How to be just among children in gifts

Machine translationRead the Arabic original

Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, this questioner says: What is the way to be just among children in gifts, the male and the female? Does he give to them equally?

Answer:
As for spending, one spends on each person according to his need; the spending on the elder is not like the spending on the younger. This spending is according to need. As for the gift and the present, which is not spending, justice is obligatory in it. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

Fear Allah

اتقوا الله

Be just among your children

اعدلوا بين أولادكم

When a man came to him wanting him to witness a gift he had given to one of his children, and his mother said, "Until you witness the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)," so he came to the Messenger, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

Did you give to all your children like this?

أَكُلَّ وَلَدِكَ أَعْطَيْتَهُ مثل هَذَا

Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 27:226

He said: “No.” He said: “Then let someone other than me bear witness to that.”

قَالَ لاَ قَالَ فَأَشْهِدْ عَلَى هَذَا غَيْرِي

Sunan Ibn Majah 2375Sahih (Darussalam)

I do not witness injustice. Fear Allah and be just among your children. And he said, "Do you want

Do you not want to show equal kindness to all of them?" "Indeed I do," he replied. He said, "Then do not do it."

أن يكونوا في البر لك سواء؟ قال نعم، قال فلا إذا

Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 93

, so do not give to one and deprive the others. Yes.

Source شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، فصل إذا كان كل عمل فأصله المحبة والإرادة والمقصود به التنعم بالمراد المحبوب — islamhouse.com (1:13:26)

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

Flag this fatwa