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Fatwa CenterFather wants to donate all his property to his second wife
Question
hello, my question is - my father (alive) has 1 wife and 6 kids , 1 divorced wife and 4 kids. the kids from divorced wife are not all muslim. can my father while he is in good health gift his property to his current wife ? also he has 2 living brother . if not how will his property be divided ?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Your non-Muslim brothers and sisters do not inherit from your father after his death because a non-Muslim does not inherit from a Muslim as per the Prophetic narration: "A non-Muslim does not inherit from a Muslim.”, as discussed in Fatwa 89594.
However, your father is permitted to gift –when he is not in his death sickness –whatever he possesses to his wife provided that he does not do so as a way of tricking and preventing the other heirs from the inheritance. If he did so as a way of trickery, then this is not permissible for him, and he will be dealt with quite opposite to his intention, so the gift will be ruled as being invalid and it will be divided amongst the heirs after his death.
On the other hand, if your father knows that if he dies, his non-Muslim children will inherit from him according to the law, then it becomes permissible for him to register his property on the name of one of his Muslim heirs so that he would disinherit those who are not allowed to inherit from him according to the Islamic Law. Then, whoever the property is registered on his name will divide it amongst the legal heirs after his [father’s] death.
As regards how the inheritance would be divided, then you have not mentioned to us who are the heirs. Moreover, one should not be preoccupied by dividing an inheritance of someone who is still alive, and our righteous predecessors disliked asking about things that have not yet taken place.
Allaah Knows best.
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