He promised to make his wife’s son the owner, then children of his own were born: what should he do?

Question

Question: After the death of his first wife, Zayd married a widow. This woman brought with her the two children she had from her first husband, and Zayd had no children from his first wife. Therefore Zayd made a promise before ten people: “The owner of everything of mine will be this boy, and after me too it will be he,” his name being Mukhtar Ahmad. After six or seven years, two or three children were born of this woman, but one boy is alive, whose name is Muhammad Faruq.

Answer

Zayd made Mukhtar Ahmad, who had come with his second wife, the owner of everything of his — both in his lifetime and afterwards — but he did not take any thing out of his ownership, give it to him and give him separate possession of it, so that the gift would have become complete and valid according to the Sharia.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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