So he consulted the people, and al-Mughīra ibn Shuʿba said, “I was present with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when he granted her one-sixth.” Abu Bakr asked, “Do you have anyone else with you?” whereupon Muḥammad ibn Maslama stood and said the same as al-Mughīra ibn Shuʿba, so Abu Bakr allotted the share to her.

He went on: “Later the grandmother came to ʿUmar and inquired about her inheritance. He said, ‘You have nothing in the Book of Allah, but there is that one-sixth; if both of you (i.e., the two grandmothers) are present, it is divided between you, and whichever of you is alone receives it in full.’” This was reported by the Five, apart from al-Nasāʾī, and al-Tirmidhī declared it sound.

Burayda also related that “the Prophet ﷺ assigned the grandmother one-sixth when there was no mother between her and the deceased.” Reported by Abū Dāwūd and authenticated by Ibn al-Sakan, Ibn Khuzayma, and Ibn al-Jārūd.

These two hadiths show that the grandmother is entitled to one-sixth. Yet, as Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq and ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with them—said, she has no stipulated share in the Book of Allah, because the term “mother” in the Qurʾān is restricted to the immediate mother. Therefore, although the grandmother is linguistically called a mother, she is not included in the word “mother” as it appears in the inheritance verses—even though she is covered by the term “mothers” in His saying, “Your mothers are forbidden to you” (Q 4:23). Thus the Messenger of Allah ﷺ awarded her one-sixth, and her entitlement is therefore established by the Sunnah.

Her share has likewise been confirmed by scholarly consensus: there is no disagreement among the scholars that the mother’s mother and the father’s mother inherit. They differed concerning any grandmother beyond these two; Ibn ʿAbbās—