Q: We are five full brothers. Our elderly father is sharp-tempered and so much attached to money. As our mother died when we were young, our father remarried and had two daughters. Then he divorced his wife, married another woman, and had two more daughters. Our father is still married to his last wife. We used to work for our father and his wife for free. We then grew up and got married; all praise be to Allah Alone. The problem is that we suffer from extreme poverty. We live in our father's house as he moved to live in Gaza in Palestine some time ago. However, our father visits us from time to time to collect the house rental from us. He treats us as if we were strangers while we are of low-incomes and are not able to pay him the rent. Unfortunately, when we do not give him the rent our father becomes angry, curses and slanders us, invokes Allah's anger upon us, says that he himself will be displeased with us until the Day of Reckoning and drives us out our homes. Moreover, our father has filed official complaints against us and consequently the court took our pledge that we will pay a large sum to him. Our father then began to tell people that we are undutiful to him and that he is sick and (Part No. 25; Page No. 269) needs money to receive medical treatment. Our debts have grown up to three thousand dinars. Then our father started to go to our creditors and say that we do not give him any money and that we are undutiful to him. He would thus defame us and urge our creditors to demand their money. Conversely, our father did not give us our rights of the inheritance of our mother (may Allah be merciful with her). Whenever we ask any of our relatives to advise him in this regard, he says: "Those are my sons and no one has any right to intervene." He enjoys himself and his wife with our money while we suffer from poverty and debt. When a shaykh advises him, he weeps and speaks softly telling him that he cannot work because he is sick and that we are undutiful to him. He cries and yells. Then after the shaykh leaves, our father drives us out, invokes the curse of Allah upon us, and declares that he is displeased with us. It is worth mentioning that we cannot rent or build other houses as we do not have sufficient incomes. May Allah give us out of his abundant bounties. Are we considered sinful and undutiful to our father if we persist in asking him to give us our portion of our mother's inheritance? What do we have to do bearing in mind, that we are now indebted to all our friends and acquaintances? We fear dying before repaying our debts. We ask Allah to remove our difficulty soon. Please provide us with your beneficial answer. May Allah reward you with the best. May He grant you success and help you to benefit the Ummah (nation). Verily, Allah is the Excellent Protector and the Excellent Helper! And the close of our request is: All praise and thanks are for Allah Alone, the Lord of the entire universe. Peace be upon the Messenger of Allah, all his family members, and Companions.