العروة الوثقى الزيدية - موقع إسلامي يهدف لتعريف الزائر بفكر وتراث المسلمين الزيدية

The Question

Question: There are bequests for providing ifṭār to the fasting person, and generations continue to inherit them to the point that some do not even know how the bequest originally was or from whom it came, and they divide them among themselves. For example: that it be half a qadaḥ (a measure), and they become two households, so that each household [has] a quarter of a qadaḥ, then likewise until it becomes for the individual a quarter of an eighth, and so on.
So does it have a defined limit? Or is the whole [amount] considered together upon one of them? Or what should we do when it becomes something very small among many people who may not even come together?

The Answer

Answer: It is obligatory upon every heir of property to which a bequest for a specific amount has become attached to pay his own share, and so on; and every heir is responsible for himself, so he calculates what is due from him in proportion to his share, until the share of the heir from the bequest becomes something that has no value. Then, when it has become like that, nothing is obligatory upon him. This is analogous to what the scholars of the madhhab have said regarding someone who has committed a wrong (maẓlamah) against a man, then that man dies and has many heirs, such that if [the compensation] were distributed among the heirs, the share of each heir would be something that has no value; they have said that in this case the maẓlamah has fallen from him entirely.

Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.2