Accordingly, a sick person is prohibited from singling out some of his heirs for a gift or bequest, or from using a stratagem to achieve that end. Nor may witnesses attest to an acknowledgment that [أ/ق 70] they prompted him to make or that they know to be invalid. This is also why women and minors inherit, contrary to the practice of the people of the Age of Ignorance—a practice to which many Bedouins have reverted—and why equal treatment is accorded to those whom Allah has placed on an equal footing, including children born to free women and bondwomen.

The Companions and those who came after them differed over certain questions concerning the prescribed inheritance shares, such as the grandfather inheriting alongside siblings, the shared case, the two Umarī cases, and other matters.

Likewise, one must know what justice requires [in] (1) transactions, including sales (2), leases, agency arrangements, partnerships, gifts, endowments, bequests, and similar dealings involving contracts and transfers of possession. Justice in these matters is the foundation upon which both realms stand; neither this world nor the Hereafter can be set aright without it.

Some aspects of justice in these matters are evident and can be recognized by everyone through reason. They form part of what is right, concerning which Allah Most High says: “He enjoins upon them what is right” [al-Arāf: 157]. Examples include the buyer’s obligation to pay the price and the seller’s obligation to deliver the goods; the prohibition against giving short measure or weight; the obligation of truthfulness and disclosure; the prohibition against lying, breach of trust, and fraud; and the principle that the proper return for a loan is repayment and gratitude (3).

Other aspects remain obscure to reason until they are set forth by the revealed laws, including the law given to us Muslims. Most of what the Book and the Sunnah prohibit in transactions is ultimately directed toward