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Fatwa CenterDivision of inheritance among father, mother, wife and two daughters
Question
Assalaamu alaykum. Please calculate the inheritance according to the following information:
- Does the deceased have male relatives who are entitled to inherit: (A father)
- Does the deceased have female relatives who are entitled to inherit: (A mother) (A daughter) Number 2 (A wife) Number 1
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
If the deceased did not leave any heirs entitled to inherit other than those mentioned in the question, then the estate should be divided as follows:
The deceased's father gets one sixth of the estate as a fixed share because the deceased has children; Allah, The Exalted, says (what means): {And for one's parents, to each one of them is a sixth of his estate if he left children.} [Quran 4:11]
The deceased's mother gets one sixth of the estate as a fixed share as well.
The deceased's two daughters get two thirds of the estate as a fixed share because they are two and have no other heir of the same degree of kinship enabling them to inherit by virtue of Ta‘seeb (having a paternal relation with the deceased and not having an allotted share, so they get what is left after the allotted shares have been distributed); Allah, The Exalted, says (what means): {But if there are (only) daughters, two or more, for them is two thirds of one's estate.} [Quran 4:11] Moreover, the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said, "Give the two daughters of Sa‘d two thirds (of his wealth)." [Ahmad and At-Tirmithi - Al-Haakim graded it saheeh (sound) and Ath-Thahabi agreed]
His wife gets one eighth as a fixed share because the deceased has children; Allah, The Exalted, says (what means): {But if you leave a child, then for them is an eighth of what you leave...} [Quran 4:12]
Originally, the estate should be divided into twenty-four shares, but the principle of ‘Awal must be applied (the estate should be divided into 27 shares, i.e. portions of every heir are reduced proportionally so that everyone can be accommodated and all heirs can therefore enjoy the deceased’s property). This case is known in the terminology of Islamic inheritance laws as Al-Minbarriyah Question, or the Pulpit Question (a case involving a wife, a father, a mother and two daughters). Thus, after applying ‘Awal, the estate is to be divided into twenty-seven shares; the father gets four shares, the mother gets four shares as well, the two daughters get sixteen shares, each gets eight shares, and the wife gets three shares.
Allah knows best.
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