The legal definition of inheritance according to Ash-Shafi’i scholars and the Hanbali scholar, Al-Qadi Afdalud-Din Al-Khunji, is the dividable right of the one who is entitled to it after the death of its possessor, due to kinship or the like [i.e. marriage or wala’].

It should be remembered that Ijtihad^[1] is limited in the field of inheritance. The majority of rules and issues regarding the laws of inheritance are divine. The Law-Giver is the One who prescribes the share of each person. When Muslim scholars contemplate these shares, their belief in God increases and they thank Him for the divine wisdom of the law, and say, ‘Our Lord says the truth.’ ‘We have not neglected in the Register a thing.…’ [Al-An‘am, 6:38]

Critics repeatedly claim that Islam has oppressed women by making her share of inheritance half that of a man. As Muslims, we believe in the attributes of God [swt] and among these attributes are ‘the Just’ and ‘the Judge’. His justice is unlimited and encompasses all mankind. Moreover, there are statements in the Qur’an that every Muslim should remember.

The Qur’an declares, ‘…And your Lord does injustice to no one.’ [Al-Kahf, 18:49] And, ‘…injustice is not done to them, [even] as much as a thread [inside a date seed].’ [An-Nisa, 4:49] And, ‘…God is not ever unjust to [His] servants.” [Al-Hajj, 22:10] And, ‘…God would not have wronged them, but it was they who were wronging themselves….’ [Al-’Ankabut, 29:40] ‘God does not do injustice, [even] as much as an atom’s weight…’ [An-Nisa’, 4:40] And says, ‘…will not be wronged, [even as much as] the speck on a date seed.’ [An-Nisa’, 4:124] And declares, ‘…It is not God who wrongs them, but they wrong their own souls.’ [At-Taubah, 9:70]

Not every share of inheritance between men and women is different. Men only receive twice the share of women in a limited number of cases. Islamic jurisprudence of inheritance explains that the difference between heirs [males and females] is not related to sex, but rather, it is based on divine wisdom and objectives. The difference in the shares of the heirs [male and female] is determined by three criteria:

1. The relationship between the deceased [male or female] and the heir [male or female].  If the proximity of the relationship is near, the share of the inheritance will be increased and vice versa without any consideration of sex. If the relationship is distant, the share will be less. For instance, a single daughter inherits half the estate of her mother [as a female], while the husband [i.e. father of the daughter] inherits a quarter of the estate [even though he is male] because the daughter is closer to the deceased [the mother] than the husband.

2. The rank of generation also plays a vital role in determining the share of inheritance. We find the younger generations, which face the future and are preparing themselves to endure life’s burdens, usually inherit a greater share than the older generations. Those who are working and struggling to sustain the lives of their dependents are also taken into account, regardless of their sex.  Thus, the daughter of the deceased will inherit a larger share than her mother, even though both of them are females. The daughter’s share is more than her father’s share if she does not have a brother.

3. Financial responsibility which Islamic law has imposed upon the male. This is the only criteria that may differentiate between the sexes.  Therefore, the difference is not related to any injustice towards women or to decrease their status, but rather the opposite is true.

If the heirs are equal in the first two criteria [i.e. in terms of their proximity to the deceased and in terms of their age], such as with children of the deceased, then we find that the financial burdens are different between the sexes, and this is the reason for the difference in the inheritance.  The Qur’an did not generalize the difference between male and female heirs, but rather specified it in one case. The reasoning behind the difference in this case is that the male is charged with the responsibility of maintaining his female relatives like his wife, her children, and any other female relatives.

The husband is financially responsible for his wife. Although a wife inherits a share which is less than her son’s share, she is fortunate, because her share is free from obligatory burdens of bearing the family’s expenses. Her share is for her personal use and is a kind of insurance against danger and change. The divine wisdom contained in this legislation is obvious. The financial burdens of men include:

1. A man bears financial burdens at the beginning of his marital life. For example, he pays Al-Mahr [the dower]. God [swt] says, ‘And give the women [upon marriage] their [bridal] gifts graciously. But if they give up willingly to you anything of it, then take it in satisfaction and ease..’ [An-Nisa’, 4:4] Al-Mahr is the obligatory money given by a husband to his wife at the time of marriage. On the other hand, she is not required to pay a dowry to him if she wants to marry him.

2. After marriage, the husband is financially responsible for his wife even if she has more money than him. Moreover, she is not required to spend her money on herself or on him. Islam privileges her and protects her wealth.

3. Man is also financially responsible for his other relatives such as his mother, father, and children; and he bears the family burdens and social obligations.

These considerations, along with others, make us look objectively at wealth. The concept of wealth, or of an estate, is more comprehensive than that of income, since income is different from wealth which is the amount that remains after the cost of proceeds and expenditures.

