Inheritance Calculator

The science of fara'id: its status and importance

The science of fara'id, or the science of inheritance, is the knowledge by which one knows who inherits and who does not, and the amount each heir receives from the estate. Allah the Exalted Himself undertook the division of inheritance in detail in His Noble Book and did not leave it to anyone's independent reasoning, because of the rights and disputes connected with it. He concluded the inheritance verses with His words ﴿فَرِيضَةً مِّنَ اللَّهِ﴾ ("an obligation [imposed] by Allah"), emphasising that it is a just divine division that may not be contravened.

﴿يُوصِيكُمُ اللَّهُ فِي أَوْلَادِكُمْ ۖ لِلذَّكَرِ مِثْلُ حَظِّ الْأُنثَيَيْنِ﴾“Allah instructs you concerning your children: for the male, what is equal to the share of two females.”Surah An-Nisa: 11

"Give the fixed shares to those entitled to them, and whatever remains goes to the nearest male relative."Agreed upon (al-Bukhari and Muslim)

The inheritance calculator on the Mizan website helps you divide an estate according to the rules of fara'id adopted by the majority of jurists: it determines the entitled heirs, the excluded heirs, and each heir's share as a fraction, a percentage and a cash amount.

The pillars, conditions and impediments of inheritance

The pillars of inheritance

1. The deceased (al-muwarrith): the person who has died and whose estate is divided.
2. The heir (al-warith): the living person entitled to part of the estate through one of the causes of inheritance (marriage, kinship or wala').
3. The inheritance (al-mawruth): the estate, i.e. the wealth and rights left by the deceased.

The conditions of inheritance

• The death of the deceased is established in reality, or legally, as with a missing person whom a judge declares dead.
• The heir is established to be alive at the death of the deceased, even if only presumptively, as with an unborn child.
• Knowledge of the relationship that entails inheritance, such as marriage or kinship and its degree.

The impediments to inheritance

• Homicide: one who kills intentionally and wrongfully does not inherit from his victim; for other types of killing, the schools have detailed positions.
• Difference of religion: as the Prophet ﷺ said: "The Muslim does not inherit from the disbeliever, nor the disbeliever from the Muslim" (agreed upon).
• Slavery: which does not exist in our time.

Rights attached to the estate before division

The estate is not divided among the heirs immediately; rather, certain rights take precedence over it, in the following order:

1. Preparing the deceased for burial: washing, shrouding and burial in a reasonable manner, without extravagance or stinginess.
2. Paying off debts: whether owed to Allah, such as zakat, kaffarahs and an obligatory Hajj, or owed to people, such as loans and a deferred dowry (mahr); according to the majority of jurists, debts attached to specific assets of the estate, such as a mortgage, take precedence.
3. Executing the bequest (wasiyyah): within one third of what remains after debts, and to a non-heir, as the Prophet ﷺ said to Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas: "One third, and one third is a lot" (agreed upon). Anything exceeding one third, or a bequest to an heir, depends on the consent of the heirs.
4. Dividing the remainder among the heirs according to the fixed shares and residuary inheritance (ta'sib).

The fixed-share heirs and the six fixed shares

The shares fixed in the Book of Allah the Exalted are six, detailed in the inheritance verses of Surah An-Nisa (verses 11, 12 and 176):

﴿وَلَكُمْ نِصْفُ مَا تَرَكَ أَزْوَاجُكُمْ إِن لَّمْ يَكُن لَّهُنَّ وَلَدٌ ۚ فَإِن كَانَ لَهُنَّ وَلَدٌ فَلَكُمُ الرُّبُعُ مِمَّا تَرَكْنَ﴾“And for you is half of what your wives leave if they have no child. But if they have a child, for you is one fourth of what they leave.”Surah An-Nisa: 12

To these shares is added one third of the remainder for the mother in the two 'Umariyyah cases (husband, father and mother; or wife, father and mother), which is the view of the majority of the Companions and jurists.

The residuaries ('asabah)

The residuaries are the heirs who take what remains after the fixed-share heirs, or take the whole estate if they are alone, and receive nothing if nothing remains. They are of three types:

• Residuaries in their own right ('asabah bil-nafs): every male whose relationship to the deceased does not pass through a female, such as the son, the son's son, the father, the grandfather, the full or paternal half-brother, the paternal uncle and their sons; precedence is given to the nearest by category, then by degree, then by strength of tie.
• Residuaries through another ('asabah bil-ghayr): a female fixed-share heir together with her brother of the same degree, such as the daughter with the son, who share the remainder with the male receiving twice the share of the female.
• Residuaries with another ('asabah ma'a al-ghayr): the full or paternal half-sister together with the daughter or the son's daughter; she takes the remainder.

