Balancing Faith and Rights: Addressing Abuse of Sharia-Based Inheritance Law in Non-Islamic Legal Systems

The paper explores Inheritance law under Muslim Personal Law (based on Sharia) in India, and how it is misused to exploit legal heirs, particularly those who are socially disadvantaged, most notably women, elderly widows, and orphans, who are often neglected during the inheritance process in the absence of an ideal Islamic society. It further examines how this absence creates issues that even modern legal systems in a non-Islamic country find difficult to address, as doing so would require interfering with or bypassing the Islamic legal framework. The paper also discusses how the Indian government responds when Muslim laws are used for the exploitation and social oppression of natural rights, by framing laws that override Muslim laws, thereby invalidating the freedoms granted under Islam. Furthermore, it investigates how certain Muslim communities around the world devise ways to incorporate social changes within the Muslim community under Sharia to bypass inheritance law for their own benefit.