Chapter: The Ruling on a Killer’s Eligibility to Inherit

All the causes that establish inheritance may be in place, yet the estate will still not pass to the heir if an impediment arises that cancels their effect. Among the many impediments is the heir’s killing of the deceased. This rests on the Prophet’s words (peace and blessings be upon him): “The killer has no inheritance,” and: “A killer inherits nothing.” The ruling also serves to block the means to wrongdoing, for an heir’s desire for wealth may drive him to murder in order to obtain the estate, and the well-known legal maxim states: “Whoever hastens to seize something before its appointed time is punished by being deprived of it.”

The disqualification of a killer from inheritance is, in general, unanimously acknowledged by the scholars, though they differ over the precise types of killing that create this bar. According to the soundest position in the Shafiʿi school, as affirmed by al-Shafiʿi (may Allah have mercy on him), the killer does not inherit