- One-third. This is the mother’s fixed share when two conditions are met: the deceased leaves no descendant heir and he is not survived by two or more siblings.
The proof for the first condition is the Almighty’s statement, “If he has no child and his parents inherit from him, his mother shall receive one-third” (Q 4:11).
The proof for the second is His words, “But if he has brothers, then his mother shall receive one-sixth” (Q 4:11).
That same one-third is the prescribed portion of the uterine siblings—whether male or female—when they are two or more, as He says: “If a man or a woman dies leaving neither parent nor child but has a brother or a sister, then each of them shall receive one-sixth; but if they are more than one, they shall share one-third” (Q 4:12).
The scholars unanimously agree that the “brother” and “sister” in this verse refer to siblings through the same mother. Ibn Masʿūd and Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ even recited it, “and he has a brother or sister from his mother’s side.” Numerous reports deal with their inheritance, and a prerequisite for their entitlement is the absence of the mother. When they are of equal degree they share equally, but a nearer relative among them excludes the more remote.
One-sixth is the fixed share of a single uterine sibling, male or female alike, by consensus, based on the same verse and the recitation of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd and Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ.
One-sixth is also the prescribed portion of a granddaughter through a son—and of more than one—when coupled with a daughter of the deceased, by unanimous agreement. Ibn Masʿūd was asked about a case involving a daughter and a granddaughter through a son and said, “I shall judge between them with the judgment of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: the daughter receives one-half, the granddaughter through the son one-sixth, completing two-thirds, and whatever remains is for the sister.” Reported by al-Bukhārī.
The same rule applies to a great-granddaughter through a son alongside a granddaughter through a son, and so on. Likewise, by analogy, a paternal half-sister inherits one-sixth when she is together with a full sister.
One-sixth is further the father’s share—or that of the grandfather in the father’s absence—when the deceased leaves a descendant heir.
These, then, are the six fixed shares mentioned in the Noble Quran, together with the heirs entitled to them and the manner in which they receive them. Should anything remain after the fixed-share heirs have taken their portions, it passes to the residuary heirs, in accordance with His saying, “If he leaves no child…”