Methodology
Islamic inheritance, in 13 short reads.
Each page covers one school, rule, or special case — the source verses, the worked examples, and where the schools diverge. Useful before you trust any calculator output.
Schools of thought (madhabs)
The General (majority Sunni) opinion
The default ruleset: where the four Sunni schools agree, the General view follows them. A safe starting point for any calculation.
Hanafi inheritance
The largest Sunni school. Stricter blocking around the grandfather and a distinctive ruling on the Musharakah case.
Maliki inheritance
Dominant in North and West Africa. Historically reluctant to apply Radd; agrees with Shafi'i on the shared-sibling case.
Shafi'i inheritance
Egypt, the Levant, and Southeast Asia. Distinctive on the grandfather-with-siblings case and applies the Musharakah ruling.
Hanbali inheritance
The Arabian peninsula. Agrees with Shafi'i and Maliki against the Hanafi position on most contested cases.
Core rules
Fixed shares (الفروض)
The six prescribed Quranic fractions — 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 2/3, 1/3, 1/6 — and which heirs receive which.
Blocking (الحجب)
How a closer heir prevents a more distant one from inheriting. Hajb is the most common reason an expected heir gets nothing.
Residuary heirs (العصبة)
Asabah heirs take whatever remains after fixed shares are paid. Three sub-types: by self, by another, with another.
Awl (العول)
When prescribed shares total more than the estate, Awl scales every share down proportionally so the math fits.
Radd (الرد)
When prescribed shares total less than the estate and there's no residuary, Radd returns the surplus to non-spouse heirs.
Special cases
Umariatan (العمريتان)
Two named cases under Caliph Umar: spouse + mother + father, where the mother takes 1/3 of the remainder, not 1/3 of the total.
Musharakah (المشتركة)
Full siblings join maternal half-siblings in their 1/3 share when the estate is exhausted. Maliki and Shafi'i apply it; Hanafi does not.
Grandfather with siblings (الجد مع الإخوة)
When a grandfather inherits alongside the deceased's siblings — does he block them (Hanafi) or share with them (Maliki/Shafi'i/Hanbali)?