Second: their religions differ—for instance, Jews with Christians, or with Magians, or with idol-worshippers. In this situation the jurists disagreed about whether they may inherit from one another. The crux of the dispute is whether disbelief (kufr) is a single religion or comprises several distinct religions.

Opinion One—advanced by the Hanafis, by the Shafiʿis when both parties share the same domicile, by one report in the Hanbali school, and adopted by the majority—holds that all forms and sects of disbelief amount to one religion. Hence unbelievers inherit from one another irrespective of their different creeds, because the scriptural texts establishing inheritance between parents and children are general and cannot be restricted except where the Lawgiver has expressly excluded a case. Allah says, “Those who have disbelieved are allies of one another” (Q 8:73).

Opinion Two maintains that disbelief consists of three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and the remainder of unbelief taken collectively, since the latter share the fact that they possess no revealed scripture. Accordingly, a Jew does not inherit from a Christian, nor either of them from an idolater.

Opinion Three considers disbelief to be made up of multiple religions; therefore, the adherents of each faith do not inherit from the adherents of any other. The proof is the Prophet’s ﷺ statement: “The followers of two different religions do not inherit from one another,” related by Aḥmad, Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, and Ibn Mājah.

This third opinion is likely the strongest, both because of this ḥadith—which speaks directly to the matter in dispute—and because there is no bond of mutual support among the various religious communities; consequently, there is no inheritance among them, just as is the case of Muslims with