Gifting Property to Children: Justice and Zakat

Short answer: (1) Lifetime gifts to children are valid — but justice (equality) among sons and daughters is obligatory: the Prophet ﷺ refused to witness a favoured gift, calling it injustice. (2) A gift takes effect with transfer of possession; thereafter the property is the child's — no zakat if in his personal use, zakat on rent income if let out, and a minor's guardian pays from the minor's own wealth. (3) Paper gifts while the father keeps possession and benefit are no gift at all — the asset stays in the father's books, sinfully so if meant to cheat heirs. Details: On the standard of justice: the majority favour equal shares for sons and daughters as the safe sunnah course; some said inheritance proportions — equality is safest, and extra for a needy child (ill, poor) is best done with the others' consent. A deathbed 'gift' takes the ruling of a bequest — and there is no bequest to an heir. Gifting zakatable cash/gold starts a fresh hawl in the recipient's hands. Evidence: Sahih al-Bukhari 2587 and Sahih Muslim 1623 (an-Nuʿman ibn Bashir); Quran 4:11; the ownership and use-asset principles of Sahih al-Bukhari 1464. For complex individual cases, consult a qualified scholar.