1 Social Change and Its Relation to Islamic Inheritance Practice Zulham Wahyudani 1 Raihanah Hj Azahari 2 ABSTRACT This thesis generally discussed the social change and its relationship to the practice of Islamic inheritance. This study aims to investigate the impact of the social change in altering the inheritance law. Data for this study were gathered through various Islamic literatures, books, articles, seminar papers and other related materials. The findings of this study revealed that the social change has influence on the altering of the Islamic inheritance law within the community. However, the change was limited only for the law that was resulted from maslahah al-mursalah, as wasīyyat al-wajībah problems that have been legislated laws in Muslim countries, not the qat‘i laws as it was originally coming from the divine source. As this study has several limitations, it was recommended that future studies need to examine this matter more comprehensively due to some deficiencies in its application such as the use of fiqh and ushul methods. Keywords: Social change, Law change, Wasīyyat al-wajībah 1. Introduction Social change is defined as the change within community which alters that particular society.However, some social scholars give different point of view in what aspect caused the alteration in society. In a dominated Muslim society, the social change has occurred in the waypeople split the inheritance. People divide their wealth or property based on the cultural background from generation to generation; somehow, it triggers the disappointment for some heirs. However, according to them, if the inheritance law is based on Islamic scholarsin fiqhmazhab, there will be discrimination between heir and heiress. The Islamic scholars acknowledged that the inheritance division has been settled in Al-Quran and the supplementary explanation has been delivered by our Prophet through hadith. In Islam, the heritage division has had a strong foundation. Some verses in Al-Quran have often mentioned by Islamic scholars as the basic rules in heritage sharing, they are found in Surah an- Nisa‟ verses 7, 11, 12 and 176. Additionally, the source of inheritance has also explained by hadith. According to Ahmad Rafiq, Imam Bukhari explained aboutIslamic law of heritage in approximately 46 hadith while Imam Muslim had 20 hadith. 3 1 Master Candidate, Fiqh and usul departement, Akademi Pengajian Islam, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 2 Senior Lactures, Fiqh and usul departement, Akademi Pengajian Islam, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 3 Ahmad Rafiq, Hukum Islam di Indonesia, (Jakarta: Rajawali Press, 1997), 379.