Exclusion (hajb): total and partial

Exclusion is preventing an heir from all or part of the inheritance because of the presence of another heir. It is of two types:

• Total exclusion (hajb al-hirman): the heir is prevented from inheriting entirely, as the son excludes the son's son, the father excludes the grandfather, and the son or the father excludes the siblings. Total exclusion never applies to six heirs: the father, the mother, the son, the daughter, the husband and the wife.
• Partial exclusion (hajb al-nuqsan): the heir moves from a larger share to a smaller one, as the husband moves from one half to one quarter when there is an inheriting descendant, and the mother moves from one third to one sixth when there is an inheriting descendant or a group of siblings.

'Awl and radd

'Awl (proportional reduction) is when the total of the fixed shares exceeds the base of the case, so that the shortfall is borne by all in proportion to their shares; for example, a woman who dies leaving a husband and two full sisters: the husband receives one half and the two sisters two thirds, so the case rises by 'awl from 6 to 7. 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) ruled this after consulting the Companions, and the vast majority of jurists follow it.

Radd (return) is the opposite of 'awl: the estate exceeds the fixed shares and there is no residuary, so the remainder is returned to the fixed-share heirs in proportion to their shares. The majority of jurists who hold the view of radd say that nothing is returned to the spouses; if there are no other fixed-share heirs or residuaries, later jurists gave fatwas returning it to them or giving the inheritance to the dhawu al-arham (distant kindred), according to the different schools and laws.

The methodology adopted by the calculator

The calculator adopts the view of the majority of jurists on disputed issues, the most prominent of which are:

The grandfather with siblings

Abu Hanifah (may Allah have mercy on him), following Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him), held that the grandfather excludes full and paternal half-siblings just as the father excludes them. The majority of jurists, the Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis, as well as Abu Hanifah's two companions, following Zayd ibn Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him), held that the grandfather shares with the siblings as if he were a brother, and is given whichever is more advantageous to him: sharing (muqasamah) or one third of the estate (or one third of the remainder or one sixth of the estate when there is a fixed-share heir). The calculator follows the majority view on sharing, and points out the Hanafi view, which some personal status laws adopt.

The Mushtarakah case

This is: a husband, a mother or grandmother, two or more maternal siblings, and one or more full brothers. The fixed shares exhaust the estate and nothing remains for the full siblings. The Malikis and Shafi'is hold that the full siblings share the one third equally with the maternal siblings, while the Hanafis and Hanbalis hold that the full siblings receive nothing. The calculator gives an alert when this case and similar ones, such as the Akdariyyah, arise, so that the user can refer to the school or law adopted in his country.

A practical example of dividing an estate

A man died leaving: a wife, a mother, a son and a daughter, and after the funeral, the payment of debts and the execution of the bequest, he left a net estate of 720,000 currency units.

• The wife: one eighth, because there is an inheriting descendant.
• The mother: one sixth, because there is an inheriting descendant.
• The son and the daughter: the remainder as residuaries, with the male receiving twice the share of the female.

The base of the case is 24 (the common multiple of one eighth and one sixth): the wife receives 3, the mother 4, and the remaining 17 goes to the son and the daughter. This cannot be divided among 3 heads (the son counting as two heads and the daughter as one), so the case is corrected by multiplying it by 3 to become 72:

The value of one portion: 720,000 ÷ 72 = 10,000.

How to use the inheritance calculator

1. Specify the gender of the deceased (male or female), to determine the husband or the wives.
2. Enter the total value of the estate, then the funeral expenses, debts and bequest, if any.
3. Enter the living heirs and their numbers: spouses, ascendants (father, mother, grandfather, grandmother), descendants (sons, daughters, son's sons...), and collaterals (brothers, sisters, paternal uncles...).
4. Press "Calculate" to see the list of entitled heirs, the excluded heirs and the reason for their exclusion, the base of the case, each heir's portions, and his share as an amount.

For the rulings on zakat on inherited wealth after it is received, use the zakat calculator, and you will find more explanations in the articles.