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Fatwa CenterThe rights of the step-mother upon her husband's children
Question
i have a step mother and mother. my mother live with mother and my step mother live with elder mother, but she was not adjusted there. then we sent our step mother to elder 1st cousin where she lives happily. what are the rights of step mother on us in our property and maal etc
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
If your father had died – as is apparent from the question – then the right of your step-mother is that you allow her to take her legal share from the inheritance if your father died while she was still his wife. In this case, she is entitled to one-eighth of the inheritance because her husband had children. In case her husband had more than one wife, then they share together the one-eighth.
Even though in principle you are not obliged to provide for the needs of your step-mother in regard to accommodation, food and clothing if she is poor, spending on her and keeping ties with her and being kind to her are considered as dutifulness to your father after his death. An authentic Hadeeth reads: "One of the best righteous deeds is for a man to uphold ties with the people for whom his father had affection." [Muslim]
Al-Munaawi 
said in At-Tayseer fi Sharh Al-Jaami’ As-Sagheer: “The people for whom his father had affection are those whom his father loved, like his friend and his wife.”
However, if your farther is still alive, and he is in hardship, then the well-off among his children is obliged to spend on his father and his step-mother as well; this is a financial right that she has upon her husband's children. Shaykhul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said about spending on a father who is insolvent (poor): “A well-off child is obliged to spend on his father and step-mother and on his young siblings, and if he does not do so, then he is considered undutiful to his father, severing ties of kinship and deserving of the punishment of Allaah in this life and in the Hereafter.”
Allaah Knows best.
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