Do Boys and Girls Inherit the Same Amount?-Mufti Abu Layth

Do females inherit the same amount as males? Um I would feel that in the modern day, in the modern day and age, uh last year the Grand Mufti of Tunisia and the Diwan al-Ifta, the major fatwa uh council in Tunis, which is based on Maliki fiqh, gave the fatwa that men and women are equal in inheritance.

I feel that in this day and age, their fatwa uh holds weight um and it and it can be followed. Um and people who don't want to follow it, that's up to them, but people who want to follow it, and I'm and I welcome this kind of ijtihad in this day and age. And this is nothing so new. Uh you have the great Maliki scholar uh Ibn Ardun, who was a great Maliki.

Um he's the the grandson, I believe, or the great grandson of the great Maliki uh Abu al-Qasim al-Busri, who was from the 8th century, who said in his day and age, he gave the ruling that the punishments had changed. But his grandson or his great grandson, uh Ibn Ardun, he had passed the ruling Great Maliki legends, by the way, these people, very respected. He had given the fatwa in his day and age that women would inherit half 50% of their husband's wealth.

Um and although when you look at the Quran, uh if you're reading the Quranic reading, uh when it mentions that women will either get, for example, a fourth or an eighth, or they'll get this, but they will never get a a half of the husband's wealth. Now, he said that the day and age had changed and women are contributing to the household.

This is in his time. He said because women in their day and age, they had farming, and he said that women go and work on the fields with their husbands, and the husband would not be able to ascertain his his wealth. Uh he would not be able to provide a home the way he did and aggregate that much that he did over his lifetime except with the support of his wife. So, she is entitled to 50%.

And this masala became known as al-kad wa sa'aya in Maliki fiqh. And it is still today present in Morocco. I mean, there's debate over whether it's part whether they're bringing in as law, but it is part of the Moroccan legal heritage as well. Uh so, and it's based on Ibn Ardun's fatwa of he called it al-kad wa sa'aya, and some people call it uh hariq al-yad because it's to do with the labor of the hand.

Al-kad wa sa'aya means labor because the wife she worked and helped contribute. Now, so I support that 100%. I think that women uh would be 50% uh entitled to like the the wealth of the husband. Um and the children as well. And the wife 50% like she if she contributed that But that I You see, I just feel there's a distinction between that and what we see sometimes in in some modern legal systems where a woman could marry a man and then 6 months later take half

of his wealth. I find that to be unjust. Um like I think that that's unfair that you you know, you couldn't and I feel that Islam was very clear on these points that that would be unjust, and I think that is spot-on, and today those systems that say that are being unfair. That just because you marry somebody and live with them for a year or even 2 years, what you should take into consideration is the wealth during the marriage.

Not if like if a person was wealthy already, had businesses, or had things, and he gets married, and now 1 year later has a divorce, and the wife says, "Well, I want 50% of your assets." This is what honestly this is why It's like that stand-up comedian who said, "Well, you know, he said, 'Why you get married? Just Just pick a girl that you hate and buy her a house.'"

Just say, "Hey, you know, I I hate you. Why don't I just buy you a house?" No, so pre-nup prenuptial agreements don't hold any validity in the United Kingdom. So, many people don't know this, by the way, cuz they we watch so many American movies, they think that this is America. So, in Great Britain, in the UK, prenups are not valid.

Uh I know there's that case of the German couple and stuff like this that was in court, but generally they don't hold any legal validity. Uh they're not binding in any way. So, I'm just saying, I feel that is unfair, but Islamically, generally speaking, if a wife had a lifetime with a husband, she is definitely, I agree with Ibn Arabi, and the modern-day contemporary system, that she ought to be and is eligible, just as uh what the recent uh Tunisian fatwa council has given last year the fatwa that boys and girls

uh in these in our modern day and age are equal in inheritance. Okay, so, and I feel that that's um that's All right, so, I feel I would