Heirs, fixed shares and hajb

The causes of inheritance

Agreement of the scholars (Ibn Hubayra): three causes of inheritance, kinship through males and through females, marriage, and freeing (wala). They may combine in one person, who then inherits by two ways: the husband who is also the freedman and cousin takes the whole estate if alone, half by marriage and half by kinship or freeing. A fourth way is discussed: Islam, in favor of the public treasury of the Muslims.

The six textual shares

Agreement of the scholars: six shares fixed by the Book: the half, the quarter, the eighth, the two thirds, the third, the sixth; the third of the remainder is established by the effort of the jurists, with no proper verse.

The three categories of heirs

The holders of fixed shares (as'hab al-furud); the agnates (asabat), who take the residue or the whole estate when alone; and the distant relatives (dhawu al-arham), inheriting by the return when the first two categories are absent.

The hajb: exclusion

The closest excludes the more distant: the son excludes the sons of the son at any depth; the german brother excludes the consanguine brother; the father alone excludes the grandfather, at whatever level (Ibn al-Mundhir: agreement). Detailed exclusions: the german brother and the consanguine brother, male or female, do not inherit with the son, nor with the son of the son, nor with the father. The daughter of the son is excluded by the son (her father), by the paternal uncle (in the father's dignity), or by two daughters, for the daughters' two thirds exhaust her share; with an agnate, she shares the residue after the two thirds. The maternal grandmother is excluded only by the mother; the paternal grandmother is excluded by the father and also by the mother (Ibn al-Mundhir: agreement).

Practical note

Before any calculation, list the survivors, identify who excludes whom, then apply the fixed shares; exclusion protects the direct line before the lateral branches.