to his wife in recompense for having taken some of her money, then this is a quid-pro-quo transaction, and the land becomes her exclusive property. He transferred it to her in exchange for what he had consumed of her wealth; therefore the parcel given to her as compensation is hers alone. When she dies it passes to all of her heirs, male and female, and you have no claim to it whatsoever.

As for your father’s division of the rest of the land while he is still alive, that is not inheritance; it is deemed a gift (ʿaṭiyya). If he distributes the gift equally among you and does not favour some children over others, there is no harm. But if he prefers certain children over others, that is forbidden, and such a gift is not valid.

***

The Shighar Marriage

Question: My brother wished to marry a girl from our village. Her brother, however, stipulated that my brother must marry off our sister to him, and the two men agreed. Some time later—before either marriage contract was concluded—we learned that such an arrangement is forbidden and is considered shighar. We informed them of this, whereupon the girl’s brother said: “If that is the case, then marry me your sister now, and after a year I will marry off my sister to you.” My brother agreed to give him our sister for a mahr (dowry) of sixty thousand riyals, on the understanding that a year later he would marry the other man’s sister for the same dowry—or for more or less. Is a marriage conducted in this fashion permissible or not?

Answer: What the parties have done is indeed a shighar marriage, meaning that each guardian marries off the woman under his care on condition that the other do likewise. When it is done without a dowry, each woman being exchanged for the other, this is shighar beyond any doubt, and it