If my mother has a house that she wants to sell and give the money to her children, how should she divide it among them?

Your mother can stay in her house as it is her own property. No one has any claim against her. Since her husband gave it to her as her mahr [dowry], she has full title to it and no one has any claim against it. She can live in it for the rest of her life or she can rent it and use the rent as she pleases. When she dies, it becomes part of her estate which should be shared between her children, with each male receiving the equivalent of two females.

If your mother wants to go ahead with her intention i.e. sell the house and give its price to her children, she should give her sons and daughters equal shares. Some people think that gifts to children should be along the same lines as their shares of inheritance. This is not so. During a parent's lifetime, all children are entitled to equal treatment.

When one of the Prophet's Companions asked him to bear witness to a gift he gave to his son, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked him whether he had given similar gifts to each of his children. He did not differentiate between sons and daughters. When the man replied that he did not, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) told him to find someone else to testify to the gift and said that he does not testify to injustice. He called such gifts to one child, without giving similar gifts to the other children, an ‘injustice’. Needless to say, all injustice is forbidden in Islam.