A signature on a forged deed of gift during terminal illness

Question

Question: Hinda is on her deathbed, in the throes of death. Hinda’s brother-in-law (her husband’s elder brother) forcibly took her thumbprint on a blank sheet of his own stamp paper for some written acknowledgement, without Hinda’s consent or wish; and when the thumbprint was being taken, no other witness apart from this brother-in-law of hers was present there. A few days after the thumbprint was taken, Hinda died childless.

Answer

If the matter is exactly as described, then these proceedings are entirely void in the Shariʿa: no gift has taken place through them.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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