📜 Islamic Inheritance (Faraid): The Complete Guide

Reference article · last updated July 2026 · mainstream Sunni fiqh

Islamic inheritance (faraid) distributes a deceased Muslim's net estate using a fixed hierarchy set out in the Quran: debts and funeral costs are paid first, an optional bequest (waṣiyyah) of up to one-third of what remains may be honoured, and the balance is then divided among surviving relatives in two categories — fixed-share heirs (dhawu al-furud), who receive a specific Quranic fraction such as 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8, and residuary heirs (ʿaṣaba), who take whatever is left over, and can inherit the whole estate if no fixed-share heir survives. Which relatives actually inherit, and how much each receives, depends on the exact combination of survivors — a rule system called ḥajb (blocking) determines who is excluded or reduced when a closer relative is present. This guide walks through the full method with worked numeric examples, the standard edge cases every student of faraid needs to recognise, and the genuine points where the four Sunni schools of law (madhhabs) differ.

This is a deep, static reference — read it free, any time, with no account and no time limit. If you'd rather work through the subject as a structured lesson path with a knowledge-check exam and a downloadable, signed, QR-verifiable certificate at the end, see the academy's companion course: Islamic Inheritance (Ilm al-Faraid): A Beginner's Guide. The two are designed to complement each other, not duplicate — this article is for deep study and quick lookup; the course is for the certificate.

Why faraid exists: the Quranic foundation

Before Islam, pre-Islamic Arabian custom generally excluded women and minors from inheritance altogether, reserving the estate for adult male fighters capable of defending the tribe. The Quran overturned this directly, establishing that both men and women have a defined, non-negotiable right to inherit — a right that cannot be signed away, gifted around, or withheld by family consensus. The core verses are:

• Surah An-Nisa, 4:7 — establishes the general principle: both men and women have a share of what parents and close relatives leave behind, "whether the property be small or large."
• Surah An-Nisa, 4:11 — sets the shares for children and parents: a son's share is twice a daughter's; two or more daughters (with no son) share two-thirds; a lone daughter takes one-half; each parent takes one-sixth if the deceased left children, with the mother taking one-third if there are no children and no plural siblings.
• Surah An-Nisa, 4:12 — sets the shares for spouses and for uterine siblings (siblings related only through the mother): a husband takes one-half if his wife left no children, one-quarter if she did; a wife (or wives, sharing the fraction) takes one-quarter if her husband left no children, one-eighth if he did; uterine siblings take one-sixth each if one survives, or share one-third if two or more survive.
• Surah An-Nisa, 4:176 — the closing verse on kalāla (a person who dies without a surviving child or father), covering full siblings: a lone sister takes one-half, two or more sisters share two-thirds, and a brother and sister together split the estate at a 2:1 ratio in the brother's favour.

Because the Quran specifies exact fractions for particular relationships rather than leaving distribution to family discretion or a testator's preference, faraid is often described as a fixed or "mandatory" system: heirs with a Quranic share cannot be disinherited by a will, and a will cannot be used to give an heir who already has a fixed share more than that share (see the FAQ on wills below).

Order of settlement: what happens before shares are calculated

Before any inheritance share is calculated, mainstream fiqh applies these steps in order, drawn from the Quran (4:11-12, "after any bequest they make or debt") and the consensus of the classical jurists:

1. Funeral and burial expenses — reasonable costs of preparing and burying the deceased are paid from the estate first.
2. Outstanding debts — all debts owed by the deceased (loans, unpaid dower/mahr owed to a spouse, unpaid zakat, etc.) are settled next.
3. Valid bequest (waṣiyyah) — a bequest to a non-heir (a distant relative, a friend, a charity) is honoured, but capped at one-third of what remains after debts. A larger bequest requires the unanimous consent of all heirs to stand.
4. The distributable estate — only what remains after the first three steps is divided among the heirs according to the shares below.

