A case of sale and pledge

Question

Question: What do the scholars of religion and the muftis of the clear Shari‘a say regarding the following matters: (1) The late Siraj al-Hasan builds his house on a plot of land. After building it he has a sale deed for that land made in his wife’s name. After a long time Siraj al-Hasan dies, and his heirs are his wife, two sons and a daughter named Fatima Begum. Owing to the unworthiness of the elder son, after some time Shafiq al-Nisa, the wife of the late Siraj al-Hasan, pledges (the house)

Answer

Since the late Siraj al-Hasan made the sale deed in his wife’s name — whether he built the house on his wife’s land and made a sale deed only for the building, the wife already owning the land, or the land too was Siraj al-Hasan’s and he made a sale deed for both the land and the building in his wife’s name in exchange for the debt of the mahr — the wife is its sole owner.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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