Shari‘a Puzzles

by Daniel Pipes
Sun, 5 Dec 2004

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How does a Muslim keep the Ramadan fast on the solstice at the North Pole? What happens if a person dies and leaves sixteen heirs, all of them his great-great-grandparents? These are the sort of challenges that the Islamic jurisprudents (fuqaha') enjoy chewing over. But, sometimes, the improbable happens. Here are some examples:

Sex-change operation: What happens when a man inherits from his parents as a son and then becomes a woman? Does he properly inherit the full share of a son or the half share of a daughter? The siblings of a Saudi who underwent such a change argued for a half-share but the verdict was in favor a full share, for he was a male at the time of the inheritance. In the words of Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Misnad, a leading Saudi religious commentator: "The inheritors have no right, either religiously or legally, to ask that the money be re-divided. It was divided when the person in question was a male and was divided correctly at that time." (December 5, 2004)

Related Topics: Islamic law (Shari‘a)

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