Due For Inheritance (D. U. I)

Chapter 7

Matt was the first guest that was received in the mansion the next day. His visit was unexpected and the family hoped that he was not there to give them another bad news.

“You’ve been staring at us for some minutes now, opening and closing files”, Hajara started. “I’ll appreciate it if you can leave if you have nothing tangible to say”.

“I’m sorry about the impromptu visit, Matt apologized. I called the house few weeks ago to inform you that I’ll be here today to read the will and that’s what I’m here to do today”.

At the mention of will, everyone sat upright. Some wore expressions of uncontained happiness while others remained aloof. They thought they would suffer for a long time before the property would be shared due to the circumstances but how wrong they were. It’s not even up to three months since Matt announced that the judge had given him the go ahead to share the property.

Haleemah felt the most guilty of them all. She almost lost her faith due to money issues if not for Allah that called her back by testing her with her daughter. She had thought she would have to beg for scraps to take care of her children before the properties would be shared but alas, the day was here and sooner than was expected.

“As we’re all aware, the deceased is a Muslim and we’ll be sharing his property according to Islamic rites. The main contents of the will was that he requested that a free Arabic school should be organized in his mosque and a borehole should be dredged in front of it to give people access to good, drinkable water. And after this, we can go share the remainder of his estate according to Islamic injunctions”.

“Before we proceed, what about the investigation you promised will be carried out?” Ali interrupted.

“Actually, we decided not to pursue that again, since we have no specific lead. The detective eventually found out that his lead was wrong and he had been chasing the wrong thing after all. So, once again, we can go ahead with sharing the properties now”. Matt replied.

“Why start what you couldn’t end in the first place?” Hajara demanded.
“Leave him be Hajara, Aisha said. Let him do what he’s here to do and leave since we would never see each other again”.

“I apologize for all I’ve done wrong and I commend your patience”. Matt paused and since he received no reply, he continued. “Since the deceased was an orphan, which means that he has no parents as part of his inheritors, and all his debts has been settled, the properties would be shared amongst his wives and children”. Matt paused to take a sip from the bottled water he brought along with him.

“There are twelve shares in a deceased person properties; four for males and eight for females, which means, you, the wives, will get one-eighth of the properties and the rest of the properties will be shared among your sons and daughters collectively in the ratio of two to one and Allah knows best”. Matt concluded his explanation and proceeded to read out the things that comprises Abdulahad’s property.

After several rigorous hours, everyone seemed to be in a better mood and the meeting was about to be adjourned before Ali posed his question. “Since Aaqib is late as well, who would be entitled to his share of the property?”

Everyone got quiet and looked at each other as that was an unexpected turn of event but Matt smiled and this further aggravated their tension.

“Since he died along with your father, he has no share in the Inheritance even if his mother was alive. In Islam, a child that died while both or one of the parents was still alive will have no share in the Inheritance of the parents, even if he had a child before his demise and we can all agree that this situation is similar so that would be all for today. If you all agree with this, then, I can prepare all your documents accordingly”.