Inheritance law is yet another arena of gender inequality in Islamic law: “Allah instructs you concerning your children: for the male, what is equal to the share of two females….” (Qur’an 4:11)
And now it comes to Britain, as the Law Society helps solicitors gain a command of “Sharia law succession rules.” This is, as far as I know, the first sign of Sharia becoming an element of British law, something that British lawyers have to master. Wills and inheritance procedures are private matters, of course. But this is a harbinger of things to come in that hopelessly cowed and compromised dying state.
“Law Society publishes practice note on Sharia wills and inheritance rules,” from the Law Society, March 13 (thanks to Simmone):
The Law Society has published a practice note for solicitors to assist them in the use of Sharia law succession rules, in particular in will drafting, trust issues and disputes over estates.
This is the first time guidance has been published for solicitors to assist them with the intricacies of Sharia succession rules, which is the code of law derived from the Quran and from the teachings and example of Mohammed.
Clients in England and Wales can legally choose to bequeath their assets according to Sharia rules, providing the will is signed in accordance with the requirements set out in the Wills Act 1837.
Sharia rules are not identical in every Muslim country; there are differences between Sunni and Shia rules, and different interpretations of Sunni law. The Law Society’s practice note focuses on the Sunni rules, and its procedure for directing inheritances.
For solicitors tasked with drafting a Sharia-compliant will, there are three key steps that must be taken and which are significantly different to traditional probate processes. Firstly, the cost of the burial and any debts must be paid. Secondly, a third of the estate may be given to charities or individuals who are not obligatory heirs. Finally, the remainder is given to a defined set of “primary” and then “residual” heirs.
The main difficulty for solicitors preparing a Sharia-compliant will is the inability to state in advance who the Sharia heirs will be, as the identity of the heirs and their respective entitlements can only be determined at the date of the testator’s death.
Nicholas Fluck, president of the Law Society, said:
‘This practice note provides guidance to solicitors dealing with clients where Sharia succession rules may be relevant. This is the first time such advice has been published and we hope it will assist solicitors with Sharia probate matters.
‘There is a wide variety of spiritual, religious and cultural beliefs within our population, and the Law Society wants to support its members so they can help clients from all backgrounds.
‘We hope this guidance will help solicitors assist their clients and go some way to forming an idea of good practice when it comes to applying Sharia succession rules within the legal profession.’
The Law Society will also host a free introductory course in June to help small firms develop services for Muslim clients.
Ends
Sharia succession heirs
According to Sharia law, there are 12 primary heirs.
The male heirs are:
- father
- grandfather (father’s father and mother’s father)
- uterine brother (half brother on mother’s side), and
- husband.
The female heirs are:
- wife
- daughter
- granddaughter
- full sister
- consanguine sister (half sister on father’s side)
- uterine sister (half sister on mother’s side)
- mother, and
- grandmother (father’s mother and mother’s mother).
Residuary heirs
At first glance, the list of primary heirs may seem incomplete, particularly as it does not include sons or full brothers. That is because sons and full brothers are residuary beneficiaries, who receive their entitlement after the primary heirs. There are different types of residuary beneficiaries, but the most common are those related by birth to the deceased. As a general rule, a male heir will inherit twice the amount that a female heir will receive. Illegitimate children are not heirs and no heir can inherit via a deceased parent.
Notes to editors
A practice note represents the Law Society’s view of good practice in a particular area. Practice notes are not intended to be the only standard of good practice that solicitors can follow. Solicitors are not required to follow them, but by doing so the intent is to make it easier for legal practitioners to account for their actions to oversight bodies.
View the practice note on Sharia law succession
About the Law Society of England and Wales
The Law Society is the independent professional body, established for solicitors in 1825, that works globally to support and represent its members, promoting the highest professional standards and the rule of law.
Press contact
Emma Schiller
Law Society Press Office
+44 (0)20 316 5624
emma.schiller@lawsociety.org.uk
richard Sherman says
Soon all British solicitors and barristers will be required to study the proper methods for stonings and amputations….Two legal procedures under Sharia that every Muslim loves to watch being applied vigorously!
eib says
There’s a solution to this.
