Is money acquired from relinquishing an apartment and its contents considered an inheritance to be distributed, or is it a right exclusive to the questioner based on his mother's will for him and his children, especially given that his mother had included her name in the contract with him to secure her own housing?

The mother's statement "The apartment and everything in it are yours and your children's" carries two possibilities:

1. It could be a gift to you during her lifetime. However, this would not fulfill the requirement of justice among the children. Therefore, the furnishings and the money due from canceling the apartment contract become part of the mother's estate after her death, because the cause of ownership existed during her lifetime.

2. It could be a will made for you after her death. This would be a bequest to an heir, which is not executable unless the other heirs agree, based on the Prophet's (peace be upon him) saying: "There is no will for an heir unless the heirs permit it."

Therefore, it is not permissible for you to exclusively take the furnishings and money without the rest of the mother's heirs. Rather, it must be divided among the heirs according to their prescribed shares, unless the heirs agree to your exclusive claim to them.