Hadith 2
Usāmah ibn Zayd reported: I said, “Messenger of Allah, will you lodge tomorrow in your house in Mecca?” He replied, “Has Aqīl left us any ribāʿ or houses?” He then said, “A Muslim does not inherit from a disbeliever, nor does a disbeliever inherit from a Muslim.”
Lexical note:
ribāʿ: places of residence; here it refers to houses. The word is pronounced with a short i after the r (ribāʿ).
Overall meaning:
When the Prophet ﷺ came for the Conquest of Mecca, Usāmah ibn Zayd asked whether he would spend the first morning in his own dwelling there. The Prophet answered, “Has Aqīl ibn Abī Ṭālib left us any ribāʿ in which we might stay?”
The background is that Abū Ṭālib died as a polytheist, leaving four sons: Ṭālib, Aqīl, Jaʿfar, and ʿAlī. Jaʿfar and ʿAlī had embraced Islam before their father’s death, so they did not inherit from him. Ṭālib and Aqīl remained on their people’s religion and therefore inherited. Ṭālib was later lost at Badr, whereupon all the houses reverted to Aqīl, and he sold them.
The Prophet ﷺ then stated a general ruling: “A Muslim does not inherit from a disbeliever, nor does a disbeliever inherit from a Muslim.” Inheritance is founded upon bonds of kinship and benefit, yet these bonds are severed when the religions differ, for faith is the strongest tie and the firmest handhold. When that tie is missing, everything else—even blood relations—falls away, and the relationship of succession is cut off, because the rupture caused by differing faith is stronger than the connection of lineage.
May Allah unite the Muslims upon godfearingness and strengthen their bonds through faith; He is the Hearer of supplication.
Points derived from the hadith:
1- It is permissible to sell houses in Mecca, for the Prophet ﷺ allowed the sale to stand. One might contend, however, that he merely left pre-Islamic contracts untouched, so the incident may not constitute decisive evidence on this issue.
2- A Muslim does not inherit from a non-Muslim, nor does a non-Muslim inherit from a Muslim.
3- Islam is the strongest bond, and difference of religion is the cause for dissolving relationships and ties.
4- Al-Nawawī said, in effect, that inheritance among Muslims