111. Invulnerable apportionment of property under Islamic law of inheritance.
Islamic law of Inheritance apportions, 1/6 to some (relations), to some 1/3, some 1/4, some ½, and some with 2/3 of the property left behind. Mostly this kind of apportioning is done while sharing the property of the deceased without any hassles.it can be divided in this manner but situations arise where dividing the property in this manner is not possible.
If the share to be apportioned is greater than the property available, then everyone is set to get a meagre part from it. If the volume of property is more than the proportion, then each gets a voluminous share. We can try to understand this with some examples.
Let’s imagine this with a piece of bread that must be divided in the following manner, 1/4 to Yousuf, 1/8 to Omar, 3/8 to Khalid and 1/2 to Abbas. Is it possible to give to all of them as we said? Now going into the practical dividing, we find:
The bread must be cut to eight pieces if it is to be partitioned as one eighth or two eighths.
¼ of the eight is two pieces of bread.
And 1/8 of the share works out as one piece of the bread.
and 3/8 of the share counts as three pieces.
1/2 of eight are four bread pieces.
When all the pieces are to be added up, the count is 10, whereas the available number of bread pieces is only 8 as per the Islamic methodology.
A practical inability is encountered in dividing the shares of the said property.
As a solution if the bread is divided into ten pieces instead of eight, all of them get affected equally in receiving the quantum of the property. If the piece of bread is divided into 10, it can be shared among all the members with Yusuf getting 2, Omar getting 1, Khalid getting 3, and Abbas getting 4 pieces.
But with this kind of sharing, Yusuf instead of getting 2 pieces out of 8 gets 2 pieces out of 10, losing 20% in the bargain and everyone gets 20% less evenly
whereby none gets affected individually.
When this happens, Islamic law of inheritance is criticized as an impractical one, and there are chances of a question being raised to do the sharing as per Allah’s word.
The creator being the All-Knower has added the words ‘the sharing should not be vulnerable’ as a condition in this verse. Since this method of sharing sometimes is impossible, the Almighty adds the solution to it in his verses.
When a woman departs this world leaving behind a husband, two female children, her mother, and her father, the husband gets ¼ the share of the property left behind, the daughters get 2/3, the mother of the deceased gets 1/6 of the share and the father gets the same share of 1/6 of the left behind property.
The Quranic law says the father of the deceased woman gets 1/6 share of the property.
If the condition 1/3 and ¼ of the property needs to be shared among the members of the family to be met while dividing the property, it is imperative the property be divided into 12 shares.
Out of the 12 shares the husband gets ¼ (i.e.)3.
The two daughters get 3/12 (i.e.) 8.
The father gets 1/6 of the 12 shares (i.e.) 2. The mother of the deceased woman gets 1/6 of the 12 shares (i.e.) 2.
If the property is to be shared on these fundamentals, then the total number of shares adds up as follows: 8+3+2+2=15 shares, ending up with a deficit of 3 shares. Hence the entire property needs to be divided into 15 shares instead of 12, to fulfill the obligations due to each of the shareholders.
Each member of the family of the shareholders will get their due precise share only when the property is divided into 12 shares. But the situation has risen, the shares need to be divided into 15 parts and distributed.
When the property is thus divided into 12 parts no one gets his due share as decreed by the Almighty. 1/4 of 12 works out as 3 shares and not ¼ of 15. And if everyone is adamant and bent upon getting their share based on the words of the Almighty, others get affected.
In a situation like this when a distribution is done with allotting 3 shares of the 12 to the husband others get a bad deal.
But when the property is divided into 15 shares the situation where one gets affected to a bigger extent can be avoided, while the loss is even to all.
This is the reason the words ‘invulnerable way of apportionment’ is used.
Hence when the loss is evenly distributed, no one gets affected. To counter such situations Allah uses the words ‘in a way no one is vulnerable’.
The usage of such precise words is yet another evidence that the Quran is the word of Almighty Allah.
