Favoring sons over daughters with regard to gifts or bequests is impermissible
29-7-2014 | IslamWeb
Question:
My father wants to distribute his property which he inherited from his father (our grandfather) among his to son's and to exclude three married daughters. When the daughters confronted him to divide the property as per the Islamic rulings. he says that he has exclusive rights to distribute it as he wished. Saying this he laughs and makes mockery of inheritance laws as prescribed in quran, he is puffed up with pride that his son's only enjoy his property while the daughters have no option but to take throwaway's as gifts which may account for as less as one percent of his property. please share a fatwa in the light of quranic teaching for this kind of injustice......
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, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and messenger.
That a person divides his wealth among his children and they take possession of it before his death, this is not considered inheritance share; it is rather a gift. According to the Islamic law of inheritance, the estate is to be divided among the eligible heirs only after the person’s death.
There is a big difference between inheritance and gift (in terms of the legal implications). Many scholars considered that the preponderant opinion - which we adopt in Islamweb - in this regard is that a Muslim does not have the option to offer gifts to whomever he wishes of his children and deny the others as when someone gives his sons and deny his daughters. Instead, it is incumbent on him to establish justice among his children when offering them gifts and give his sons and daughters alike. Allaah, The Exalted, says (what means): {Indeed, Allaah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded.}[Quran 16:90]
Moreover, Al-Nu‘maan ibn Basheer 
said, “My father gave me a gift but ‘Amrah bint Rawaahah (my mother) said that she would not agree to it unless he made the Messenger of Allaah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, a witness to it. So, my father went to the Messenger of Allaah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and said, 'I have given a gift to my son from ‘Amrah bint Rawaahah, but she ordered me to make you as a witness to it, O Messenger of Allaah.' The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, asked: 'Have you given (the like of it) to everyone of your sons?' He replied in the negative. The Messenger of Allaah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: 'Fear Allaah, and be just with your children.' My father then returned and took back his gift." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
Al-Bukhari 
allocated a chapter in his book Saheeh Al-Bukhari entitled, “Offering gifts to one’s children". (He commented:) "It is impermissible for a father to offer a gift to one of his children and deny the others. Instead, he should uphold justice and offer gifts to them all. If he did not, none should be witness to such an offer. The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “Uphold justice among your children when you offer them gifts.”
We have highlighted in a number of Fataawa that according to the majority of scholars, upholding justice among one’s children concerning gifts is accomplished by giving one's daughter equal to what is given to the son. For further information, please refer to Fatwa 89924.
On the other hand, if you mean that your father intends to make a bequest to his sons and disown the daughters, this is considered a bequest to heirs. Such a bequest cannot be executed unless it is approved by all the other heirs who are entitled to inherit. Ibn Qudaamah wrote, “No bequest should be made in favor of an heir except by the consent of all other heirs. If a person makes a bequest to an heir of his and the rest of the heirs do not agree to it, it is considered invalid, and there is no difference of opinion among the scholars concerning this point. Ibn Al-Munthir and Ibn ‘Abd Al-Barr 
said: “Scholars unanimously agreed on this issue. There are reports from the Messenger of Allaah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, to that effect. For example, Abu Umaamah reported that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “Verily, Allaah has appointed for everyone (i.e. heir) who has a right what is due to him, and no bequest is permissible to be made to an heir.” [Abu Daawood, Ibn Maajah, and At-Tirmithi] This is because the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, forbade giving gifts to any of one’s children while denying the others or favoring one of them over the others while the person is sound and has full control and possession of his property and is able to redress such an injustice to them by giving those who were denied or wronged of his children later on, since showing preference to one of the children over the others sows seeds of enmity and envy in their hearts. A person is more required with greater reason to avoid such injustice at times of weakness or sickness, the approach of death, having relatively less control over his property, having more liabilities and rights, and being rather unable to amend such injustice later on.” [Al-Mughni]
Hence, we advise your father to fear Allaah and offer gifts to all his sons and daughters (without denying any of them or favoring any of them over the others). It should be noted that favoring one of the children over the others with regards to gifts is allowed only with a Sharee'ah-acceptable reason. For instance, if any of the children is poor or in more need of the gift and the like. This ruling is applicable to both sons and daughters. A father may even give a daughter more than her siblings if she is more in need than the others. However, favoring sons over daughters with no Sharee'ah-acceptable reason and disowning the daughters is a (blameworthy) practice borrowed from the pre-Islamic era of ignorance.
Allaah Knows best.