Industry Article

Islam acknowledges the right of individuals to own wealth and rights of community members and family to get a portion of the wealth. The distribution of wealth is through the system of Charity, Zakat, Hibah and Inheritance (Fara’id/ Mirath). As large numbers of Muslims reside in non-Muslim countries, they have to accept the Civil Law as the paramount law of the country. As such, the distribution of inheritance has caused controversies and fervent debates over the years when the Civil Law takes precedence over Shariah law. Consequently, the problem statement of this paper is to identify the different issues and restrictions in wealth distribution faced by Muslims and reverts living in Muslim and non-Muslim countries in upholding the Islamic Inheritance Law and how those issues are resolved. The objectives of this paper include to provide a better understanding of Islamic Inheritance Law; its current situation and practice standards on Muslims living in Muslim and non-Muslim countries; to understand the difficulties faced by Muslims in applying Fara’id due to the restrictions imposed by Civil/ Common law and finally, to suggest the harmonisation of estate distribution under the Islamic Inheritance Law and Civil/ Common Law. The findings of this paper have suggested that wills are being widely used in cases on intestacy. The wills can be accepted in full or even challenged depending on the circumstances such as one of the beneficiaries was left out. Once the will is challenged the cases are subjected to adjudication in the civil courts of the country. Challenges could be in the form of validity of a will on the grounds of incapacity, fraud, broken promises and non-performance of a contract. Under civil rule, an illegitimate child or even a live-in partner has a right to make a claim. There is actually no iron clad protection for Muslim in non-Muslim countries in practising Islamic law of inheritance. The only avenue would be the beneficiaries among themselves consented to abide by the Islamic law of inheritance.