Keeping Employees on the Deceased’s Sponsorship and Their Rights

The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner says: My father passed away eight years ago, and then we discovered that he had three employees on his sponsorship (kafalah): one Muslim and two Hindus. He says the agency (wakalah) for the heirs is with my brother. Is it permissible to keep them?

The Shaykh:
What is he saying?

The questioner:
He says: My father passed away eight years ago, and then we discovered that he had three employees on his sponsorship: one Muslim and two Hindus. He says the agency for the heirs is with my brother. Is it permissible to keep them? Is that permissible?

The Shaykh:
I mean, did they remain for eight years after his death, or did they have a right against him? If he died without paying them what was due, we do not know. The question is vague. If he is now free of any debt, it ended with his death; there are no employees or others, and they go back to their families. But if they have wages due to them, that is a debt, which takes precedence over the bequest and the inheritance. Yes.