Book of Inheritance Shares (Kitāb al-Farāʾiḍ)
Causes that establish the right to inherit are three: kinship, marriage, and walāʾ (the bond created by manumission).
Heirs fall into three classes:
- Fixed-share heirs,
- Agnatic heirs, and
- Distant kin.
There are ten fixed-share heirs: the two spouses, the two parents, the grandfather and grandmother, the daughter, the son’s daughter(1), any sister, and the uterine brother.
The husband receives one-half of the estate when no lineal descendant survives, and one-quarter when such a descendant is present.
The wife—or wives—receive one-quarter in the absence of a lineal descendant, and one-eighth when a descendant survives.
The father is entitled to one-sixth when there is a surviving male descendant; if there is no descendant, he takes whatever remains after the fixed shares have been distributed. When the descendant is female, he combines the one-sixth with residuary status, should anything be left over.
In the absence of the father, the paternal grandfather takes the same rulings just mentioned.
Section
(Rulings for the Grandfather together with Siblings)
When a grandfather is present with siblings who are not through the mother, he is treated as one of them so long as equal division does not reduce his share below one-third—as in a case involving a grandfather and one brother. If equal division would give him less than a third, he is entitled to the third, as in a grandfather with three brothers; and when a fixed-share heir precedes them, he is granted whichever of the two alternatives is more advantageous(2)(3)