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Are gold ornaments considered the property of the wife after her husband's death if they were not explicitly mentioned in his will?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The default rule is that items specific to women in a household are the wife's property, and items specific to men are the husband's property. This default rule can be overridden by custom, testimony, or a document. So, if a husband gifted gold to his wife and did not have anyone witness that it was a loan ( 'ariyya ), nor did he write that down, and custom does not dictate that it was a loan, then it is the exclusive property of the wife and does not enter into the inheritance. The gold remains her property unless evidence proves otherwise, or the wife herself acknowledges that it was a loan and not a gift of ownership.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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