Their mother prevented them from taking their share of their father’s estate, and issues concerning the fairness of giving (to one’s children)
Question

                A man died and left behind a wife and three sons (two of them are under 21 meaning underage), and two daughters, one of them was married before the father died. The other daughter and one of the sons have finished their education and are working now, while the other two sons are still having their education.  

The mother was working with the father. And they used to save their salaries together, and she approved to this of course (she used to say to him: “what matters is that I take the bonus of retiring, and this is what already happened) while the husband takes what they both save and buy properties in his name. 

The questions: 

When the heirs divide the heritage, should they count the mother’s salaries and discount it from the entire heritage, then divide what remains on all of them (mother, two daughters and three sons)? The mother says that the heritage will not be divided before every one finishes his education and gets married. Then the heritage will be divided according to the Islamic Sharia, boy’s share is double the girl’s one. Is this permissible? When should the heritage be divided according to Sharia?  

The mother does not want anyone of the children to know how much the heritage exactly is so that no one says I should take more than my share when time of dividing comes. Is that permissible?  
Before the father died he bought a car and wrote it in his oldest son’s name according to his wife’s wish. As this son’s position allows him to easily return the licence if it was taken for some reason. The father had the intention to buy a car for every one of his children for the same price, and to buy a car for half of that price for the unmarried daughter. He paid more than half the price of it already before he died. He had the intention to give the married daughter as much as he would give the unmarried one as well.  

After the father died the mother said: “the car is for the eldest son, his father bought it for him because he is obedient, and the father is free to give whoever he wills of his children from his own money, as long as the son is obedient” and as for the car of the unmarried daughter, the mother reclaimed the money as she cannot continue paying the other half, because if she withdraws money from the bank, the whole heritage will be transferred to the “welfare trust”, which will keep the shares of the underage children aside. She will not then be able to do anything about the underage children’s shares except via the welfare trust. Is that permissible?  

The mother’s reasons for not dividing the heritage are, as I said, the welfare trust. She says about the underage children: “is it fair that I spend on them until they grow up and after that they take their whole shares regardless what I spent on them of my own money?  

The mother asked her three older children to grant her power of attorney that allows her to have full control of the heritage. She will also ask the underage children to do the same when they reach the legal age for this. What is the ruling of every point of the above mentioned? 

May Allah reward you and accept your deeds purely for His sake. Sorry for the long inquiry.
Praise be to Allah.
    Firstly: 

    The basic 
    principle concerning the wife’s wealth is that it belongs to her and it is 
    not permissible for her husband to take it or to take any part of it without 
    her consent. Allaah has forbidden consuming people’s wealth unlawfully, but 
    He has given permission to the husband to take some of his wife’s wealth if 
    she gives it up willingly, with no force or compulsion. 

    Allaah says 
    (interpretation of the meaning): 

    “O you who 
    believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves unjustly except it be a 
    trade amongst you, by mutual consent”

    [al-Nisa’ 
    4:29]

    “And give 
    to the women (whom you marry) their Mahr (obligatory bridal-money given by 
    the husband to his wife at the time of marriage) with a good heart; but if 
    they, of their own good pleasure, remit any part of it to you, take it, and 
    enjoy it without fear of any harm (as Allaah has made it lawful)”

    [al-Nisa’ 
    4:4]

    Secondly: 

    If a wife 
    gives her salary to her husband willingly, then it is a donation from her 
    which becomes his property when he takes possession of it. Based on this, no 
    attention should be paid to the previous salaries of the mother which she 
    gave to her husband, because they were not a loan which she can ask to be 
    repaid from the estate.

    Thirdly: 

    When a person 
    dies, his wealth passes directly to his heirs straight after his death, and 
    it is not permissible for anyone to conceal the estate from the heirs or for 
    anyone to prevent division of the estate. If the heirs agree not to divide 
    all or some of the inheritance, there is nothing wrong with that. If one of 
    them wants his share, then he must be given his share of the inheritance, 
    either by selling property and giving him his share, or by one or all of the 
    heirs buying his share, so they give him the price of his share of the 
    inheritance, without any wrongdoing or unfairness. 

    See also the 
    answer to question no. 4089. 

    Fourthly: 

    What the 
    father and mother must do is treat their children equally with regard to 
    giving. It is not permissible for them to favour one of them over another, 
    even if the one who is favoured is dutiful towards his parents. But they may 
    show favour to one of the children if there is a legitimate shar’i reason 
    for doing so, such as if he has a large family and cannot spend on them, or 
    he is disabled. 

    This has been 
    discussed in the answer to question no. 
    36872. 

    If one of the 
    parents gave a gift to one of the children and not the others, then they 
    must take it back and the child must return it and not accept it. 

    From this is 
    it known that it is not permissible to accept the car which the father 
    bought for his son. The claim that the son needed the car could have been 
    dealt with by the father buying a car for his son to drive but not own, so 
    it would have belonged to the father, then when the father died it would 
    become part of the estate. 

    So the son has 
    no choice but to put the car that his father bought for him with the estate, 
    or to work out its value and keep it, and deduct its value  from his share 
    of the estate, and if the other heirs agree to let him have it, it will 
    become his. 

