What is the ruling on keeping a portion of the inheritance without the knowledge of the other heirs?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: After my father passed away, I kept a sum of money that I found inside my father’s wallet. My mother and my younger sister were the only ones who knew about it. My mother and I did not inform my older brothers about this sum. I used part of the money for my mother, and I paid the rest as part of the mahr (bridal gift) I provided for my younger brother’s marriage. Please note that he invested the money in the bank for a period of time. What is the ruling on this?
Answer:
This action is not permissible, because the money your father left behind belongs to all the heirs, each according to his or her share prescribed by the Shari'ah. It does not belong exclusively to you and your sister, nor to the heirs in general. You must give every person who has a right their due from this money, or you must ask them for forgiveness. Either they forgive you, or you give every person who has a right their due from this money that you did not disclose to them. Yes.
He says: After my father passed away, I kept a sum of money that I found inside my father’s wallet. My mother and my younger sister were the only ones who knew about it. My mother and I did not inform my older brothers about this sum. I used part of the money for my mother, and I paid the rest as part of the mahr (bridal gift) I provided for my younger brother’s marriage. Please note that he invested the money in the bank for a period of time. What is the ruling on this?
Answer:
This action is not permissible, because the money your father left behind belongs to all the heirs, each according to his or her share prescribed by the Shari'ah. It does not belong exclusively to you and your sister, nor to the heirs in general. You must give every person who has a right their due from this money, or you must ask them for forgiveness. Either they forgive you, or you give every person who has a right their due from this money that you did not disclose to them. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم الاحتفاظ بمبلغ من الميراث دون علم باقي الورثة؟ #فتاوى الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.