My Husband Passed Away While Having Unpaid Debts, What Do I Do?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

My husband has borrowed some amount from his parents to pay for our house. He has died without paying the money. What do I have to do?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

May Allah have mercy on your husband and grant you beautiful patience and great reward.

As the widow of your deceased husband, you do not inherit the debt of your husband. If your husband left behind any wealth, his debts should be paid from that wealth first before dividing the inheritance. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

If not, and you can afford to pay his debt, it is a great charity to help fulfill his outstanding debts; however, you are not obliged to do so. [Ibid.]

If you alone cannot fulfill such debts, then you can try to raise the money or petition other family members to assist. This is important as outstanding debts affect the deceased in their graves.

See this link for more details

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat 

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch teaches Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he completed four years at the Darul Uloom Seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences.

He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he studied for three years in Dar al-Mustafa under some of the most outstanding scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib.

In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Quran and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Quranic exegesis, Islamic history, and several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.