His mother gifted him her portion of an apartment inherited from his father

19-4-2010 | IslamWeb

Question:

Alslamu- Aulikume
I need Fatwa on the following situation;
5-brothers and 2 sisters plus my mother when she was alive
My father died 5 years ago (2005) (Alrehmeh 3liha). We did not divided the inheritance until everybody gathered in the house coming from overseas in 2007. Everybody was happy about how we divided the cash. The building in Irbid, Jordan has 4 apartments (houses). Two of my brothers took the apartments upstairs, one took the basement and my mother and I took the middle floor. So the four brothers and my mother who stayed in the building paid up the one brother and the two sisters in cash to compensate them for the price of the building and they were happy with what they received.
In 2007 when everybody were gathered in my house during the inheritance discussion. My mother told everybody in a loud voice” AMJAD (me) IS THE ONLY ONE IS SPENDING MONEY ON ME AND I FORGIVE (mesammeh, semmah) HIM FOR EVERYTHING HE OWES ME” she meant her portion of the apartment that her and I received from the building. Everybody was a witness (shahead) to that and nobody objected, and the apartment then was written in my name
My mother died March 11, 2010 (Alrehmeh 3liha); Now my brothers are saying that it was not fare of our mother to give me her portion of the Apartment and they are asking me to pay up the difference.
My question to you and to relief my conscious;
Am I obligated to pay my brothers her portion of the apartment as part of her inheritance, even though everybody was a witness (shahead) when she gave it to me.
Note; I continued to send money to my mother for the last three years (I was also sending money before and after my father died) and all the money went to her account, in which that is part of our inheritance now and it will be divided among the brothers and the sisters according to the Sheree3h.
Please help
Thank you and God Bless

Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

 

Since the matter is as you mentioned in the question that your mother had gifted her share in the apartment to you and your siblings witnessed that, then the apartment is completely yours if you took possession of it before the death of your mother and in this case you are not obligated to pay a compensation [the difference] to your siblings.

As for your mother gifting you the apartment and not gifting your siblings, then this is permissible if she did so for a sound reason, and the sound reason here, is that you were the one who was spending on her contrarily to her other children, so it is permissible for her to gift you and not gift them. In any case, since the mother died before she took her gift back, then the gift is valid.

Ar-Ruhaybaani  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him from the Hanabali School of jurisprudence, said: “If a donor dies before making any amendments to his/her gift and the gift was not in his/her death sickness, then the gift is confirmed for the one for whom it was gifted, and the rest of the heirs cannot take it back.

However, if you wish to please your siblings by gifting them some money as a way of keeping the spirit of love between you, then this is permissible for you and it is a good act for which you will be praised, but you are not obligated to do so.

Allaah Knows best.

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