Kinds of Gift

The concept of Gift, or Hiba in Muslim law has existed from the very inception of the religion, circa. 600 A.D. While Muslim Law has not been shown to recognise the differentiation of land into estates, it does recognise the difference between the ownership of the land and the right to enjoy it. 

A gift is a transfer of property where interest is transferred from one living person to another, without any consideration. It is a gratuitous and inter vivos in nature. This is the general definition that is accepted by all the religions, including Muslim law. As per the Muslim Law, a gift is called as Hiba.

Under English laws, right in property is classified by a division on the basis of immoveable and moveable (real and personal) property. Rights in the land described as “estate” under English Law do not always imply only absolute ownership but it also includes rights which fall short of it and are limited to the life of the grantee or in respect of time and duration of use of the same[i].

Under Hindu Law, a gift is regarded as the renunciation of the property right by the owner in the favor of donee. According to Jimutvahana, under Hindu law’s concept of gift, ownership is not created by acceptance but by renunciation of the donor. But however, the Mitakshara school of Hindu law considers acceptance as an important ingredient for a gift. The donor can divest his interest by renunciation but cannot impose the same on the donee if he is not ready to accept[ii].

Under Muslim Law, the concept of Gift developed much during the period of 610 AD to 650 AD. In general, Muslim law draws no distinction between real and personal property, and there is no authoritative work on Muslim law, which affirms that Muslim law recognizes the splitting up of ownership of land into estates. What Muslim law does recognize and insist upon, is the distinction between the corpus of the property itself (called as Ayn) and the usufruct in the property (as Manafi).

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