Inheritance of women in jurisprudence of Islamic schools

Master's thesis in the field of Jurisprudence

Abstract

Woman with many titles such as wife, daughter, sister, etc. becomes the heir. Islamic religions have expressed two major systems for dividing inheritance, which creates significant differences in the titles of heirs, including women. The most discussed topic in Islamic religions is wife's inheritance.

This article aims to report all the topics related to women's inheritance with a descriptive comparison and references. An attempt has been made to pay attention to and cite the basic and famous sources of the eight schools of thought: Imamiyyah, Ismailiyyah, Zaidiyyah, Hanafiyyah, Malikiyyah, Shafiyyah, Hanbaliyyah, and Zahiryyah.

The result of this effort is divided into two parts. The first part in four chapters defines the concepts, inheritance classes, and generalities needed in the second part. The second part, in six chapters and a conclusion, examines the main and prominent titles in women's inheritance, i.e. mother, daughters and grandchildren, grandmothers, sisters, cousins, cousins, wives. At the end, the results of the discussions are expressed in a condensed and summarized form.

From the total comparisons, these results can be obtained that: 1. The real defense of women's rights will be possible with a comprehensive review of all topics. 2. The root of some differences between the two systems goes back to philosophical and theological issues. 3. The defenses of the persecution of women's rights do not fit and harmonize with their foundations in inheritance.

Key words: inheritance, comparative jurisprudence, Islamic religions, wife's inheritance, daughter's inheritance, sisters' inheritance, maternal inheritance, mother's inheritance, female inheritance. Earning income and legitimate possession is one of its important issues. Inheritance is considered as one of the ways of possession which is discussed in various ways.

Society's view of women and economic issues related to her have always been discussed, from time to time under various pretexts such as defending women's rights. There are extreme views on it. Muslim thinkers have also done various studies about it, but what has been most noticed; The financial issues related to the wife are discussed in the form of dowry, alimony, employment income, and inheritance. Recently (on 6/11/1387), the Islamic Council has amended three articles of the civil law on the inheritance of spouses (Articles 946, 947, and 948) in such a way that the share of the wife's inheritance from the husband's property increases and with the approval of this law, the wife inherits not only the husband's movable property, but also the immovable property such as land and the man's property. This way of amending the civil law by the parliament caused the reaction of some authorities who sent a letter saying that this action was beyond the competence and authority of the parliament.[1]  

Women's inheritance has a long history and due to non-comprehensive views on it, it has seen various irregularities. Sometimes it also becomes an inherited commodity; And once the equality of inheritance of men and women has been proclaimed. Islam with its special comprehensive view of human beings and its many and precise natural, psychological, social and other aspects. It has considered men and women and removed the past irregularities from the inheritance of women. Many discussions have also been held by researchers; However, many and significant differences still remain. [2]

Explanation of the title

"Woman" in Persian language is used both in the meaning of the female gender of a human being (i.e. "female human, in contrast to a man") and in the meaning of a male pair equivalent to a wife in the Arabic language. [3]

However, as a man does not receive inheritance only by the title of "husband", they are known by many titles such as father, grandfather, brother, etc. also belongs to the subject of inheritance; Inheriting a woman is not limited as a wife and with other titles such as mother, sister, etc. He also inherits. The difference between religions in the inheritance of women with titles other than wife is far more than the difference of their opinions about the inheritance of wife.

Although the title of this article may initially direct the mind to the inheritance of wife, but what is intended by this title is the same as its first meaning, which is the female gender of a human being, so that it can include all the titles that "woman" inherits with those titles.

The origin of the topic selection

I became the main classes of inheritance in Islamic religions in such a way that I found these differences arising from the difference in their view of women in some titles (such as progeny in the inheritance of children).This forced me to do more research in this field and I decided to compare religions and collect and present a report of their basic differences in women's inheritance, in order to better clarify the difference in opinions and also the origin of these differences. Finally, a thesis with this title was presented and approved. 

Basic question

Given that such a wide and extensive difference is not related to the gender of the heirs themselves and includes all granddaughters, the main focus is on the gender of the person who is the link and intermediary in transferring the inheritance to the heirs. 

The basic question is raised in this way, how does "woman" inherit in Islamic religions as a "feminine gender" who is given multiple titles of heir?

After that, other secondary and side questions can be taken into consideration:

What effect does a woman leave on the hereditary differences of others?

What is the difference between the inheritance of men and women? Should a man's inheritance always be greater than a woman's inheritance?

Is a woman's inheritance controversial in all heredity titles?

Purpose

This article aims to provide a report on the differences of women's inheritance with different titles in the religions by examining the views of Islamic religions and comparing them with each other. It is not the first one.

1. The roots and origin of religious differences in women's inheritance in many issues are related to the way they look at children and women (feminine gender). This becomes clear in many cases in the form of the presented examples.

2. In the midst of these issues, it becomes clear that what is raised above all in economic issues to defend women's rights is mostly focused on one aspect and their defenses are also incomplete.

3. It can be concluded that the final and complete defense of women and their rights can be achieved by paying full attention to all the titles and other aspects related to women, not paying attention to being a wife or a daughter.

Background:

In the issue of inheritance, women are discussed with several titles and each title has a special contribution. Some of these titles such as "Mother", "Wife", "Daughter" and "Sister", although there is a difference in the amount of her inheritance, but in all religions, it is mentioned as a definite and certain heir, but some of these titles, such as "Aunt", "Aunt" or "daughter granddaughters", are not common in all religions. have not placed; Rather, many of them have discussed an important issue and a dispute of a specific title [such as wife's inheritance of property]. A look at the list of books and theses shows this, some of which are mentioned:

Investigation of wife's inheritance in Islamic law and Iran, Dr. Hossein Mehrpour;

Investigation of wife's inheritance from real estate in Imamia jurisprudence and civil law, Ramezani Nejad, Mohammad Reza, Imam Sadiq University (AS);

Investigation of wife's inheritance in Imamia jurisprudence and civil law; Manzari Majid, Sakineh, Payam Noor University, Qom;

Comparative study of wife's inheritance of immovable property in the laws of Iran, Egypt and Syria; Kochchpour, Mohammad, Shiraz University;

Jurisprudential and legal examination of wife's inheritance; Alireza Beheshti, Tarbiat Moalem University; Shaykh al-Sharia Isfahani (Fathullah bin Mohammad Javad Namazi); Najafi Boroujerdi, Mohammad Taqi;

Nakhbeh al-Anazar in the deprivation of my wife's land and property, Fadel, Mohammad Javad;

Inheritance of the wife, Golpaygani, Lotfullah Safi;

Woman's inheritance from her husband's property; Zain al-Abidin Zakhari;

Research on a woman's inheritance from her husband's property; Ayatollah Qazi Tabatabai;

Women's rights in Islam and Europe; Hassan Sadr;

Women's rights system in Islam; Professor Shahid Morteza Motahari;

The inheritance of my wife Arbaa Valarazi; Seyyed Mohsen Kharrazi.

As it appears from the titles of these books, all of them discuss the inheritance of women under the title of "Wife".