Female heirs

Female heirs are seven (7):

1. Daughter.
A daughter will inherit from her father and mother. This provision does not extend to her children. That is to say, her children cannot replace or represent her to inherit from their (maternal) grandfather or (maternal) grandmother in her absence.

2. Son's daughter.
If a son has a daughter, she will inherit from the son's father or mother (her paternal grandparents) in the absence of the son. The rule also applies to son's son's daughter, son's son's son's daughter, and so on. This has been explained in the last post under '"grandson or his descendants".

3. Mother.
When a son or daughter passes on, his/her mother is entitled to a part of his/her estate. She cannot be excluded no-matter what happens.

4. Either grandmother.
In the absence of the mother, both grandmothers i.e maternal and paternal will inherit from a deceased. Here, the "ascendant rule" applies, such that if one or both grandmothers is/are absent, the great-grandmothers will take their place and inherit from the deceased.

5. Sister.
There are three (3) types of sisters: full, consanguine and uterine i.e having same father same mother, same father different mother and same mother different father respectively. In subsequent posts, we shall examine the circumstances in which each of them will be entitled to a share of the deceased's estate. Note that sister's children (sons and daughters or their descendants) are non-heirs.

6. Wife.
A wife will inherit from her late husband no-matter what happens. She cannot be excluded. She will also inherit from him if he dies after divorcing her with one or two pronouncements (revocable divorce) provided her Iddah has NOT elapsed. But if the divorce is irrevocable (three pronouncements), she will not inherit from his whether her Iddah has elapsed or not. Now, if the husband is "insensitive" and divorces his wife irrevocably DURING his final illness in which he dies, the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence have divergent opinions:
a) As-Sahafi'i - She will NOT inherit from him whether or not the Iddah has expired.
b) Abu-Hanifa - If the Iddah has not expired, she will inherit from him, otherwise, she will become a non-heir.
c) Ahmad bn Hanbal - She has the right to inherit from him whether the Iddah has expired or not provided she has not married another person.
d) Malik - She will inherit from him even if the Iddah has expired or she has married another person.

7. Patroness.
A woman who sets a slave free will inherit from him/her so long as he/she has no heir.

Male heirs

Male heirs of a deceased are ten (10):

1. Son.

This refers to legitimate male child. Note that a man can only have a legitimate child after contracting a legally acceptable marriage with a woman outside his prohibited degree; while a woman can have a legitimate child with or without a formal marriage contract. In other words, if a man and woman fornicates, (Allah forbids), and a child is born as a result, whether or not they get married afterwards, the man is the biological father but NOT the legal father of the child but the woman is both the biological and legal mother. Hence such a child will inherit from his mother ONLY and vice-versa. This ruling also applies to adopted children. They will not inherit from their adopted parents and vice-versa.

2. Grandson or his descendant.
Everyone has two categories of relatives: agnates and cognates. Agnates are relatives whose connection is traceable through the father or male line such as paternal grandparents, paternal uncle, paternal aunt, etc., while cognates are relatives whose connection is traceable through the mother or the female line like maternal grandparents, maternal uncle, maternal aunt and so on. Now, only agnates are eligible to inherit the estate of a deceased; meaning that all cognates are not bona-fide heirs except uterine brothers/sisters and maternal grandmother to whom the Qur'an assigns a share (more on this later).

Therefore, the grandson referred to here as a male heir is the one through a son. The grandson through a daughter is a non-heir. For example, 'A' (who may either be a male or female) has a son 'B', who also begets a son 'C'. When 'A' dies, his/her son 'B' inherits from him/her as the case in (1) above. 'C' is excluded. We shall discuss 'exclusion' in a subsequent post Insha Allah. In the case whereby 'B' is absent at the time 'A' dies; meaning that 'B' died before 'A', then 'C' the grandson will represent or stand in place of 'B' and inherit from 'A'. I call this phenomenon "jumping".  

