Sadaqah and gifts from shares in inheritance

Fatawa Question

Assalaam Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakaatahu. Thanks for your earlier reply. Please bear with my very lengthy letters, as no matter how much I may try, I just can't ask questions in brief. Besides giving you as many details as possible, I believe helps you decide in our case. 1) After my father's death a few days ago. May Allah forgive his sins and grant him Jannah....his second wife, two brothers and my sister as well I (his only children, he had no children from his 2nd marriage), have said to my mother that we do not want any share from his assets. And that she is free to use all the money as she would will. Someone told her that we have to give this in writing to her, just verbal communication is not sufficient. Is this true, that we need to give this to her in writing....? As such really would that really need legal papers? Really none of us have the intention to turn around later and start claiming our share. Besides his second wife had hidden the marriage from her children of her first husband and also I believe from most of her relatives. This of course has no relevance to the fact that she has said in specific terms to my mother that she doesn't want any of his money, as even during his life time she had willingly foregone everything. 2) My father as such had only one flat in his name (which my mother says her money was also used in buying it, but for the purpose of division she says she wants to presume that it was his).This flat is being used as an office for his small scale business of pest control, which had since the last 2-3 years been managed mostly by his four workers who are very poor. My parents in the last few years had been mostly in USA / Canada taking care of my sister's kids while she was studying and helping my brothers in settling down. My parents were not working there. But his business was being managed in India by his workers, whom he had entrusted it in his absence. The workers used his office, got contracts, bought the equipment (pumps, stationary etc., as well the chemicals) from the business money and paid their own salary from the earnings and so on. So in effect the business that was set up from a scratch and run by my father for 15 years was in the last 2-3 years being run mostly by his workers. My father was a very generous and soft hearted man. He had told my mother that should anything happen to him, he would not like the business to close down, rather it should keep running for as long as possible, bcos he said four families were feeding on it (i.e., his poor workers, who u can say had a hand to mouth existence, my fathers business was very small scale, did not fetch great amounts that he culd give a very good salary to them ,but it was reasonable enough). Now my mother would like to carry out his wish so that he would keep receiving the rewards for letting the workers run the business and getting money from it. As it is we are not interested in our share, nor can we ever go there to manage anything. Will this action be ok ? That is letting the only flat in my father's name be used by his workers as an office for the business as well as the earnings from it be rolled over by his workers and be used by them ? 3) The nature of the business was such that he used to get time based contracts from his clients, varying from a single time service to a one year or five year contract. Sometimes the clients used to pay him in advance for the entire one year contract or the entire five year contract. All the payments used to form his capital, from which they would later buy the required material such as the pesticides and insecticides, the pumps, gloves etc. He had a separate bank account for this purpose I presume. Now the cash that is lying in that account is actually the capital for which contracts have yet to be completed. How do we deal this money ? Can the workers continue using this money as the capital ? 4) Now apart from all this... Is my main question that I would like to ask. When my brother was migrating to Canada, my parents had withdrawn some money from my account as a loan to my brother. They had my permission to use my account in India as and when required, as they were managing my properties in India then. They later informed me about this and said that they would return this money to me later (they musn't have had enough cash with them at that time so the need to borrow from my account). At that time I had intended in my heart not to take the money back from them. No other purpose...just out of love for them. In effect I believe it is my brother who owes me this money. Till two years ago my brother and his family were staying in a rental house in Canada and he was doing two jobs to make the ends meet. Later i.e., just two days before my father's death he had shifted into a house of his own which he bought on a mortgage, and he is still carrying two jobs to make ends meet, to support his wife and three kids. He is not holding a very reputable job, nor he is a qualified professional. Agreeing to my parents opinion he had bought a big house, with the intention of giving a part of the house on rent so that there would be some income and would help out in paying the mortgage. They could have settled for a smaller house perhaps, but since I intended to migrate to Canada later, they had hoped that I could stay with them, so better to buy a bigger house. Meanwhile they could get rent out of the property to ease out their expenses which are not luxurious by any means. As seen from above I believe he comes in the category of people who can be helped by me as charity. My parents and my brother have always been saying that they will return the money when they will be in a position to do so, but I had said to them on several occasions that I don’t want it back. Yet they insisted with their intention of paying back. Now if at this present time after the death of my father, I intend again to not take the money back from my brother, and instead that money be attributed to my father as a payment for his wrongfully gotten money or as charity on his behalf, will this money be accepted by Allah on behalf of my father. Or will my previous intention of not taking the money back from my brother in any case be valid only for that particular intention and not attributed to my father now ? I am asking this bcos, when I asked my mother ,as against my expectation she didn't really remember how many people he had helped in making the false certificates (though she says it may have been 4-5), nor does she remember the amount he had taken from them. So I have reason to believe that the total money may have been too much.... Maybe even 6-8 lakhs in all. I am not sure. But I would like to pay all that money myself though in bits and parts, as all my siblings are already having loans of great amounts, and the flat that my father left behind we want to give to my mother which she intends to use only for charity for his workers. Besides if I tell my mother and my brothers, the truth about the nature of his earnings from the certificates, i.e., it was wrong... They will be shattered. As it is they are having a very difficult time coping with his death. I don’t want to add to their burden by giving them knowledge about something they are better off without knowing. Besides it would mean selling away his flat which anyways my mother is going to give in charity. And my brothers have no money lying around to give away. Of course I am very worried for my father's fate after his death and confused too. There are many things going on in my mind at this time, as you can see from my letter. But your answers have always helped me sort out some misery of my life. And your reply this time too will help me out more. Only Allah can give you the Jaza-E-Khair for all the noble work that you are doing by guiding people like us. Only Allah can give you rewards enough.... I can't even thank you enough. May Allah accept all your good deeds.

Fatwa

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Publication Date

2006-08-26

Main Subjects

Economics & Business Administration
Islamic Studies

No. of Pages

4

Data Type

Fatawa

Language

English

Record ID

BIM-787726

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