For these reasons, in special cases, Islam fixes the share of a woman as half that of a man. Moreover, it ensures that her share is hers to keep, except for paying Zakat [poor-dues]. God [swt] gives men a greater share but commands them to spend on their wife, children and parents once they attain the age of maturity and are financially responsible. By knowing this, we can appreciate that Islam biases women over men in terms of wealth, and assures that they keep their wealth without obliging them to spend it.

Therefore, when the issue of financial burdens does not exist, as in the case of inheritance for uterine brothers and sisters, we find that the Law-Giver makes the share of inheritance of the male equal to that of the female. God [swt] says, ‘And if a man or woman leaves neither ascendants nor descendants but has a brother or a sister, then for each one of them is a sixth. But if they are more than two, they share a third.’ [An-Nisa’, 4:12]

The reason why males and females receive an equal share of inheritance here is their maternal kinship, and they are not residuary [‘Asaba]^[2] for the deceased. The man falls under the category of his lineage while the woman does not, for he does not bear any burden or responsibility in this respect.

Many facts are revealed by reviewing the following cases and issues of inheritance:

1. There are only four cases where a male inherits double the share of a female.
2. There are many cases where a female inherits a share equal to that of a male.
3. There are more than ten cases where a woman inherits more than that of a male.
4. There are cases where a woman inherits a share, but the man inherits nothing.

These cases are detailed as follows:

1. Cases Where a Woman is Entitled to Half the Share of a Man
2. If the deceased leaves a daughter and a son, or a son’s son or a son’s daughter.
3. If the deceased only leaves a father and mother and does not leave any children, a husband or a wife.
4. If the deceased leaves full sisters and brothers.
5. If the deceased leaves paternal half sisters and brothers.

2. Cases Where Women Have a Share Equal to Men
3. If the deceased leaves a father, a mother, and a son’s son.
4. If the deceased leaves a uterine brother and sister.
5. If the deceased leaves full sisters, and uterine brothers and sisters.
6. If the deceased leaves a daughter, brother or the nearest residuary [‘Asabah] to the father [with no one to exclude anyone from inheritance].
7. If the deceased leaves a father, a maternal grandmother and a son’s son.
8. If the deceased leaves a husband, a mother, two uterine sisters and a full brother. According to ‘Umar [raa], two uterine sisters and full brothers share one third equally.
9. A man or a woman is entitled to the whole estate in cases where he or she is the sole heir. For example, the son inherits the whole estate as a residuary, while the daughter inherits half as a sharer and the remainder by the method of Radd [return]. In another example, if the deceased leaves only a father, the father will inherit the estate as a residuary, and if the deceased leaves only a mother, then she inherits a third as a sharer and the remainder goes to her by the method of Radd [return].
10. If the deceased leaves her husband and a full sister, her sister inherits the same as the male. If the deceased leaves a husband and full brother, the husband is entitled to half, while the remainder goes to her brother as a residuary. If she leaves a husband and a sister, then the husband has half and the sister receives the remaining half as well.
11. If the deceased leaves a uterine sister and a full brother. If there is a husband, mother, uterine sister, and a full brother, then the husband is entitled to half, the mother is entitled to a sixth, the uterine sister is entitled to a sixth, and the remainder [one sixth] is given to the full brother as residuary.
12. Dhawul-Arham [distant relatives] which is applied under Egyptian Law in Article 31 of Law no. 77 in 1943. If there are no sharers or residuaries, then the distant relatives are the heirs. In this case, the estate is divided among them equally. For instance, if the deceased leaves a daughter’s daughter, a daughter’s son, a maternal uncle and a maternal aunt, everyone will receive an equal share.
13. There are six people who are never fully excluded from inheritance: three men and three women. The three men are the husband, the son, and the father, and the three women are the wife, the daughter, and the mother.

