his heirs after his death. This is prohibited, for Allah Most High has prescribed the shares of inheritance for those entitled to them and warned against transgressing these limits, saying:

“These are the limits set by Allah, so do not transgress them. Whoever transgresses the limits set by Allah—it is they who are the wrongdoers.” [al-Baqarah: 229]

He also says:

“These are the limits set by Allah. Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger, He will admit them into gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding therein forever. That is the supreme triumph.” [al-Nisāʾ: 13]

“But whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger and transgresses His limits, He will admit him into a Fire, abiding therein forever, and he will have a humiliating punishment.” [al-Nisāʾ: 14]

Reports to this effect have also been transmitted from Abū Bakr al-Siddīq, ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb, and ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (may Allah be pleased with them).

The report from Abū Bakr al-Siddīq concerns his gift to ʿĀʾishah of a harvest of twenty wasqs of dates from his property at al-Ghābah. When death approached him, he said: “By Allah, my daughter, there is no one whose prosperity after my death I would love more than yours, nor anyone whose poverty after my death would grieve me more than yours. I had given you a harvest of twenty wasqs. Had you harvested it and taken possession of it, it would have been yours. Today, however, it is property to be inherited. There are your two brothers and your two sisters, so divide it among yourselves according to the Book of Allah.” ʿĀʾishah said: “I said, ‘Father, by Allah, even if it were such-and-such an amount, I would have relinquished it. But there is only Asmāʾ; who is the other sister?’ He replied, ‘The child in the womb of Bint Khārijah; I believe it is a girl.’”

As for the report from ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb, he said: “What is the matter with men who give their children gifts but then retain possession of them? If someone’s son dies, he says, ‘My property is still in my hands; I have not given it to anyone.’ But if he himself is dying, he says, ‘It belongs to my son; I had already given it to him.’ Any gift whose recipient has not taken possession of it in such a way that it would pass to his heirs upon his death is void.”

As for the report from ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, he said: “If someone gives a gift to a young child of his who is not yet old enough to take possession of it, makes the gift public, and has it witnessed, it is valid even if the father remains in charge of it.” He thus required possession to be taken of what a father gives his adult son, while allowing the father to hold possession of what he gives his young son.