The fixed-share heirs (dhawu al-furud)

The Quran specifies six fixed fractions (furūḍ muqaddarah): 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 2/3, 1/3, and 1/6. A relative entitled to one of these is a fixed-share heir. The table below summarises the mainstream default share for each relative — always subject to the blocking rules in the next section, since the actual share can drop, or the heir can be excluded altogether, depending on who else survives.

Note: uterine siblings (related through the mother only) do not take a double male share among themselves — brothers and sisters on the mother's side alone share their fraction equally, unlike full and consanguine (paternal) siblings.

Residuary heirs (ʿaṣaba)

ʿAṣaba are heirs who do not have a fixed Quranic fraction; instead they take whatever remains once the fixed-share heirs have been paid — and if there is no fixed-share heir at all, an ʿaṣaba can take the entire estate. The classical jurists group residuaries into three broad categories:

ʿAṣaba by themselves (ʿaṣaba bi-nafsihi)

Male agnatic relatives in the direct or collateral male line: sons, son's sons (however low), the father, the paternal grandfather (however high), full brothers, consanguine (paternal-side) brothers, and their sons and further descendants, then paternal uncles and their sons. They inherit in a strict order of priority — the nearer relative excludes the more distant one from the same branch.

ʿAṣaba through another (ʿaṣaba bi-ghayrihi)

Certain female relatives become residuary — rather than fixed-share — heirs when a brother of equal degree is also present, taking a 2:1 (male:female) ratio with him. This applies to: a daughter with a son, a son's daughter with a son's son, and a full or consanguine sister with a full or consanguine brother (in the kalāla case).

ʿAṣaba together with another (ʿaṣaba maʿa ghayrihi)

A narrower rule: a full or consanguine sister becomes residuary — without needing a brother present — if she inherits alongside a daughter or son's daughter. In that specific combination, the sister takes what remains after the daughter's fixed share, rather than being excluded or capped at her own fixed fraction.

Hajb: blocking and exclusion rules

Ḥajb (from ḥajaba, "to veil" or "screen") governs which heirs are actually present in a given case. Jurists distinguish two forms:

• Ḥajb ḥirmān (total blocking) — an heir is excluded completely. Example: a full brother is entirely blocked if the deceased leaves a son, a son's son, or a father. A grandchild through a son is blocked if a son survives.
• Ḥajb nuqṣān (partial blocking / reduction) — an heir's share is reduced, but the heir is not removed. Example: a husband's share falls from 1/2 to 1/4 if children survive; a mother's share falls from 1/3 to 1/6 if the deceased leaves two or more siblings of any kind (even siblings who are themselves blocked from inheriting anything, in the mainstream Sunni view — this is sometimes called ḥajb bi'l-shakhṣ, exclusion that reduces a share without granting the excluding relative anything themselves).

Two heirs are never subject to total blocking under any circumstances: parents, and children (sons and daughters). Every other relative can, in some family configuration, be blocked entirely by a nearer relative.

Common exclusion pairs students should memorise:

• A son blocks: son's sons, son's daughters (turns them residuary or excludes, depending on ratio), all siblings (full, consanguine and uterine), and all more distant agnatic relatives.
• A father blocks: all siblings and grandparents on the paternal side.
• A daughter alone does not block a son's daughter completely — she caps her at 1/6 (bringing the total for daughters together to 2/3) rather than excluding her, unless a son's son of equal or higher degree is also present to make her residuary.
• Two or more siblings of any kind reduce the mother's share from 1/3 to 1/6, even where the siblings themselves are blocked by a father or son.

Step-by-step calculation method

Classical faraid manuals use a common-denominator method rather than working in decimals. The steps:

1. List every heir who actually survives and identify each one's default classification (fixed-share, residuary, or both depending on who else is present).
2. Apply ḥajb — remove any heir who is totally blocked by a nearer relative, and adjust the shares of any heir who is partially blocked.
3. Find the base number (aṣl al-masʾala) — the lowest common denominator of all the fixed fractions actually in play (typically 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24 or a multiple).
4. Convert each fixed share into a whole-number portion of that base number.
5. Check the total. If the fixed shares add up to exactly the base number and there is a residuary heir, the residuary takes nothing extra beyond what's left (there should be nothing left). If a residuary heir survives, they take whatever portion of the base number is left over after the fixed shares. If there is no residuary heir and the fixed shares don't use the whole base number, apply radd (see below). If the fixed shares exceed the base number, apply ʿawl (see below).
6. Convert portions to money or asset value by dividing the net estate by the base number and multiplying by each heir's portion.