Do not allow yourself to be “tasked” to draft Sharia compliant documents in the first place.
Sharia is not English law.
Say it out loud and make sure that your would-be Muslim client understands the truth– that he’s in the West.
Brian C. Hoff says
I see you arenot than lawyer at all. If muslim want to follow they religion law on who get what when one die. Lawyer get they money by carrying out they client wish on wills and trusts. In New York unless they change the law you didnot needed than lawyer to draw up than will. Two powerful wealthly familty where fighting over than 200 million dollar estate for 4 year the father and mother have no will. One day than black boy 12 year old walk into the court room the brailance stop the boy the boy show the person than peice of paper that state the father and mother son want him to have his baseball bat. The other person show the judge the paper than the judge tell that person get than kid than lawyer. The kid got the baseball bat, both famility apple the ruleing the top court in new york told both family it they cannot from to than agreement soon the black boy will get the entire 200 million dollar estate as they son was the last one to die in the car acient.
eib says
Islam is profane.
Mohammed is a false prophet.
Sharia is corrupt.
Your allah is a desert demon, the great Satan.
eib says
Yes, yes, yes.
Islam is profane.
gravenimage says
“Brian C. Hoff” wrote:
I see you arenot (sic) than (sic) lawyer at all. If muslim (sic) want to follow they (sic) religion (sic) law on who get (sic) what when one die (sic). Lawyer get (sic) they (sic) money by carrying out they (sic) client (sic) wish on wills and trusts…
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Well, I figured that either “DefenderofIslam” here or Rezali Mehil or both would be weighing in on this.
As noted, there is no conflict where the will is uncontested, since it is merely the desires of the deceased—even if those desires follow repulsive Shari’ah inheritance rules.
The problem comes with contested wills, where the British state will be tasked with enforcing Shari’ah law if the will was drafted as a Shari’ah document.
And that means enforcing norms that *conflict with civilized British law*.
And “DefenderofIslam” is even more illiterate and incoherent than usual here—no doubt because he is so excited at the prospect of the West itself enforcing Shari’ah law.
Brian C. Hoff says
Than French court use the Islamist law on estate to settle than on going legal fighting which went on for many year. So the court apply Islamist legal prinple on non-muslim estate and it worked verybody was happy no more court battle before new courts and judges. So you of the opion that court have no right to apply other legal idear which can settle legal fights.
gravenimage says
“Brian C. Hoff” wrote:
Than (sic) French court use (sic) the Islamist (sic) law on estate (sic) to settle than (sic) on going legal fighting which went on for many year (sic)…
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Links, please. I can find no reference to France imposing Shari’ah law on non-Muslims.
More:
So you (sic) of the opion that court (sic) have no right to apply other legal idear (sic) which can settle legal fights.
……………………
France has a civilized legal system—so does Britain.
The idea that what Westerners are really hungering for is a system that regards women as having half the worth of men, amputates the limbs of petty thieves, and stones rape victims to death is simply grotesque, and would only believed by Mohammedans.
Imposing a system that conflicts with civilized law is not legal.
I’d love to hear more about these mythical French citizens who were just thrilled with their case being adjudicated by dark ages barbarism.
If they tried to appeal, would they be flogged?
Stand Fast in the Liberty says
Uh oh….Defender of Islam is back, the notorious English language assassin who does not know the meaning of the word THAN. Hey friend, I will never fail to recognize your mutilation of English.
Troll alert!
Webster says
Can you actually read or write English?
sidney penny says
‘We hope this guidance will help solicitors assist their clients and go some way to forming an idea of good practice ”
“A practice note represents the Law Society’s view of good practice in a particular area. ”
Isn’t it good practice to follow UK law anymore?
What does U in UK stand for ? Not United anymore?
When will they change their name to the Law Society of Pakistan?
Does this not clash with laws on discrimination,gender equality?
When will a practice note come out for doctors on FGM?
Daphdong says
Maybe they should just make it UKI (United Kingdom of Islam), because that is the way it seems to be going.
gravenimage says
UK Law Society publishes guide for lawyers on Sharia wills and inheritance rules
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Have they now? And have they noticed the part where by Islamic law females only receive half the inheritance of males?
