Distant relatives (dhawu al-arham): do they inherit?

Definition and categories

Dhawu al-arham designates every relative who has neither a fixed share in the Book nor the place of an agnate. The jurists count ten categories: the maternal grandfather and grandmother and all the ascendants extinct through them; the children of daughters (daughter of daughter, daughter of the son of the son, male and female); the daughters of the brothers, german, consanguine and uterine; the children of the sisters; the sons of the uterine brothers; the maternal uncle; the daughters of the paternal uncles, likewise the sons of the maternal uncles; the paternal aunts of every direction; the maternal uncles and aunts; and the linking relatives designated (madlun bihim), except the extinct ascendants who no longer have anyone to link through.

Their way of inheriting

The schools differ on the manner: the majority of the jurists make the distant relatives inherit by the proportional return (radd) when no fixed share nor agnate exists; others send their share to the public treasury of the Muslims. Their ranking follows proximity: the closest relative through the female line comes before the more distant, and the exclusion principles then serve the division.

The bequest in favor of non-heir relatives

Agreement: the bequest in favor of relatives who do not inherit takes precedence over the generic pious gift. Ibn Taymiyya writes: if the deceased has relatives who do not inherit, the bequest for them comes before freeing slaves and the like, with no known disagreement. It is not obligatory for the majority of the schools (Hanafis, Malikis, Shafi'is, and Hanbalis in one of the two views, two narrations existing with Ahmad).

Practical note

When the estate holds neither fixed share nor agnate, draw the full kinship tree: the majority makes the closest relatives inherit by the return; the written bequest remains the safest way to protect a non-heir relative.