3. Cases Where Women Inherit More Than Men
4. If the deceased leaves a husband and one daughter.
5. If the deceased leaves a husband and two daughters.
6. If the deceased leaves a daughter and maternal uncles.
7. If a woman dies leaving $60,000, and the heirs are her husband, father, mother and two daughters, the share of the two daughters is $32,000, where each inherits $16,000. If the deceased leaves two sons instead of two daughters, then each son inherits $12,500, because the two daughters inherit two-thirds as sharers, while the two sons inherit the rest as residuaries.
8. If a woman dies when her estate is worth $48,000, and she leaves a husband, two full sisters, and her mother, then the two sisters inherit two-thirds of the estate, which is $12,000. If she leaves two brothers instead of two sisters, each brother inherits only $8,000 because they inherit the remainder of the estate after the husband and the mother receive their share.
9. Similarly, if she leaves two paternal sisters, they inherit more than two paternal brothers.
10. If a woman dies leaving a husband, a father, a mother, and a daughter and her estate is worth $156,000, then the daughter inherits half of the estate [i.e. $72,000], but if she leaves a son instead of a daughter, then he would only inherit $65,000 because she inherits as a sharer while he inherits as a residuary. Sharers are given their share first and then the residuaries.
11. If a woman dies leaving her husband, mother, and full sister, and her estate is worth $48,000, then the full sister inherits $18,000. But if she leaves a full brother instead of a sister, then he inherits $8,000 because he only inherits as a residuary, whereas the sister would inherit as a sharer, like the husband and the mother. In this case, the full sister inherits more than double the share of a full brother.
12. If a man dies when his estate is worth $48,000, and he leaves a wife, mother, two uterine sisters, and two full brothers, then the two uterine sisters [who are the furthest relatives of the deceased] inherit $16,000, or $8,000 each, while the two full brothers inherit $12,000, or $6,000 each.
13. If a woman leaves a husband, uterine sister, and two full brothers and her estate is worth $120,000, then the uterine sister inherits one-third of the estate, or $40,000, while the two full brothers inherit $20,000. Thus, the uterine sister [who is the furthest relative of the deceased] receives a share which is four times that of the full brother.
14. If the deceased leaves a father, mother, and husband, according to Ibn ‘Abbas, the husband inherits half, the mother is entitled to one-third and the remaining one-sixth goes to the father. The father here inherits half of his wife’s share.
15. If a woman leaves a husband, mother, uterine sister, and two full brothers, and her estate is worth $60,000, the uterine sister inherits $10,000 while each brother inherits $5,000. This means that the uterine sister’s share is double that of the full brother, even though she is a more distant relative to the deceased than him.
16. If a man leaves a wife, a father, a mother, a daughter and his son’s daughter when the estate is worth $576,000, then the share of his son’s daughter is $96,000, whereas if he had left a son’s son instead of a son’s daughter, the share of his son’s son would only be $27,000.
17. If the deceased leaves a mother, maternal grandmother, and paternal grandmother, and the estate is worth $60,000, then the mother inherits one-sixth as a sharer and the remainder by the method of return [radd]. If the deceased leaves a father instead of a mother; meaning a father, a maternal grandmother, and a paternal grandmother, then the maternal grandmother will inherit one-sixth or $10,000 and will not be excluded. $10,000 and the reminder [$50,000] is given to the father. The mother inherits the whole estate [$60,000] while if the father assumes her position he will only inherit $50,000 which means that she inherits more than him.

Cases Where Women Inherit and Men Do not

1. If a woman leaves her husband, father, mother, daughter, and son’s daughter and her estate is worth $195,000, then the son’s daughter inherits one-sixth [$26,000]. However, if the woman leaves a son’s son instead of a son’s daughter, then his share will be zero, because he is a residuary who would inherit the remainder but there is no remainder. This distribution is different from the law of obligatory bequest applied in Egyptian Law No. 71 of 1946, which contradicts the Islamic Schools of Thought. Here, I mean the authentic schools that maintain that women inherit in some cases, while men do not.
2. If a woman leaves a husband, full sister, and paternal sister and her estate is worth $84,000, the paternal sister inherits one-sixth, or $12,000, while if there is a paternal brother instead, he will inherit nothing. The husband will inherit half of her estate and the full sister will inherit half, and the remainder [i.e. nothing] goes to the paternal brother.
3. The grandmother in many cases has a share in the inheritance while the grandfather does not. By viewing the rules of inheritance for grandparents, I have noticed the following: a grandfather who is related to the deceased from the father’s side, such as the paternal grandfather or the paternal great-grandfather, whoever is closer to the deceased, have no share in inheritance while the maternal grandfather or maternal great-grandfather also have no share in the inheritance. The grandmother, who is entitled to inheritance, is the one whose relation to the deceased does not include a grandfather, who is not entitled to inheritance, or if she is the grandmother whose relation to the deceased does not include a father between two mothers. Thus, the mother of the mother’s father is not entitled to inheritance while the mother of the father’s mother is entitled to it.
4. If the deceased leaves a maternal grandfather and maternal grandmother, then the maternal grandmother inherits the whole estate and takes one-sixth as a sharer, in addition to the residue by the method of return [radd], while the maternal grandfather inherits nothing, since he is a disinherited grandfather.
5. It is the same when a man dies leaving a maternal great-grandfather and maternal great-grandmother. The maternal great-grandmother inherits the whole estate, because she inherits one-sixth as a sharer and the remainder by the method of Radd, whereas the maternal great-grandfather inherits nothing since he is not entitled as a grandfather.

Thus, there are more than thirty cases where a woman inherits the same as or more than a man, or where she has a share and he does not. In contrast, there are only four cases where a woman inherits half the share of a man. These are the results of examining the cases and issues in the law of inheritance. I think that this misconception is now clear.

^[1] Ijtihad is a technical term of Islamic law that describes the process of making a legal decision by independent interpretation of the sources, including the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Ijtihād is the opposite of taqlid [imitation]. [translator]

^[2] ‘Asabah: [residuaries] are all the male relatives of a deceased from the father’s side. They inherit the remainder of the estate after those who share the estate have been satisfied. [Translator]