Back to search

How should land inherited from a father be divided when its value decreases the closer it gets to the wadi stream, which causes damage to it? And would dividing it by monetary value, so that heirs are equal in value rather than area, while observing Allah’s saying: "For the male, what is equal to the share of two females," be considered contrary to Islamic law?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Issues on which heirs disagree should be referred to the Sharia court or discussed with scholars. It is permissible to divide land based on value rather than area if the parts are unequal in value. This type of division is called "equalization division" (qismat al-ta'dil). In this division, the value of each part is considered to ensure fairness, even if it leads to differences in the area of the parts allocated to each heir. For example, one-third might be made equivalent to two-thirds if their values are equal. If the parts are unequal and the shares cannot be adjusted except by valuation, then it is treated as a single entity with varying parts. In some cases, it may be necessary to use additional funds from outside the inheritance to adjust the shares.

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

Read the full answer on Ftawy