The superiority of the Qur'an's commandment over the modern one with
respect to the female inheritance?
The Qur’an decrees that the male shall receive the portion of two females
(in inheritance).
The Qur’anic injunction of inheritance is perfectly just and a perfect
mercy for women. It is just because, in the majority of cases, and according
to the Islamic Law, the husband provides both for the wife’s and the
children’s livelihood, whereas the wife is not under any legal obligation to
provide either for him or for herself. Thus she is compensated for the
half-share less that she is allocated from any inheritance than the man. It
is a perfect mercy because a girl is delicate, vulnerable and so is held in
great affection by her father who, thanks to the Qur’anic injunction, does
not see her as a child who will cause him loss by carrying away to others
half of his wealth. In addition, her brothers feel compassion for her and
protect her without feeling envy of her, as they do not consider her as a
rival in the division of the family possessions. Thus, the affection and
compassion which the girl enjoys through her family compensate for her
apparent loss in the inheritance.
It is for this reason that it is severe injustice, far from being
kindness, to institute more for the girl than her due out of unrealistic
feelings of compassion—unrealistic because no one can be more compassionate
than God. Rather, if the Qur’anic bounds are exceeded, women may become, for
the reasons we have given, vulnerable to exploitation and tyranny in the
family, especially in view of the barbaric selfishness of modern times—which
can be as bad as the tyranny of the jahiliyya (the pre-Islamic age of
ignorance) when infant girls were buried alive. As for the Qur'anic
injunctions, all of them, like those pertaining to inheritance, prove the
truth expressed in the verse, We have not sent you (o Muhammad), save as a
mercy unto all beings.
Modern civilization, which, in essence, is a system of savagery because
it lacks real human values, wrongs mothers more than girls by depriving them
of their rights. Being the purest and finest reflection of Divine
compassion, the affection of mothers is the most revered reality in the
creation. A mother is so compassionate, self-sacrificing and intimate a
friend that she sacrifices all she has including her life for her children.
A timid hen, for instance, whose motherliness represents the lowest degree,
has been observed to attack a dog in order to protect her chicks.
It is, for this reason, plain to those who are really human, if not to
those who appear human but are bestial in essence, what a great injustice
and shameful disrespect, what a heart-rending ingratitude and a harmful
poison for social life it is, to deprive such a respected, dear being of her
rightful share in the wealth of her son. As for the Qur’anic injunction,
which gives the mother one sixth of her son’s inheritance, as in the verse,
And to his mother a sixth, it is in perfect accordance with justice and
universal truths. |