Question:
A man asks about inheritance. ‘My father-in-law divorced his wife claiming a daughter (that is my wife) born to her was not his child. The father-in-law has now been dead for 20 years. Does the daughter have inheritance rights from the father-in-law? Also, since my wife has also passed away, do I have inheritance rights from her property?
Answer:
This question involves Islamic family law. If a husband claims a child born to his wife is not his, Islam provides a legal process called Li‘an. He cannot simply say casually that the child is not his. He must bear the consequences and follow the formal procedure for Islam to accept such a claim.
During the time of the Prophetﷺ, when a man accused his wife of misconduct, revelation established the process. Both spouses must come forward. The husband must swear four times by Allahﷻ that he is truthful in his accusation and that the child is not his.
Normally, adultery requires four witnesses. But since a husband cannot usually produce witnesses, he must testify personally. He must swear four times that he saw her committing misconduct and is certain about it.
He must have personally witnessed it, not heard rumors. On the fifth oath, he must say, “If I am lying, may Allahﷻ’s curse be upon me.” Only through this declaration can he legally deny the child.
Without this formal process, he cannot deny the child. Islam established this to prevent people from making false accusations casually.
If the husband accuses the wife, she has the right to defend herself. She must swear four times that he is lying and that she did not commit wrongdoing. On the fifth oath, she must say, “If I am lying, may Allahﷻ’s curse be upon me.”
Once both make these declarations, the marriage is immediately dissolved. The child in question is no longer attributed to the husband.
If the husband properly performed Li‘an, the child would not inherit from him and would be attributed to the mother. The wife would also not receive spousal inheritance. The separation becomes permanent, and they can never remarry each other.
However, if he simply divorced her without performing Li‘an and casually claimed the child was not his, the child is still legally considered his child. Therefore, the child would inherit from him after his death.
These rulings are explained in several hadiths in Sahih Bukhari, including Hadith numbers 5308, 5309, 5311, and 5315. In one case, the Prophetﷺ separated spouses after Li‘an and attributed the child to the mother.
Therefore, if a husband only suspected or even witnessed wrongdoing but did not complete the Li‘an declaration, the child remains legally his and inherits from him.
He cannot deny the child without the required declaration. Only by swearing four oaths and invoking Allahﷻ’s curse upon himself if lying can he legally deny paternity. If he did so, the child would inherit only from the mother, not from him.
Another example is the story of Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas (RA). It is a good event. This is the 2053rd hadith in the compilation, and it appears in many other places as well. Sa’d Abu Waqqas was one of the ten companions of the Prophetﷺ. He had a brother named Utbah.
Sa’d Abu Waqqas and Utbah lived during the time of Jahiliyyah (the period of ignorance before Islam). During that time, Utbah died. Before his death, he told his brother Sa’d Abu Waqqas about a slave woman and a child who was born to her. In Jahiliyyah, it was common for a man to have relations with a slave woman, and any child born to her would be considered his child.
Later, after the conquest of Makkah, Sa’d went to that place and asked whether the slave woman had given birth to a child. He claimed that the child was his brother’s child because the child was conceived when the slave woman belonged to his brother.
The issue was then brought for judgment. The Prophetﷺ said that the child belongs to the one on whose bed the child is born, meaning that the child belongs to the husband of the woman. If a man is married and his wife gives birth to a child, then the child is attributed to him unless he denies it.
This means that the child belongs to the lawful husband of the woman. The slave woman belonged to another man named Zam‘ah. Since the child was born while she was under Zam‘ah’s ownership. The Prophetﷺ ruled that the child belonged to Zam‘ah, not to Utbah, even if Utbah was the biological father.
The Prophetﷺ established the legal principle: “The child belongs to the owner of the marital bed, and the adulterer receives nothing but punishment.” Therefore, a child born to a woman legally belongs to her husband unless Li‘an is performed.
In that case, the Prophetﷺ also advised Sawdah (the Prophetﷺ’s wife and daughter of Zam‘ah) to observe hijab from the relevant child because he physically resembled Utbah. Legally, he belonged to Zam‘ah, but caution was advised.
This incident is recorded in multiple places in Sahih Bukhari, including Hadith numbers 2053, 2218, 2421, 2745, 4303, 6740, 6765, 6817, and 7182.
The general law is that no man can simply deny someone as not being his child. If he wants to deny, he must deny through the proper procedure.
Only if he performs Li‘an (mutual oath) properly and declares, invoking Allahﷻ’s curse, that the child is not his, can we say that the child is not his. Otherwise, regardless of how the child was born, if he had accepted the child as his wife’s child, then no one else can object. This is the general rule.
This ruling also affects inheritance laws. According to Islamic law, if a child is attributed to a husband, the wife has a share in inheritance from her husband’s family. If the husband dies, the wife receives her legal share. However, if the husband denies the child, the inheritance rules may change.
Now coming to the inheritance part, you asked about—what did your father-in-law do?
He divorced his wife. He denied his child, and you married that child (the daughter). Now, does she have inheritance rights? Did he separate through Li‘an or just by divorce? If he separated through Li‘an, then she cannot claim inheritance because he had already declared the denial. If he merely suspected, became upset, and divorced thinking the child was not his, then even after divorce he did not legally deny the child according to the required procedure.
Since he did not deny through the proper method, the child still has rights in the father’s property as his child. Even if divorce occurred, you cannot divorce or separate from the child. To deny the child, he must have formally declared that “you are not my child.” If that was not done, even if your father-in-law died 20 years ago, your wife can still claim her share saying it was her father’s property. If they deny it, their stance will not stand in court.
They will ask how he denied it and whether it was registered. Even under worldly law, they will ask how he declared the child was not his. Therefore, your wife has a share in your father-in-law’s property. If you provide details like how many children he had and who were alive at the time of his death, then her exact share can be calculated.
Since he divorced his wife but did not deny the child properly, your wife has inheritance rights in his property. Now you say your wife has died. If she died, then from whatever share she was entitled to, the husband will receive a portion. If your wife had children, you would receive one-fourth. If she had no children, you would receive half. Send a detailed listing of who survived your father-in-law and who survived your wife; then your share can be determined. The right exists according to Islamic law.