Chapter: The Legal Grounds of Inheritance and Identification of the Heirs

Inheritance is the transfer of the deceased’s property to a living person after him, in the manner ordained by Allah.
It rests on three grounds:

1. Lineage (al-raḥim), meaning blood kinship. Allah the Exalted says, “But those bound by blood are nearer to one another according to the Book of Allah” (Q 8:75). Whether the relative is near or distant, he inherits so long as no closer heir blocks him.
   • This category includes three groups:
   – Ascendants: the father, grandfather, and every male ancestor in the direct line, however high.
   – Descendants: the sons and their male offspring, however remote.
   – Collaterals: brothers, their sons (however far down the line), paternal uncles and great-uncles (however high), and their male offspring (however remote).

2. Marriage (nikāḥ), that is, a valid marital contract, even if no consummation or seclusion has yet taken place. The proof is the general wording of Allah’s statement: “You shall have half of what your wives leave behind … and they shall have a quarter of what you leave behind” (Q 4:12). By virtue of this contract, the spouses inherit from one another on both sides—each inherits from the other according to the noble verse—and they also inherit during the waiting period (‘idda) of a revocable divorce.