Assuming 'C' has a son 'D' who also has a son 'E', 'E' will inherit from 'A' if and only if 'B', 'C' and 'D' are absent. That is what is meant by '"his descendants", i.e the descendants of grandson 'C'. Put in another way, a grandson will inherit from his grandfather if his father is absent. Likewise, a great-grandson will inherit from his great-grandfather if his father and grandfather are absent. Now, very important. The rule explained above applies to ONLY sons. That is, 'A' (may be of any gender) but 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E' ... must all be males.

If 'C' were to be a female and she marries 'X' who has a father 'Y' and grandfather 'Z', and the marriage is blessed with a son 'D'; when 'A' dies, 'C' will inherit from him/her if 'B' is absent. But 'D' CANNOT inherit from 'A' even if 'B' and 'C' are absent because 'A' and 'B' are his cognates. 'D' is only entitled to inherit from his parents 'X' and 'C', paternal grandfather 'Y' (in the absence of 'X') and paternal great-grandfather 'Z' (in the absence of both 'X' and 'Y').

In summary, the grandson entitled to inheritance is son's son, not daughter's son. Also the descendants of son's son ('D' and 'E' as in the first example above) will "jump" and inherit from 'A' provided 'B' and 'C' are absent. This trend of "jumping" will continue down the line as far as a female does not appear. If a female emerges, she will also "jump" but her children (male and female) will not because to them, the line is cognate.

3. Father.
This is straight forward. A father shall inherit from his son or daughter.

4. Paternal grandfather or his ascendant.
By now its clear that maternal grandfather is a non-heir. So, a paternal grandfather will inherit from his grandson or granddaughter in the absence of his son. Using the illustration above, given that 'A', 'B', 'C' and 'D' are all males and 'E' is either male or female; when 'E' passes on, 'D' (his or her father) will inherit from him or her as the case in (3) above. In the absence of 'D', 'C' (the paternal grandfather) will inherit from 'E'. The same ruling applies to ascendants 'B' and 'A'.

5. Brother.
There are three (3) types of brothers:
a) Full brother - having same father and same mother.

b) Consanguine brother - having same father but different mother.

c) Uterine brother - having same mother but different father.

The circumstances in which each of them will have a share of the deceased's estate or be excluded will be explained in subsequent posts Insha Allah. Here, we are just interested in listing the male heirs.

6. Full or consanguine brother's son or his descendant.

As earlier explained, descendant refers to sons only who have the privilege of "jumping" when their parents are absent. Full or consanguine brother's daughter is a non-heir. Likewise son and daughter of uterine brother is a non-heir.

7. Paternal uncle.

Father's elder or younger brother from the same mother (full paternal uncle) and father's elder or younger brother from a different mother (half paternal uncle) are both heirs. Maternal uncle is a cognate and non-heir. 

8. Paternal uncle's son or his descendant.

9. Husband.
A husband will inherit from his wife if she dies before him. Likewise, if a man divorces his wife with one or two pronouncements (i.e revocable divorce) and she dies WHILE in her Iddah, he will inherit from her because technically, she remains his wife. However, if the divorce is irrevocable (three pronouncements), he will NOT inherit from her whether the Iddah has expired or not.

10. Patron.
One who sets a slave free. He will inherit from the slave if the later has no heirs.  

 

Introduction

Death is inevitable. As a result, Islam being a complete way of life, has spelt out how the deceased's estate should be shared among his heirs. By estate, we mean the entire property the deceased left behind such as houses, cars, clothes, furniture, land, farm, jewellery, cash (at hand and in bank), shares, bonds, and so on including socks and underwear; everything. Subhanal-Lah. 

It should be noted that when a Muslim dies, the first obligation to be taken out of his estate is kafn (i.e shroud) then repayment of his outstanding debt, followed by fulfillment of his will - provided it does not exceed one-third (1/3) of the entire estate and its not in favour of a heir. If any or both of these conditions are not satisfied, the validity of the will is subject to approval of all the heirs, otherwise, its void. After these have being deducted, the rightful heirs then inherit the remaining estate.

This blog aims at presenting the Laws of Inheritance as easy as ABC Insha Allah. Comments, corrections suggestions and constructive criticisms are highly welcome.