Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 246
246 of their health he is expected to make lesser sacrifices much more readily for the same object. Another question relating to family relationship is the question of inheritance and succession. Islam has laid down such perfect rules for the regulation of inheri- tance, that all unbiased persons, to whatever religion they might belong, would acknowledge their fairness and wisdom. Islam has included females, parents, husbands and wives in the list of heirs. It forbids the exclusion of any heir or heirs from succession; nor can a man deprive his heirs of their share of inheritance by devising the whole of it away from them. A will can be made only with respect to one-third of the property of the testator, the rest must go to his heirs. Nor can a will be made in favour of an heir, each heir can get only his specified share of the inheritance and no more. The share of a female heir is in most cases one- half of that of a male heir. In certain exceptional cases a female succeeds to a share equal to that of a male heir, but there are special reasons justifying this departure from the ordinary rule. Some people think that the rule giving a male twice the share of a female is inequitable. They forget that under most systems of law even today the rights of females have not been recognized at all, and that Islam alone has given full rights to women. The reason for this rule is that a woman is not required to maintain herself or her children out of her own property. She must in every case be maintained by her husband, whereas a man is burdened with the duty of maintaining his wife and children. If a woman marries she is re- lieved of all anxiety with respect to her own and her