points to the intended meaning more clearly than one or two expressions.

Even so, some well-established differences among them are inevitable, just as similar divergence exists in matters of law. We also know that most of what ordinary people critically need is agreed upon(1)—indeed, it has reached us through mass transmission among both the general public and the scholars. Examples include the number of the daily prayers, the number of bowings in each, their appointed times; the obligatory alms and their minimum thresholds; the designation of the month of Ramadan; the rites of circumambulation, standing at ʿArafah, stoning the pillars, the specified miqāt boundaries, and so forth.

Moreover, the Companions’ dispute about the grandfather and siblings, the mushārakah (co-sharing) case, and similar questions does not cast doubt on the vast majority of inheritance rulings. What most people need concerns the direct line of kinship—fathers and children—together with the kalālah relatives of brothers and sisters, and their female counterparts such as spouses. Allah revealed three detailed verses on inheritance: in the first He mentioned the ascendants and descendants; in the second, the collateral heirs who receive fixed shares, such as the spouses and the maternal half-siblings; and in the third, the collateral heirs who inherit by agnatic succession, namely the full or paternal siblings. The situation in which a grandfather and siblings co-exist is rare; indeed, it did not arise in the Muslim community until after the death of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

Differences may occur because the evidence is hidden or overlooked, because it has not been heard, because of an error in understanding the text, or because one believes a contrary proof to be stronger. Our aim here is only to provide a broad overview of the matter, not its particulars.