    Shaykh 
    Muhammad ibn Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) said 
    concerning a similar case: 

    With regard to 
    what the brother who asked the question said about the father giving his son 
    some land … it is not permissible for him to give land to him and not to his 
    brothers. If we assume that he gave it to him, then he must during his 
    lifetime give the others something similar to what he gave him, or else take 
    the land back so that it will be among the property that is inherited after 
    he dies. If he dies before that, if the children agree to this gift, then it 
    is valid, just as if they agree to it whilst he is still alive. But if they 
    do not agree to it, then it should be put back with the estate and inherited 
    along with the rest of his wealth. 

    Liqaa’aat 
    al-Baab il-Maftooh 
    (39.question no. 1). 

    And he (may 
    Allaah have mercy on him) said concerning a case where one of a person’s 
    sons needed a car: 

    He may buy a 
    car for the son to use, but it should remain the property of the father, 
    because the son only needs to use it. 

    See also 
    Liqaa’aat al-Baab il-Maftooh (73/question no. 27) 

    Fifthly: 

    The parents 
    must also be fair with regard to the kind of spending that is done for a 
    reason, if that reason arises again with other children. So if he arranges a 
    marriage for one of his sons, he must also arrange marriages for his other 
    children if they need to get married and the parents can afford to get them 
    married. It is not essential that they spend the same amount on the 
    weddings. The marriage of one of them may not cost the same as the marriage 
    of another. So it is not permissible for the parents who have arranged a 
    marriage for one of their children to give a similar amount of money to the 
    rest of their children, and after the father dies it is not permissible to 
    take this money from the estate and give it to the children who did not get 
    married whilst their father was still alive, unless the other heirs agree to 
    that. 

    What we have 
    said about marriage applies also to medical treatment, education and so on. 

    Shaykh 
    Muhammad ibn Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: 

    The basic 
    principle is that it is not permissible for the father to give anything to 
    any of his sons or daughters unless he gives something similar to the 
    others, because Basheer ibn Sa’d al-Ansaari (may Allaah be pleased with him) 
    gave his son al-Nu’maan ibn Basheer a gift, and he came to the Prophet  
    (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) to ask him to bear witness to 
    the gift that he gave to his son. He said to him: “Do you have other sons?” 
    He said: Yes. He said: “Have you given them a similar gift?” He said: No. 
    The Prophet  (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: Fear 
    Allaah and treat your children fairly.” And he also said: “Let someone else 
    bear witness to this, for I will not bear witness to injustice.” So it is 
    not permissible for the father to single out one of his children, whether 
    sons or daughters, for something unless he gives something similar to the 
    others, or if they agree to that willingly and by their own choice, and they 
    are mature and of sound mind. In that case there is nothing wrong with it. 
    Otherwise, if the gift is to meet some need of maintenance or a need for 
    marriage, such as if one of them is independent of means and does not need 
    his father to spend on him, but another is poor and needs his father to 
    spend on him, and he spends on this poor one as much as is needed, then that 
    is permissible, even if he does not give anything to the other one who is 
    independent of means. Similarly, if one of his sons needs to get married and 
    he arranges his marriage, then he does not have to give the others the same 
    as he gives to this son for his marriage, but when the others reach the age 
    of marriage and want to get married, he has to arrange their marriages as he 
    did for the first one. 

    I would like 
    to take this opportunity to speak of something that some people do, which is 
    when a man has children who have reached the age of marriage, he arranges 
    their marriages, and he has other children who are still small and have not 
    yet reached the age of marriage. So he leaves a will leaving them after his 
    death the same amount as he gave to their brothers. This bequest is haraam 
    and is invalid, because the reason for arranging the marriages of the older 
    ones was to meet a need, and the younger ones had not yet reached an age 
    where they needed to get married. If he leaves a will giving them something 
    like that which he spent to marry off the others, that is haraam and is 
    invalid, and the will should not be executed. 

    Liqaa’aat 
    al-Baab il-Mahtooh 
    (39/question no. 1) 

    And he said 
    (may Allaah have mercy on him): 

    If a man 
    arranges marriages for his adult sons it is not permissible for him to 
    bequeath the mahr to his younger sons, but when one of his sons reaches the 
    age of marriage he must arrange his marriage as he did for the first one. 
    But if he bequeaths it to him after he dies, this is haraam. The evidence 
    for that is the words of the Prophet  (peace and blessings of Allaah be 
    upon him): “Allaah has given each person his rights and no will can be made 
    in favour of an heir.” 

    Majmoo’ 
    Fataawa al-Shaykh al-‘Uthaymeen 
    (18/question no. 296). 

    Based on this, 
    what the mother says about delaying the division of the estate until the 
    rest of her children are married and have finished their studies is wrong 
    and it is not permissible for her to do it or for her children to accept 
    it. 

    Sixthly: 

    The children 
    do not have to make their mother their agent in the disposal of the estate 
    because she owns nothing but her own share. If they want to appoint her in 
    charge of their shares, then they may do that. We have stated that it is not 
    permissible for the mother to take control of the estate or her children’s 
    shares, rather she must allow it to be divided in accordance with sharee’ah 
    if the children ask for that. 

    As for 
    spending on the children, the mother is not obliged to spend on them unless 
    they do not have any wealth and she is able to spend on them. But if they 
    possess wealth then their maintenance should come from their own wealth. 

    And Allaah 
    knows best.