Back to search

What is the ruling of the Sharia on the action of a grandmother who registered the ownership of land to her male children, to the exclusion of her female children, twenty years before her death, and is it permissible for the children to legally and Islamically own it, and what must be done to distribute it among the legal heirs?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If a mother grants a plot of land to her children as a gift that fulfills all conditions during her lifetime, the majority of jurists believe that it is permissible, though with the dislike of preferring some children over others, especially males over females. Some scholars, however, have deemed it impermissible based on the well-known hadith of Nu'man, which is also the ruling issued by Islamweb. If, on the other hand, it is a will made to take effect after death, it is not valid due to the hadith "There is no will for an heir," unless the heirs consent. What this woman did by preferring some children is not permissible شرعًا (Islamically). The children who were privileged must return what they were given exclusively, and it must be divided among all heirs as Allah has commanded, because the exclusive appropriation of inheritance by males to the exclusion of females is a practice of the pre-Islamic era (Jahiliyyah) that Islam abolished.

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

Read the full answer on Ftawy