Islamic Fiqh > Inheritance and wasiya > Special cases in succession
The missing person, the stillborn child, the heir who killed the deceased, the non-Muslim and the convert: borderline succession situations and the schools' solutions.
Contents
Updated on 06 October 2026 at 10:50 PM
Agreement of the scholars: voluntary killing deprives of inheritance: "the killer does not inherit", word of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). The wisdom: inheritance requires the continuity of affection, and the killer breaks it; allowing his inheritance would open the door to crimes hastening a succession. The accidental and quasi-deliberate killer: agreement of the scholars that he takes nothing of his victim's diya; the disagreement bears on the rest of her estate.
Agreement of the jurists: the non-Muslim does not inherit from the Muslim, and the Muslim does not inherit from the non-Muslim: "the Muslim does not inherit from the disbeliever, nor the disbeliever from the Muslim" (al-Bukhari 6383 ; Muslim 1614); the non-Muslim wife of a Muslim is in this case. For the Muslim heir of a disbeliever: 2 views; the majority of the scholars and Companions (Umar, Ali, Zayd, Ibn Masud, Ibn Abbas; Malik,
Abu Hanifa, ash-Shafi'i, Ahmad) forbid it, a second view allows it. The one who converts after the death of his Muslim relative and before the division: the majority (Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib,
Abu Hanifa, Malik, ash-Shafi'i and most of the jurists): he does not inherit, the estate having already passed to the Muslim heirs; one narration from Ahmad makes him inherit. The apostate does not inherit from his Muslim relative (agreement of the scholars).
Among non-Muslims, inheritance passes among them even if their religions differ: the hadith "people of 2 religions do not succeed each other" is explained by the pair Islam and disbelief (Ibn Taymiyya).
Agreement of the scholars: the child in his mother's womb inherits and is inherited if born alive and uttering his first cry: "When the newborn utters his first cry, he inherits" (reported from Abu Hurayra); "When the child utters his first cry, prayer is performed over him and he inherits" (reported from Jabir). The estate is suspended: if the child excludes all the others (brothers, sisters, uncles and their children), the whole waits for the birth; if he only reduces the shares (husband, wife), the spouses receive the smaller of the 2 possible shares and the rest waits.
Agreement of the 4 schools: disappearance in an absence whose apparent outcome is safety (travel, studies, captivity among those who do not kill) does not presume death: his share waits. The waiting period divides: Hanbalis and Ibn Majishun among the Malikis wait up to 90 years since birth; the other schools hold different periods.
The khuntha shows both organs, or one single passage; when the sex cannot be settled, the jurists examine through which way he urinates: the predominant way fixes his rank, and the classification then follows the rules of men or women.
These edge cases call for caution: suspend, wait, document. The succession is never rushed at the expense of a possible right.