Worked example 1: husband, mother, father, one daughter

A woman dies leaving a net distributable estate of 240,000 (any currency unit), survived by her husband, her mother, her father, and one daughter.

• Husband: 1/4 (reduced from 1/2 because a child survives)
• Mother: 1/6 (reduced from 1/3 because a child survives)
• Father: 1/6 (fixed, because a child survives) plus residue as ʿaṣaba (because a son does not survive, only a daughter, the father takes his 1/6 fixed share and also stands to receive any leftover residue as the nearest male agnate)
• Daughter: 1/2 (lone daughter, no son survives)

Base number: the fractions 1/4, 1/6, 1/6, 1/2 share a common denominator of 12. Converting: husband 3/12, mother 2/12, father 2/12, daughter 6/12. Total so far: 3+2+2+6 = 13/12 — wait, that exceeds 12, which is a sign to re-check: here, in the standard textbook treatment, the father's fixed 1/6 (2/12) is counted, and since 3+2+2+6 = 13 exceeds the base of 12, this specific combination is actually resolved by giving the father his 1/6 with no extra residue (because there is no leftover — the shares already exceed the base), which signals this case must be checked for ʿawl.

Re-worked cleanly: base = 12. Husband 3/12, Mother 2/12, Daughter 6/12, Father 2/12(fixed minimum). Sum = 13/12. Since fixed shares exceed the base, this case is resolved by ʿawl: the base is raised from 12 to 13, and each heir's numerator stays the same but is now read over 13 instead of 12.

Final distribution (out of an ʿawl base of 13): Husband 3/13 = 55,385; Mother 2/13 = 36,923; Father 2/13 = 36,923; Daughter 6/13 = 110,769 (figures rounded to the nearest whole unit; total may be off by a unit or two due to rounding). This is a textbook demonstration of ʿawl in action — every heir's payout is reduced proportionally from what the raw fraction would otherwise suggest, because the estate cannot pay out more than 100% of itself.

Worked example 2: son, daughter, wife — no ʿawl or radd needed

A man dies leaving a net estate of 300,000, survived by his wife, one son, and one daughter.

• Wife: 1/8 (reduced from 1/4 because children survive)
• Son and daughter: both residuary (ʿaṣaba bi-nafsihi for the son; ʿaṣaba bi-ghayrihi for the daughter, since a son of equal degree is present), sharing the residue 2:1 in the son's favour

Base number: 8 (from the wife's 1/8). Wife: 1/8 of 300,000 = 37,500. Residue = 300,000 − 37,500 = 262,500, split 2:1 between son and daughter: three shares of 87,500 each, so the son takes 175,000 (two shares) and the daughter takes 87,500 (one share). Total check: 37,500 + 175,000 + 87,500 = 300,000. This example shows the ordinary case — no ʿawl, no radd, just fixed share plus residue split by the 2:1 rule.

Worked example 3: radd (return) — mother and one daughter only

A woman dies leaving a net estate of 120,000, survived only by her mother and one daughter — no husband, no father, no siblings, no other agnatic relative.

• Daughter: 1/2 (lone daughter, no son)
• Mother: 1/6 (deceased left a child)

Base number: 6. Daughter 3/6, mother 1/6. Total fixed shares = 4/6, leaving 2/6 unclaimed with no residuary heir present (there is no son, no father, no brother — nobody left to take the ʿaṣaba residue). In the mainstream view (the position generally followed by the majority of Sunni jurists including the Hanafi, Hanbali and later Maliki/Shafiʿi practice, as opposed to the earliest Umayyad-era treasury practice of keeping the leftover for the public treasury, bayt al-māl), the leftover 2/6 is returned (radd) to the fixed-share heirs in proportion to their original shares — here, the daughter and the mother, in the ratio 3:1. Final split: daughter takes 3/4 of the estate = 90,000; mother takes 1/4 of the estate = 30,000. (A surviving spouse, in the mainstream Sunni position, does not share in radd — the spouse keeps only the original fixed fraction, and radd is confined to blood relatives among the fixed-share heirs; this specific point is one where minority opinions and some modern statutory codes differ.)

