Mother in law spent the inheritance and claims for money monthly.
Salam , what is the law in Islam, when a wife ( a mother in law) took all the wealth of her deceased husband, and leave only little ( about 5%) to her seven sons. She spent the money on clothes, jewellaries, make ups, new expensive furniture, and doesn't help her sons at all financially.
As her DIL, i feel quite stressed out because I am the one who have to work hard to help my husband financially, and plus my MIL demands money from her sons every month because she says a mother have the right to her sons' money. I don't know what to do, and my husband is the type of person that can't say no to his mom.
Haifa
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Sister Haifa, As-salamu alaykum,
Islam has a system of inheritance given to us in the Quran.
When a Muslim dies there are four duties which need to be performed. They are:
1. Pay funeral and burial expenses.
2. Pay debts.
3. Execute the testamentary will of the deceased (which can only be a maximum of one third of the property).
4. Distribute the remainder of estate and property to the relatives of the deceased according to Shariah Law.
In the Islamic inheritance system, all primary relatives are accorded a pre-determined share according to a fixed set of circumstances. As far as the wife, the Quran says:
"And for them one-fourth of what you leave behind if you did not have a child, but if you have a child then for them one-eighth of what you leave behind; …" [Quran 4:12]
This statement gives us the ruling on the share of the wife (widow). The share of the wife is one-quarter in the absence of a child or agnatic grandchild and one-eighth in the presence of a child or agnatic grandchild. Two or more wives share equally in this prescribed share.
This means that your mother-in-law should have inherited one eighth of her husband's property. The rest should have been distributed among the primary heirs, namely the sons, daughters and parents, according to Islamic rules.
Under Islamic law some of the other heirs, namely the paternal grandfather, agnatic granddaughter, full sister, and consanguine sister, can also inherit as residuaries under certain circumstances.
Obviously these rules were not followed in the case of your mother-in-law. There is probably nothing you can do about that, except to bring it to your husband's attention.
Grown children have an obligation to care for their parents in their old age. However, this does not mean supporting extravagant spending habits. If you are describing the situation accurately, then it sounds like your mother in law is taking advantage of her sons, and maybe using guilt or emotional blackmail to support her spending habits.
Your husband and his six brothers should get together and asses their mother's financial situation: Does she have savings? Does she have an income? What are her reasonable monthly expenses?
After making this assessment they can determine a reasonable monthly stipend for their mother, and they can each contribute a share to that every month. Of course, in the case of emergencies such as medical problems, they will have to chip in to cover the additional burden.
Wael
IslamicAnswers.com Editor