FINANCIAL RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM - Part 2

Before beginning a discussion on how to secure women's financial rights, it is important to understand a few core principles of Shariah about Ma'amlat (financial transactions), and in particular around inheritance.

- Islam gave women the right to own property and financial assets independently, 1500 years ago. It is shocking that in some Muslim majority countries and cultures today, women do not have the same 

- In Islam the transparency of ownership is absolutely paramount. There is no concept of family ownership, or spousal ownership, the core principle being that ownership of each item and each asset is individual. To give an example, a house can be owned by both spouses jointly, but it should be absolutely clear what proportion of the house's value belongs to husband, and what to wife, e.g. 50/50. Similarly, if there is a family business, it should be specified right at the beginning what proportion of the business is owned by which individual family member. The reason for this emphasis on individual ownership will become clear later.

- In life and health, a person has absolute authority over their assets as to who they give them to, or how much, though it is not favourably looked upon if a person deliberately tries to give away his property in order to deprive his rightful inheritors under Shariah of their fair share in inheritance.

- Once a person becomes terminally ill or passes away, they lose their absolute authority over their assets. For example, if a terminally ill person wants to write a will, or a deceased person has written a will, it can only be applied to one third of their assets remaining after paying off any debts. The rest of the two-thirds will be distributed between close family members as specified in Qura'n and Sunnah. No Muslim is allowed to write a will depriving his/her close family members of their inheritance. Such a will would be invalid.

- Combining the two principles above, about transparency of ownership and laws of inheritance, it may have become clearer that unless the ownership of each item and asset in the household or business is known, how can a person's assets be distributed among their inheritors according to their shares pre-determined by Shariah?

Continued...

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