Analytical Study of the Islamic Law of Gift (Hiba) and Its Exploitation for Estate Planning in Northern Nigerian Muslim Communities

The Islamic law of Hiba (gift inter vivos) permits the voluntary transfer of property ownership without consideration during the donor's lifetime and is subject to distinct Islamic legal conditions that govern its validity, revocability, and effect on subsequent inheritance distribution. In northern Nigerian Muslim communities, Hiba has increasingly been used as an estate planning instrument to achieve wealth distribution objectives that might not be achievable under the mandatory Mirath (inheritance) rules, raising doctrinal and ethical questions. This study analytically examines the Islamic Hiba doctrine and its contemporary exploitation as an estate planning mechanism in northern Nigeria. A doctrinal and empirical methodology is applied, reviewing classical Islamic Hiba jurisprudence across all four Sunni schools on the conditions of valid gift, revocability rules, and the prohibition on circumventing inheritance rules through gifts, alongside analysis of thirty-five Sharia court cases involving challenged Hiba transactions from Kano, Sokoto, and Zamfara from 2015 to 2023. Interviews with fifteen Islamic estate planning practitioners and ten Sharia judges supplement the documentary analysis. Available Islamic estate planning literature from northern Nigeria identifies daughters' inheritance shares as the most common Mirath provision that Hiba strategies are employed to circumvent. The Maliki conditions for valid Hiba and the Fiqh prohibition on Hiba as an instrument of Mirath avoidance provide the normative analytical framework. Findings are expected to reveal judicial inconsistency in policing Hiba misuse. Recommendations address judicial guidelines on Hiba transactions and Islamic community education on Mirath rights. Keywords: Hiba, Islamic gift law, estate planning, northern Nigeria, Mirath avoidance.