Madhhab variations: where the four Sunni schools genuinely differ

The Quranic shares themselves — the fractions in 4:11, 4:12 and 4:176 — are common ground across all four Sunni madhhabs (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafiʿi, Hanbali); there is no disagreement on the basic fixed fractions. Real divergence appears in a smaller number of structural and edge-case questions. The clearest example:

The grandfather-with-siblings problem

When a person dies leaving a paternal grandfather (the father's father) but no surviving father, and also leaving full or consanguine (paternal) siblings, the schools disagree on how to treat the grandfather:

• Hanafi school: the paternal grandfather fully steps into the deceased father's position, exactly as a father would, and this completely blocks all siblings — full, consanguine and uterine — from inheriting anything at all.
• Maliki, Shafiʿi and Hanbali schools: the grandfather does not fully substitute for the father. Instead a mechanism called muqāsama ("division/partnership") applies: the grandfather shares the estate with the full (or consanguine) siblings as though he were himself one of the brothers, but with a guaranteed floor — he is never given less than one-third of the estate (or, in some configurations, one-sixth if that is more favourable to him, depending on the specific case), whichever calculation gives him the larger amount.

This is the single most consequential and most frequently cited point of genuine, mainstream difference in classical Sunni faraid — families that include a surviving grandfather and surviving siblings, with no living father, should specifically confirm which school's method their family follows (or which national inheritance statute applies) before finalising a distribution.

Other narrower points of difference

Beyond the grandfather case, the schools also show smaller variations in some secondary questions — for instance, precise treatment of certain distant kindred (dhawu al-arḥām) categories when no fixed-share or ʿaṣaba heir survives at all, and some procedural details of how muqāsama is calculated in less common family combinations. These are genuinely more technical points typically addressed by a qualified faraid specialist on a case-by-case basis, rather than settled defaults suitable for a general reference.

Scope note: Sunni fiqh only

This guide, like the academy's companion course, covers mainstream Sunni fiqh as taught across the classical Hanafi, Maliki, Shafiʿi and Hanbali literature. Shia (Jaʿfari) inheritance law uses a meaningfully different structural framework — including a different heir-classification system — and is outside the scope of this article. If you follow Jaʿfari fiqh, consult resources and scholars specific to that school.

How national law interacts with faraid

Many Muslim-majority countries incorporate faraid, wholly or partly, into codified personal-status or civil inheritance law — sometimes with local statutory adjustments, administrative registration requirements, or rules for mixed-faith households and cross-border estates. Muslims living in non-Muslim-majority countries typically need a valid, country-compliant will to direct their estate toward faraid-consistent distribution, since default civil "intestate succession" rules (who inherits if you die without a will) rarely match the Quranic shares. This is a general pattern, not a substitute for jurisdiction-specific legal advice: always confirm the applicable law where the deceased was domiciled, where the assets are located, and where the heirs reside, and involve a qualified estate-planning professional for any real estate distribution or will drafting.

Frequently asked questions

Disclaimer

This article is general educational information on classical Sunni faraid methodology, prepared for study purposes. It is not a fatwa, legal document, or substitute for personalised advice from a qualified Islamic scholar, faraid specialist, or licensed estate-planning attorney. Numeric examples use round, illustrative figures purely to demonstrate the calculation method — they are not a valuation of any real estate. Family situations vary widely, and edge cases (multiple marriages, missing heirs, disputed paternity, cross-border assets, mixed-faith households) require individual scholarly and legal review. Always verify country-specific inheritance law with a qualified professional before distributing a real estate.