Surely this violates equitable British law. Does the UK Law Society care? If they don’t, then they have no business representing British law.
More:
This is, as far as I know, the first sign of Sharia becoming an element of British law, something that British lawyers had to master.
………………………………….
This itself is *terrifying*.
And as unjust as Islamic inheritance laws are, they are only the tip of the ugly iceberg of Shari’ah law, which goes on to more discrimination against women, against children, against Infidels, against freedom of speech, against freedom of religion (except for Islam, of course), and against freedom of expression. Finally, of course, it culminates in the sanguinary barbarism of floggings, amputations, and stonings.
More:
Wills and inheritance procedures are private matters, of course.
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Yes—but. Certainly, an individual may dispose of their property anyway they see fit in the free West—including leaving twice the amount to sons as to daughters.
But it is one thing for an individual to do so, for their own reasons—it is quite another thing for the state—the *civilized Infidel* state—to engage in codified discrimination.
In the free West, if a person dies intestate and the heirs cannot come to an agreement, the estate is distributed equally between survivors, even if this means selling any property.
But under Shari’ah, there would be *no such* equality—instead, an unequal and discriminatory distribution would be mandated.
More:
But this is a harbinger of things to come in that hopelessly cowed and compromised dying state.
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Yes—it is appalling that a civilized Western nation would *even consider* recognizing *and enforcing* Shari’;ah law.
And it is not just speculation to see where this can lead—Aceh in Indonesia and the Muslim-majority northern states of Nigeria have been allowed by the central government to impose Shari’ah, and both now have *stoning* on the books. Women in Nigeria, including rape victims, have actually been sentenced to death by stoning.
Both regions also subject *non-Muslims* to Shari’ah law. How long before this happens formally in heavily Muslim areas like the West Midlands or the East End of London?
More:
Secondly, a third of the estate may be given to charities or individuals who are not obligatory heirs…
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How are the British authorities going to handle *that one*, given how many “Islamic charities” fund violent Jihad?
More:
The male heirs are…
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One odd thing you might notice here is the focus on half-siblings, but this is not odd at all in Islam, where the vile practice of polygamy is so common. Does it matter that this is illegal in Britain? I wouldn’t count on it…
More:
The Law Society is the independent professional body, established for solicitors in 1825, that works globally to support and represent its members, promoting the highest professional standards and the rule of law.
………………………………….
And if that “rule of law” is discriminatory Shari’ah?
As Buraq would say, *Clowns*!
Salah says
UK Law Society should have published this guide instead:
Sharia Law vs. English Law (pdf)
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2011/01/sharia-law-vs-english-law-pdf.html
Defcon 4 says
I wonder what would happen if any of the heirs renounced islam. Oh, of course, that’s impossible now isn’t it?
citycat says
Another of Islam’s tricks.
Their law has to be different to the law of the country being invaded so that they can challenge and get involved and eventually take over.
The solution to Islam is suicide, not of the innocent brainwashed by peer pressure Muslims, but of the vampiric entity Allah/Islam/Koran/Muhammad.
I’m sure that secretly most Muslims, who would never dare say, would be favourable to the sudden explosion of the entity that holds Muslims’ souls in the food store.
Surely every human being wants freedom.
gravenimage says
citycat wrote:
Surely every human being wants freedom.
……………………
If only that were true, citycat.
Thank goodness, many people *do* want freedom, and will work hard for it.
But there are many—including all pious Muslims—who not only want to live an unfree life themselves, but who will do all they can to inflict it on others.
That is the whole point of Jihad and of stealth Jihad—to impose the unfree system of Shari’ah.
No Fear says
Thank Dawkins for lawyer Gavin Boby.
Gavin Boby is my hero, someone who actually puts up a fight against the political system pretending to be a religion…..Islam.
Gerald says
Do those idiots in the law society have any clue at all that in sharia law muslims can inherit from their non-muslim relatives whilst the reverse is not true.
DICK R says
Strange how the leftie liberals seem to slavishly follow all aspects of sharia law until it come to the effective punishment of criminals !
DICK R says
This development has the unmistakable stench of ‘ Europe ‘ about it !!!
Seth says
Don’t you just love ragheads.