Hi, I'm new in this forum and writing this for the first time. We are 5 brothers and 3 sisters. My father transferred some of our land by more than 40 years ago under my two elder brother's name and none of us (means the rest of us) were aware of. My father died 14 years ago. Few months back my younger brother was planning to sell some of the land. In our home everyone agreed with him but when it comes to elders, they denied and informed us that the land is under their name and they don't want to give us a share (virasat). None of us are entitled to ask for it. They are not giving it now. We did not say anything so far and leave it to ALLAH to justify because we don't want cases to be running in courts. We three brothers living abroad and doing jobs and don't want to loose our jobs.
Now my question is: Did we lose that land? Are we not eligible at all in virasat in that land?
In my humble opinion this is not a virasat
I think according to law, there is a fixed percentage of property that parents can gift to their children (apart from their legal share), the rest has to go to the other heirs. Please consult a good lawyer in this regard, he/she will guide you better.
These cases are very complex and time consuming. As u r abroad it is impossible for u to get relief from court…at least in this life span
In simple words, you have no right of claim of share because the land was transferred in the names of your two elder brothers while your father was alive who actually made the transfer himself. Virasat claim applies to only those movable and immovable properties which were in the name of the deceased even after his death. You can go to the lawyers and to courts, but the point is that litigation of several years will conclude in what I said in my first sentence. For lawyers, everything in the world is questionable and can be taken to a court, and will never tell you that you don’t have the right of a claim. Even when a lower court decides against you, the lawyer would lure you to go for the un-ending course of appeals. Please make a polite and humble request to your elder brothers and even then if they are not prepared to give you any benefit then accept their ownership of land happily. This way you will at least save your brotherly relationship and will also save your future generations from enmities. All other courses of action will lead to nothing but hostilities, hatred, and cost dearly to both the parties in term of lives and property. If I were you I would accept the first course of action and leave everything to Allah, at least I will be able to save my relationship this way. Choice is yours. Good luck!
Thank you very much for your advise Khan sahib, Junaid and Sahn. I will leave it to Allah, even I told them before that I am not eager to that piece of land and will also inform my mother / rest of brothers and sisters that we have no right of claim. I am not worried for my self because I’m earning by my self but I was worried only for our sisters. Usually it happens with sisiter in this world.
Under the law, a man can give his property to whoever he wants during his lifetime.
Under Islamic ethical principles, he should not discriminate between children by giving one of them more than the other. During his lifetime, even daughters are supposed to be given equal share as sons (full share for daughters in gifts given during lifetime). If he discriminates between his children then he may be answerable on the Day of Judgment - unless his children who were treated unfairly forgive him.
Your brothers who got the gift are not answerable to you unless they manipulated the father. In fact your father will be answerable for unfair treatment - unless you forgive him.
When a man dies, whatever belonged to him will be inherited by his children according to their shares (One share for sons, and half share for daughters).
By Will (Wasiat), he can decide that after his death someone other than his heirs (for example a servant or friend or a school) will get his property - but Will applies to only 1/3 of his estate.
PK1, thanks for your input. Your explanation of the religion-based ethical principles is correct, however referring to these principles in this particular situation is not going to be of any use. What the deceased should have or should not have done is something that cannot be altered or undone anymore. Of course, these principles are very useful for all the living people enabling them to make equitable distribution of assets ensuring peace and harmony for the coming generations. I deliberately avoided to touch this aspect in my earlier post to avoid creating any bad feelings in the mind of Mr. Faheem regarding his father’s acts that the deceased did for whatever reason, but those acts have left causes of possible conflicts amongst the heirs.
I understood this but let me explain little bit (my english may not be this much good but I will try). As per my knowledge and information, my father give this land to them not because they were better or something else or like & dislike. It was because of some kind of disputes among his (my uncles) family. That time none of use (rest of my brothers and sisters) were born. This happened before our birth. It was a (Kacha) transfer which I believe becomes (Pakka) intiqal after 20years or so. There was a time when the father asked them both elders to reverse the intiqal or he want to write the others names also but they refuse it. This thing I remembered but I couldn't understand these thing at that time and I remember my brothers were always telling my mother, that she shouldn’t be worried because it is in their control,, bla bla...even after our father death our brothers were telling that we will get our share it is for all of us. But now we realize when the truth comes out and they totally refused to give us any share. This dispute was there among them, (my father & brothers) for long period of time until his death. Even they were not talking to each other till my father die. I don't blame my father because it didn’t happen intentionally because we were not born at that time and later he was unable to reverse it because it becomes permanent under their names. Very simple that our elders are responsible because they knew everything and they were mature. I don't care of the land to get or not but the justification between the family people. If I was in their shoes, definitely I will be giving the share to all of my family members (brothers & sisters) whatever our religion says because we born from the same parents and this transaction was not happens because of likes & dislikes, which I am sure about it.
Anyway thank s to all of you. Allah blesses you all for at least listening to me, spending your time and giving me some useful and good advises.
Fahim, thanks for the explanation, and I will reiterate that all of you should try to live with the status quo without attempting to change it. Whatever one does in life does for the sake of getting some gains, and since you are not going to get anything out of this, so try to live with it. Allah will give you much more than what your two elders brothers have, and Allah will surely take care of the needs of your sisters as well. Please don’t let this thing spoil your life.
Thanks Pk1 for such nice explanation !
Well Grip Authority when it comes to Legal Matters and the way you put it with SHARIAH Laws amazing !