Chapter: The Inheritance of Womb-Relatives
In the terminology of the inheritance specialists (farāʾiḍ scholars), “womb-relatives” are every kinsman who is neither a fixed-share heir nor an agnatic heir. Taken broadly, they fall into four categories:
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Those who descend from the deceased: the children of his daughters and the children of the daughters of his sons, however many generations removed.
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Those to whom the deceased ascends: the grandfathers who have been precluded from inheritance and the grandmothers likewise precluded, no matter how far up the line they are.
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Those related through the deceased’s siblings: the children of his sisters, the daughters of his brothers, the children of his maternal half-brothers, and anyone who traces back through them, however remote.
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Those linked to the deceased through his grandparents: the mother’s paternal uncles, all aunts, all daughters of paternal uncles, every type of maternal relative, no matter how distant, and their descendants, however remote.
These are their classes in outline. Womb-relatives inherit only when none of the fixed-share heirs remains except the two spouses and no agnatic heir is present. This ruling rests on several proofs, among them: