WOMEN’S INHERITANCE RIGHTS IN SEMITIC RELIGIONS: A COMPARATIVE AND CRITICAL STUDY

عورت کے وراثتی حقوق: سامی مذاہب کا تقابلی و تنقیدی مطالعہ

Abstract

Inheritance is closely related to family, property and the economic position of individuals in society. The question of women’s inheritance is therefore not only about the distribution of property after death; it also reflects the position given to women within the family and the wider legal structure of a society. Judaism, Christianity and Islam share a common Semitic religious background, but their approaches to inheritance developed in different historical and legal settings. This study examines women’s inheritance rights in these three religious traditions through a comparative and critical analysis of their primary religious texts and selected legal interpretations. The study follows a qualitative and comparative approach. Relevant passages from the Torah, the New Testament and the Qur’an are examined alongside classical Islamic legal sources and contemporary academic research. In the Jewish tradition, the story of the daughters of Zelophehad is particularly important. The Torah recognizes their right to inherit when there is no son, while another passage places a condition on the transfer of inherited tribal land. This shows that female inheritance was recognized, but within a wider family and tribal structure. Modern scholarship also notes that Jewish law developed other forms of financial protection for women alongside the rules of inheritance. The Christian tradition presents a different situation. The New Testament contains references to inheritance, but it does not provide a detailed system of fixed shares for daughters, wives, mothers and other heirs. The development of inheritance law in Christian societies therefore took place through Roman law, canon law, customary practices and later civil legislation. It would be too broad to conclude that Christian women had no property rights; rather, the New Testament does not present a comprehensive inheritance code comparable to that found in the Qur’an.

The Islamic position is more explicit. The Qur’an directly recognizes women as heirs and declares that both men and women have an obligatory share in what parents and close relatives leave behind (Qur’an 4:7). More detailed rules are given in Surah al-Nisa 4:11, 4:12 and 4:176. These verses establish the inheritance rights of daughters, mothers, wives and sisters in different circumstances. The well-known principle that a male receives the share of two females applies to a particular case and cannot be treated as a universal rule of Islamic inheritance.