عَنْ عَائِشَةَ، أَنَّ مَوْلًى، لِلنَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم وَقَعَ مِنْ نَخْلَةٍ فَمَاتَ وَتَرَكَ مَالاً وَلَمْ يَتْرُكْ وَلَدًا وَلاَ حَمِيمًا فَقَالَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم
" أَعْطُوا مِيرَاثَهُ رَجُلاً مِنْ أَهْلِ قَرْيَتِهِ " .
“My freed slave
died,
leaving behind a daughter. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) divided
his
wealth between myself and his daughter, giving me half and her
half.”
“A
woman inherits from the blood money and wealth of her husband, and he
inherits from her blood money and wealth, so long as one of them did
not kill the other. If one of them killed the other deliberately,
then
he or she inherits nothing from the blood money or wealth. If
one of
them killed the other by mistake, he or she inherits from the
other’s
wealth, but not from the blood money.”
It was
narrated from Abu Umamah bin Sahl bin Hunaif that a man shot
an arrow
at another man and killed him, and he had no heir except a
maternal
uncle. Abu ‘Ubaidah bin Jarrah wrote to ‘Umar about that, and
‘Umar wrote back to him saying that the Prophet (ﷺ) said:
It was
narrated from Miqdam Abu Karimah, a man from Sham who was one
of the
Companions of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), that the Messenger
of
Allah (ﷺ) said:
“Whoever leaves behind wealth, it is for his
heirs. Whoever leaves behind poor dependents and a debt, it is for us
to take care of – or he said: ‘It is for Allah and His Messenger
(to
take care of) – I am the heir of the one who has no heir, I
will pay
the blood money on his behalf and inherit from him. And the
maternal
uncle is the heir of the one who has no heir, he pays blood
money on
his behalf and inherits from him.”
“The Messenger of Allah
(ﷺ) ruled that the sons from the same mother inherit from one
another, but not sons from different mothers. A man inherits from his
full brother from the same father and mother, but not his brothers
from his father.”
“The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ)
said: ‘Distribute wealth among those who are entitled to shares of
inheritance, according to the Book of Allah, then whatever is left
over goes to the nearest male relative.’”
حَدَّثَنَا إِسْمَاعِيلُ بْنُ مُوسَى، حَدَّثَنَا سُفْيَانُ بْنُ عُيَيْنَةَ، عَنْ عَمْرِو بْنِ دِينَارٍ، عَنْ عَوْسَجَةَ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ، قَالَ مَاتَ رَجُلٌ عَلَى عَهْدِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم وَلَمْ يَدَعْ لَهُ وَارِثًا إِلاَّ عَبْدًا هُوَ أَعْتَقَهُ فَدَفَعَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم مِيرَاثَهُ إِلَيْهِ .
“A man died at the time of the
Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), and he left no heir except for a slave whom
he had set free. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) gave the legacy to
him.”
“A
woman may get three types of inheritance: From her freed slave
woman,
a foundling whom she raised, and her child concerning whom she
swore
in Li’an that he was legitimate.”
“Then the Verse of Li’an was
revealed, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: ‘Any woman who
attributed
her child to people to whom he does not belong, then she
has no
relation to (the religion of) Allah, and she will never enter
Paradise, and any man who rejects his child, while he recognizes him,
Allah will screen Himself from him on the Day of Resurrection and
disgrace him before the witnesses.’”
“Whoever
commits
adultery with a slave woman or a free woman, his child is
illegitimate, and he cannot inherit from him or be inherited from
(i.e., this child cannot inherit from him).”
“Every child
who
is attributed to his father after his father to whom he is
attributed
has died, and his heirs attributed him to him after he
died, he ruled
that* whoever was born to a slave woman whom he owned
at the time when
he had intercourse with her, he should be named
after the one to whom
he was attributed, but he has no share of any
inheritance that was
distributed previously. Whatever inheritance he
finds has not yet been
distributed, he will have a share of it. But
he cannot be named after
his father if the man whom he claimed as his
father did not
acknowledge him. If he as born to a slave woman whom
his father did
not own, or to a free woman with whom he committed
adultery, then he
cannot be named after him and he does not inherit
from him, even if
the one whom he claims as his father acknowledges
him. So he is an
illegitimate child who belongs to his mother’s
people, whoever they
are, whether she is a free woman or a slave.”