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A. Muslim traditionalists
Traditional Muslim scholars are of the opinion that certain rules have been made and remain immutable. They support their views by pointing out in that the basic sources of Islam (al-Qur’an wa as-Sunnah) deals with women’s inheritance explicitly, so there is no need for any reforms. Accordingly, a woman, whatever the role she has in her family, is subjected to certain prescribed rules of Islamic inheritance as these are laid down in the Qur’an. It is the divine law of God that not subject to change.
Traditional Muslim scholars are of the opinion that certain rules have been made and remain immutable. They support their views by pointing out in that the basic sources of Islam (al-Qur’an wa as-Sunnah) deals with women’s inheritance explicitly, so there is no need for any reforms. Accordingly, a woman, whatever the role she has in her family, is subjected to certain prescribed rules of Islamic inheritance as these are laid down in the Qur’an. It is the divine law of God that not subject to change.
Furthermore, traditional Muslims argue that it is precisely the Islamic law of inheritance that recognizes the right of women to inherit. It is that Islam revolutionized women’s inheritance rights. Prior to the Quranic injunction --and indeed in the West until only recently-- women could not inherit from their relatives, and in the case of Arabia at least, were themselves bequeathed as if they were property to be distributed at the death of a husband, father, or brother. Thus, Islam, by clearly stating in the Qur’an that women themselves have the right to inherit, changed the status of women in an unprecedented fashion. Therefore, whether women can inherit at all is not the controversy. Rather, the dispute centres on the "share" to be inherited. Is it subject to change?
In the eyes of traditionalist scholars, the debates about and discussions of the formula of inheritance in Islam revolves around the understanding of the outstanding revealed texts. They focus on the question of whether is it possible or not to depart from the clearly stated injunctions in the revealed text. Therefore, the issue of the role of ratio in explaining the sacred law is pivotal; to what extent it is permissible to determine the law by the human ratio?
B. Modernists Muslims
In contrast to that of the traditionalists, modernist Muslims and intellectuals suggest new perspectives and interpretations of women’s share in inheritance that differ in some ways from that laid down in the Islamic law of inheritance found in fiqh books. Many modernist Muslim intellectuals, such as Rahman and Asghar Ali Engineer to mention two of them, have come with new theories about or methods for interpreting the Qur’an. Rahman, for example has offered interpretation of Qur’anic teaching by using what he called hermeneutical theory.
This method considers both the specific context of the history of Qur’anic revelation (Asbab an-Nuzul) as well as the universal values of the Qur’an such as egalitarianism and socio-economic equity as equally important in understanding what the Qur’an really says. Accordingly, the Qur’an should be read in a contextual manner, considering its universal values rather than merely its textual subtance. Asghar Ali Engineer supports the use of both Qur’anic revelation as well as the universal values of Qur’anic teachings; there have always been dialogues between the two that he believes Shari‘ah constitute a synthesis of both contextual elements and the divinely revealed texts.
Modernist Muslims offer an equal share of Islamic law of inheritance between men and women. Inheritance in Islam has to do with the roles played by both men and women. In the past, women played a less active role in public life than their men counterparts. In the pre-Islamic era, instead of having the right to inherit women themselves were even considered an inheritance, giving them the status of mere chatters.
The formula of two to one as found in the Qur’an, therefore, reflects a specific situation in which the Qur’an was revealed. However, the general Islamic mission for human beings is to achieve equality. For this reason, as the public role of women develops increasingly, it is reasonable enough that the ratio of the share between men and women needs to be change. In a nutshell, by the use of new interpretations of Islamic sources, Muslim intellectuals assume a positive stance towards equality between man and women in Islamic law of inheritance.
C. Muslim women and of feminists
Muslim women and of feminists are in some ways almost in line with Muslim modernist intellectuals’ views. They differ in some ways with respect to their starting point. Muslim feminists insist on the equality between man and women in all aspect of life. Women’s inheritance in Islam, accordingly, is one of many things they perceive need to be reformed in order to achieve true equality. In relation to the Islamic law of inheritance as it impinges on women, they suggest women receive the same share of the bequest as of men.
According to feminists, conceptions of gender rights in Islamic law are neither unified nor coherent, in fact they are competing and contradictory. Gender rights as constructed by traditionalists as well as by modernists in their development of Islamic discourse not only neglect the basic objectives of Islamic teaching (Maqasid ash-Shari‘ah) but are unsustainable under the conditions prevailing in Muslim societies today. In short, they have developed a gender construction which is actually far divorced from Islamic values. For these reasons feminist Muslims claim to have been busy developing gender construction from within.
Feminist Muslims have stated that the whole issue of women’s inheritance depends entirely on the social and economic context, and the role or function of a particular sex within it. If this crucial contextual factor is borne in mind, a proper understanding of the verses related to inheritance in the Qur’an will ensue. Moreover, as stated by Amina Wadud, the formula for women’s inheritance we have in classical theory represents only one way of reading the holy text. However, by providing a variety of scenario, it is clear enough that many possible combinations of formula can exist, which must be considered for the equitable distribution of inheritance.
The matters with which they concern themselves are especially related to women’s interests and gender rights, ranging from theological and legal issues, to day-to-day problems. In short, women Muslim feminists take Islam as the source of their legitimacy, as new discourse that can challenge the hegemony of traditional interpretations. This is done by adopting Islamic and western sciences and harnessing them to develop new ways of reading and understanding Islamic texts.
