Islamic marriage advice and family advice

I cleared my father’s debts after he died, now my siblings want to profit from this.

Greed...

They want profit but did nothing to earn it

My father died 20 years ago and left a house and debts. The house was under mortgage arrears and was going to be repossessed by the bank.  After this death I paid all the debts and paid the mortgage and saved the house from being repossessed the value that was left in the house was around £30,000.

My siblings now who didn't help me at all with saving the house or paying the debts want a share of the house based on the value now. I think they should only be entitled to the share of the value that was left in the house back then i.e share of the £30,000 based on the value after paying all debts and mortgage on the house. 

They want to profit from something they haven't worked for which is same as riba which is mentioned on one of the ayat in surah al bukara.

Please advise thank you.

simple.me


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10 Responses »

  1. Dear Simple,

    Where were your siblings when the house was going to be repossessed? Where were they when the debts needed to be paid? I fail to understand how your siblings think they are entitled to the equity that has accrued over a span of 20 years on a home they did not help to save in the first place. If it wasn't for your actions of paying off the home, they would not be entitled to anything as there would be no home at all.

    From a personal stance, I agree with you one hundred percent. Your siblings want what they are not entitled to. I am no scholar however, I believe they should take a share for the value of the house at the time of your fathers death...no more, no less. Any monies that accrued after you saved the house is money that they are not entitled to. Allah hu Alem.

    Salam

  2. even if your siblings get the value of money with which they have no right since you paid debts,all the money they get will leave someway or other due to illness,other loss etc and you will gain the money you should get from another way.

    simple.

  3. Did you help your family with any preconditions? Was there any agreement within the family? How much money you contributed? How much is house valued now? You should take what ever you spent and rest of the money should be split equally between all siblings. Islam does not allow you to charge any interest.

  4. As-salamu Alaykum,

    I think this is really a question for the scholars and not laypeople like most of us responding. However, some questions that come to mind are: How old were your siblings at the time (20 years ago)? What were their reasons for not contributing to saving the house? Perhaps they were too young or had other financial obligations that precluded them from doing so? Who has been living in the house for the last 20 years? Is it a family home or has it been rented out? Also, as SVS asked: Were there any preconditions or agreements in place?

    As SVS has suggested, I think you should probably be entitled to recoup whatever you personally had to invest in order to save the house. But it is very possible that you will find that the rest should be divided according to the value of the house now. That's why you really need to consult a Shari'ah judge or scholar. Financial issues such as these are very sensitive, but I am sure there is a clear Islamic ruling. As laypeople, we could discuss it forever and make cases for both points of view...but that is not really what you need. On a personal level, however, I would advise you to resolve this amicably in a way that leaves you and all of your siblings satisfied with the outcome. Even if a Shari'ah judge came along and said that you are correct about the way the house should be divided, you could still be generous with your siblings by giving them a little extra. The bottom line, though, is to get a scholar/judge/authority on such issues involved, and agree with your siblings to settle this within the framework of what is Islamically correct.

    • A: Financial issues such as these are very sensitive, but I am sure there is a clear Islamic ruling.

      I have a feeling if he asks 10 Islamic scholars they may give 10 different answers to this solution.

      One question he needs to ask is, is this extra money worth causing siblings to break of relations

      • As-salamu Alaykum,
        This might be true if he asks random scholars on-line or from his local community. If he is in a Muslim country, however, there should be a Shari'ah court to deal with such matters. Such courts deal with inheritance issues on a daily basis, and I do not think his situation is very unusual. I definitely agree with you, however, that maintaining family ties in this situation is very important, which is something I tried to convey above. Being the "winner" in this situation does not make you a true winner as there may be hard feelings and bitterness for years to come.

  5. speak to a solicitors im sure there is a way out of this inline with what you want as long as you can proove you paid for it

  6. i think you should split it fairly, even though they didn't help. it makes you the bigger person, and ,in sha allah, you'll get a bigger reward for doing it.

  7. At the time of our father death me and my sister went to the solictor and I showed him all the debts and loans owed by our late father. So after this he gave us an amount remaining to be distributed after paying off the all the debts which was £23000 to be divided between us. But my sister broke of ties with me over dispute and we couldn't distribute this amount. During this time I tried to make ties with her and she refused, insulted me in front of my wife and didn't come to my wedding. She doesn't take interest in our disabled mother nor does she come to visit her. She is only interested in her inheritance. I would be happy to share the inheritance equally if I felt that she had been a sister me and a daughter to our mother who we can could count on. I feel she is only interested in money and not relations.

    My other sister has been a reasonable sister and but kept her family ties with us and wants to share of the inheritance in fair way.

    I don't want to reward my other sister with more for breaking ties of with myself and more importantly her mother.

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