Should I treat my children equally in lifetime gifts?

The schools genuinely divide. The Hanbalis hold equality is obligatory: a parent who prefers one child sins, and must either take the excess back or make the others up to the same. The Hanafis, Malikis and Shafi’is hold it is recommended but not obligatory, so an unequal gift is valid and stands — though Ibn Qudama records that nobody among the people of knowledge disputes that equality is preferred and preference is disliked. Both sides are reading the same hadith of Nu‘man ibn Bashir, in which the Prophet refused to witness a father’s gift to one son and told him “fear Allah and be just between your children”. On what equality means the line falls differently: Abu Hanifa, Malik and al-Shafi’i say a daughter is given the same as a son, while the Hanbalis (with Muhammad ibn al-Hasan among the Hanafis) say the parent should follow the inheritance ratio of two to one.

All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — Must a parent give children equally in life?.