Book of Inheritance Shares (Kitāb al-Farāʾiḍ)
The enquiry undertaken in this book concerns: who is entitled to inherit and who is not; among those who do inherit, whether they inherit in every circumstance or only in the presence of certain heirs and not others; and, when they inherit together with someone else, what proportion they receive—just as, when they inherit alone, what proportion is theirs. Likewise, when they inherit alongside another heir, does their share vary according to the specific co-heir, or does it remain the same?
There are many possible ways to teach this subject, most of which the specialists in the law of shares have already adopted. The method followed here is to mention the ruling for each class of heirs when that class stands alone, and its ruling when combined with each of the remaining classes. An example would be to look first at the child: what is his (or her) share when he is the sole heir? Then one considers his position when the other classes of heirs are present.
The heirs fall into three broad categories:
- Blood relatives (dhū nasab),
- Relatives by marriage (aṣhār), and
- Freedmen and their patrons (mawālī).
With respect to the blood relatives, some are unanimously accepted as heirs, while others are disputed.
The unanimously accepted heirs are the descendants—that is, the children; the ascendants—that is, the fathers and grandfathers, male or female alike; and the descendants who share with the deceased the nearest common ancestor: namely, the brothers, male or female, or those more distant who share a common ancestor with him—namely, the paternal uncles and the sons of paternal uncles—but here only the males among these are intended. When itemised, these come to ten men and seven women.
The men are: the son; the son’s son, however far down the line; the father; the grandfather, the father’s father, however far up; the brother of whatever kind—that is, full, consanguine, or uterine; the brother’s son, however remote; the paternal uncle and the uncle’s son, however remote; the husband; and the male patron by manumission.
The women are: the daughter; the son’s daughter, however remote; the mother; the grandmother, however remote; the sister; the wife; and the female patron by manumission.
The disputed heirs are the uterine kindred (dhawū al-arḥām)—those who have no fixed share in the Book of God and are not agnates. In general they are: the children of daughters; the daughters of brothers; the children of sisters; the daughters of paternal uncles; the paternal uncle who shares the father but not the mother; the sons of uterine brothers; the paternal aunts; the maternal aunts; and the maternal uncles.
Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, the majority of the jurists of the various centres, and the Companion Zayd ibn Thābit held that these relatives do not inherit. The rest of the Companions, together with the jurists of Iraq—Kūfa and Basra—and a group of scholars from other regions, maintained that they do inherit.
Those who affirmed their entitlement differed over the manner of their inheritance. Abū Ḥanīfa and his companions held that they inherit