Exclusion (ḥajb) is governed by a cluster of rules:

Rule 1 – Whoever reaches the deceased through an intermediary is barred by that very intermediary. Thus the grandson is excluded by the son, the grandmother by the mother, the grandfather by the father, and the siblings by the father.

Rule 2 – When two or more agnatic heirs (ʿaṣabah) are present, priority goes to the one whose class (jihah) is nearer. Hence, if a son appears together with his father or his grandfather, the right of agnatic succession belongs to the son, for his class is the closer. The same principle applies when a son and a grandson, or a full brother and the son of another full brother, contest the estate. If the surviving agnates are equal in class and in degree of kinship, preference is then given to the one whose tie is stronger: for example, where a full brother and a paternal brother are both alive, the full brother prevails because his link is through both parents, whereas the paternal brother is connected only through the father.

Among the ascendants (uṣūl), the grandfather is barred only by the father or by a nearer grandfather, and the grandmother is barred only by the mother or by a nearer grandmother. Among the descendants (furūʿ), a descendant is barred only by another descendant who is nearer: the grandson is excluded only by the son or by a higher-level grandson. The collaterals (ḥawāshi) — namely brothers and their sons, paternal uncles and their sons — may be barred by ascendants, descendants, or by other collaterals. Thus paternal siblings drop out because of the son, the grandson no matter how remote, the father, the grandfather (according to the sound view), the full brother, and the full sister when she inherits as an agnate together with a male. In this way the paternal brother may be excluded by ascendants, descendants, and collaterals alike.