Chapter on Residuary Inheritance (taʿṣīb)

Linguistically, taʿṣīb is the verbal noun of ʿaṣṣaba (“to bind, enclose, or strengthen”). From the same root comes ʿiṣāʾib, meaning “turbans,” which are wrapped tightly around the head.

In the law of inheritance, al-ʿaṣabah—the plural of ʿāṣib—may refer to a single person as well as to a group. One may say, “Zayd is an ʿaṣib,” or “They are ʿaṣabah.” A man’s ʿaṣabah are his agnatic relatives, those related to him through his father. They are so called because they “bind” or “surround” him: the father at one end, the son at the other, with the brother on one side and the paternal uncle on the other. It is also said that they bear this name because they reinforce one another, the root ʿaṣab conveying the ideas of support and defense—each of them strengthening the other and preventing outsiders from overreaching him.

Technically, according to the scholars of inheritance, an ʿāṣib is one who inherits without a fixed, predetermined share. If no Qur’anic sharer is present, he takes the entire estate; if there is a sharer, he receives whatever remains after the fixed share has been distributed, in keeping with the Prophet’s ﷺ statement: “Give the prescribed shares to those who are entitled to them, and whatever remains goes to the nearest male relative.”