Book of Prescribed Shares

Distribution of the deceased’s estate begins with the costs of preparing the body for burial; next, any outstanding debts are paid; thereafter his bequests are executed from one-third of what remains; finally, the balance is divided among the heirs.

I say: When a right is attached to a specific asset of the estate—such as zakat, the liability of an offender, a pledged item, or property that had been sold and the buyer dies insolvent—that right takes precedence over the burial expenses. Allah knows best.

There are four causes of inheritance: kinship, marriage, walāʾ (the bond of emancipation)—the emancipator inherits from the freed person, not the reverse—and, fourth, Islam; thus, if no heir exists through the first three causes, the estate is transferred to the bayt al-māl (public treasury) as inheritance.

By consensus, the heirs acknowledged among men are ten: the son and his male descendants however remote; the father and his male ancestors however high; the brother and his son, except those related solely through the mother; the paternal uncle other than the maternal one and likewise his son; the husband; and the emancipator.

Among women they are seven: the daughter; the son’s daughter and her female descendants however remote; the mother; the grandmother; the sister; the wife; and the emancipated female.

If all the male heirs were present, only the father, the son, and the husband would inherit. If all the female heirs were present, the shares would go to the daughter, the son’s daughter, the mother, the full sister, and the wife. From both groups, those who can lawfully be present together and inherit are the two parents, the son, the daughter, and either the husband or the wife.

If all these heirs are absent, the basic doctrine of the school is that dhawū al-arḥām (uterine kin) do not inherit, nor is anything returned to the fixed-share heirs; instead, the estate belongs to the bayt al-māl. Later jurists, however, ruled that when the public treasury is not properly administered, any surplus—apart from the shares of the two spouses—should be returned to the fixed-share heirs