Obligatory bequest

Obligatory bequest rule is applicable for the orphan grandchild in Islamic law of succession. In order to give property to the child of the pre-deceased son of the praepositus In Pakistan and Bangladesh the rule of representation and in the middle-east country the rule of obligatory bequest is applied.

Traditionally in sharia law the orphan grandchild doesnot allowed to take propertyof his or her predeceased father or mother.So the system of Obligatory bequest is introduced by many muslim countries.

To solve the problem of exclusion of the orphan grandchildren from inheritance a special provision prescribing of bequest in their favour equal to what the parent would have inherited had he survived provided that this does not exceed to the total one third of the praepositus property is called as Obligatory Bequest.

It will be put into effect by operation of law and not through the voluntary act off the testator.

In Quranin Sura Baqara,verse 180 it is says about bequest in favour of parents and relatives.

Almighty Allah says, It is prescribed for you, when death approaches any of you, if he leaves wealth, that he make a bequest parents and next of kin, according to manners. This is a duty upon the pious.

Some jurist says that this above verse should not be applied for the legal heirs. But Imam Shafi and some other Islamic jurist opins that the above verse of quran is not applicable for those heirs who got the property by inheritance.

Ibn Hazm also says that the quranic verse implied a definite legal obligation to make bequest in favour of close relatives who were not legal heirs and that if the deaceased had failed in his duty to make this obligatory bequest the court should make it for him.

The Egyptian reformers introduced this doctrine at first for the benefit og orphan grandchild.

Some scholars say that the obligation of making bequest means that whoever makes it will be rewarded for that and whoever does not make it will be sinful.

If a person dies before making a bequest for his desecendant’s children, they are to be given out of his property an amount equal to that which he was to bequeath during his lifetime. This is because it is a debt on his part and if he dies before writing his bequest in this regard, this debt is not to be cancelled because of his death.