Women's inheritance

ميراث النساء

Al-Sha'rawi notes that the verse 'O you who believe, it is not lawful for you to inherit women by force' ends the pre-Islamic practice of denying women inheritance and of taking them as inheritance against their will, and that in the past inheritance went only to those who fought and defended. He reads the verse as addressing free women, since the word 'women' points to them, and says that slave women fall under another ruling ¹²³⁴.

Summary

Al-Sha'rawi says the verse "it is not lawful for you to inherit women against their will" ends the pre-Islamic practice of denying women inheritance and of inheriting them by force. ¹

The pre-Islamic custom

He says the Arabs denied women inheritance and denied it to anyone who had not taken part in defending the tribe, and that Islam gave this weak group its right in a fixed share. ³⁴

Free women and slave women

He holds that "women" in the verse refers to free women, because slave women were treated as owned, and that slave women fall under a different ruling. ¹²

Not checked here

No academic reading of pre-Islamic inheritance customs is set out in these pages; one is needed from a named source (needs_source).

Opinions on the question

The question: What did the verse forbidding the forced inheriting of women abolish, and does it cover slave women?

First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame)Main reference

The verse abolished the pre-Islamic custom of denying women inheritance and inheriting them against their will, and gave women a fixed share

Sha'rawi holds that Islam fixed for women a share distinct from men's, and that the verse abolishes the old custom {cite:tafsir-sharawi-khawatir-scan-vol-2 p. 2047}{cite:tafsir-sharawi-khawatir-scan-vol-2 p. 2077}.

Held by: Muhammad Mutawalli al-Sha'rawi

More opinions (1)

Academic viewSecondary opinion

A historical reading of pre-Islamic inheritance customs has not yet been added

No academic reading is set out in these pages; it needs a named source (needs_source).

Sources

Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p. 2077

Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p. 2078

Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p. 2046

Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p. 2047

Kalala (collateral heirs)

For al-Sha'rawi, kalala are the collateral heirs of a deceased person who has neither ascendant nor descendant, and the rule concerns siblings. He separates uterine siblings, who take a sixth alone and share a third when more than one, from full or paternal siblings, for whom two sisters take two-thirds, and he holds that the separation answers the claim that the verses contradict each other.