is granted only to a male agnate, a woman who is an heir, or a woman related through an agnate or an heir; if none of these is available, it falls to the judge. According to the second view, male relatives on the mother’s side have no right to custody. Both views are found in the schools of al-Shāfiʿī and Ahmad.

If one side of the family enjoyed precedence by virtue of that relationship, both its men and its women would take precedence. Since its men do not take precedence, by agreement, neither should its women. The principles of Islamic law, taken together, give precedence to paternal relatives in inheritance, contracting, maintenance, authority in matters of death and property, and other matters. The Lawgiver has not given maternal kinship precedence in any ruling. Whoever gives its women precedence in custody therefore departs from the principles of Islamic law. Rather, the mother is given precedence because she is a woman, and women as a class take precedence over men in custody.

This entails giving the paternal grandmother precedence over the grandfather, just as the mother is given precedence over the father; likewise, the child’s sisters take precedence over his brothers, his paternal aunts over his paternal uncles, and his maternal aunts over his maternal uncles. This is sound analogy and reasoning. Giving the women on the mother’s side precedence as a class over those on the father’s side, however, conflicts with both legal principles and reason. Thus, those who adopt this position fall into inconsistency and fail to apply their principle uniformly. Accordingly, those who have not properly grasped the principle and purpose of Islamic law in this matter hold contradictory views. Indeed, more contradictory views of this kind are found concerning custody than concerning other matters.

Some give the maternal grandmother precedence over the paternal grandmother, as in one of the two views in Ahmad’s school, which is also the position of Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Abū Hanīfah. Yet some of these scholars give the paternal half-sister precedence over the sister