To master its rulings it is enough to grasp the three verses of Sūrat al-Nisāʾ and the forthcoming ḥadith of Ibn ʿAbbās, for together they cover the main questions of the subject and only the rarest of issues fall outside their scope.

We shall therefore set down here a few introductory notes that pertain to this topic, so that the benefit of this book will be complete and the reader spared the need for lengthier works.

The causes of inheritance are three:

1. Lineal kinship, for the Most High says: “Those related by the womb are nearer to one another” (Q 8:75).
2. A valid marriage, as in His words: “And for you is one-half of what your wives leave behind…” (Q 4:12).
3. Walāʾ (clientage through manumission), according to the marfūʿ report of Ibn ʿUmar: “Walāʾ is a bond like the bond of kinship.”

Anything other than these three is not a cause of inheritance according to the majority of scholars. Whenever one of them exists, the two parties inherit from one another—even with respect to walāʾ, according to the sounder view.

There are also impediments to inheritance. If any one of them is present the inheritance is barred, even though its cause exists, for a matter is complete only when its conditions are met and its impediments removed.

The impediments are three:

1. Killing. Whoever kills the person from whom he would inherit, or unlawfully causes his death, does not inherit from him, even if the killing was unintentional. For the deliberate killer this is because “Whoever hastens to take something before its time is punished by being deprived of it,” and for others it is a precautionary blocking of the means. ʿUmar said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, “The killer has no share,” related by Mālik in the Muwaṭṭaʾ.
2. Slavery. A slave does not inherit from his relative, for if he did the share would pass to his master. Likewise, a slave’s property is inheritable because he owns nothing of his own; whatever he possesses belongs to his master.
3. Difference of religion, the details of which will be explained later in the ḥadith of Usāmah, God willing.

Ḥadīth One

Ibn ʿAbbās—may Allah be pleased with them both—reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Assign the prescribed shares to those entitled to them; whatever remains then belongs to the nearest male agnate.”

In another wording: “Distribute the estate among the fixed-share heirs according to the Book of Allah; whatever the fixed shares leave over goes to the nearest male agnate.” (1)

Overall meaning

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ instructs those who divide an estate to apportion it among its rightful beneficiaries with the just, lawful division that Allah has willed.

First, the fixed-share heirs receive the portions specified in the Book of Allah—two-thirds, one-third, one-sixth, one-half, one-quarter, and one-eighth.

Whatever remains after that is given to the male relative who is closest to the deceased, for males are the basis of ʿaṣabah (agnatic succession). They are preferred according to their degrees of proximity to the deceased, as will be set out shortly—after the fixed-share heirs have been explained, God willing.