Others maintain that they share proportionately, since each is a debt owed by the deceased; neither should be given preference over the other. This is the established position of the companions [of the school], and it is the correct view.

If someone were to ask: What is the response to the Prophet’s ﷺ statement, “Fulfil what is due to Allah, for Allah has the greater right to be fulfilled”?

The response is that the meaning of the hadith is this: if a debt owed to a human being must be discharged, then a debt owed to Allah is even more deserving of being discharged. The Prophet ﷺ said: “What do you think: if your mother owed a debt and you paid it off, would that suffice on her behalf?” She replied, “Yes.” He said: “Fulfil what is due to Allah, for Allah has the greater right to be fulfilled.” The issue did not concern two concurrent rights, one belonging to Allah and the other to a human being, such that we could say the Prophet ﷺ ruled that Allah’s debt takes precedence. Rather, the Prophet ﷺ intended an analogy: if a debt owed to a human being is to be discharged, then Allah is even more deserving of its fulfilment.

We also answer the other view—namely, that a human being’s right is founded upon strict insistence and need—by saying that Allah’s right may be for the benefit of Allah’s servants. Zakah, for example, is for created beings, not for Allah, exalted is He, in the sense that Allah does not benefit from it. It is therefore, in reality, a right due to Allah and, at the same time, a right due to Allah’s servants. The same applies to expiations and other obligations that a person owes to Allah, exalted is He.

Thus, the preponderant view is that the two share proportionately.

“And [a bequest] to his slave of an undivided share, such as one-third, is valid: he is emancipated to the extent of it and takes the surplus. But a bequest to him of one hundred, or of a specified item, is invalid. It is valid with respect to a fetus, and for a fetus whose existence before it is established, ...”

His statement, “And [a bequest] to his slave of an undivided share, such as one-third”: an undivided share is a portion that has not been specified, such as one-quarter, one-fifth, or one-tenth. A bequest to one’s slave is subject to further detail: if he bequeaths to him an undivided share, such as one-third or the like—one-quarter, one-sixth, or one-fifth—then