How to Divide Inheritance after Mother’s Death?

Answered by Ustadh Salman Younas

Question

My mother passed away in Feb 2019. She had some money in her bank account and she wanted to use that money to pay for Hajj and Umrah for all her three kids. I performed Umrah and Hajj (on two different journeys), and my sister performed Umrah with our mother’s money, but my other brother has not performed Umrah or Hajj.

Now that she has passed away, we have the money she had in her bank account. And we have to distribute it among ourselves as per Shari’a Inheritance Law (2 shares for brothers and one for sister). My question is, do we have to separate the money for my brothers Hajj and Umrah and my sister’s Umrah before we distribute it, or the whole amount will be distributed among the three of us, with two shares for the brothers and one share for sister.

Answer

May Allah Most High have mercy on your mother and grant her the best in the next life.

Suppose your mother did not leave an explicit bequest for a portion of her money to be set aside for this cause after her death. In that case, you should proceed to divide the cash normally per shari’a inheritance laws without separating any money.

Read the following articles for more clarity:
What Is Done With Remaining Assets In Inheritance?
Does Islamic Law Require that My Property be Divided in Particular Way in the Event that I Die?
Inheritance Questions Following Father’s Death
How to Divide Inheritance After a Parent’s Death?
Do My Siblings Inherit if My Mother States in Her Lifetime That She Wants to Leave Everything to Me?

[Ustadh] Salman Younas
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Born and raised in New York, Ustadh Salman Younas graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Political Science and Religious Studies. After studying the Islamic sciences online and with local scholars in New York, Ustadh Salman moved to Amman. There he studied Islamic law, legal methodology, belief, hadith methodology, logic, Arabic, and tafsir. He is now in his final year of his PhD at Oxford University, looking at the early evolution of the Hanafi madhab.
His teachers include: Shaykh Faraz Rabbani, Shaykh Salah Abu’l Hajj, Shaykh Ashraf Muneeb, Shaykh Ahmad Hasanat, Shaykh Hamza Karamali, Shaykh Ahmad Snobar, Shaykh Ali Hani, Shaykh Hamza Bakri, Ustadh Rajab Harun and others.
Ustadh Salman’s personal interests include research into the fields of law/legal methodology, hadith, theology, as well as political theory, government, media, and ethics. He is also an avid traveler and book collector. He currently resides in the UK with his wife.