Islamic Inheritance Calculator
Pick who is alive and see who inherits and how much under the fara‘id, the shares in the Quran, with the reason for each share and where the four Sunni schools differ. A tool to learn from: for a real estate, ask a scholar.
A calculator of the mainstream positions of the four Sunni schools, to learn from. For a real estate, ask a scholar or your local Islamic authority, and check the inheritance law of your country.
The person who died was
Who is alive
Nephews, uncles and cousins
The estate
Paid first: funeral costs, then debts, then a bequest of at most a third of the rest, and not to an heir.
The shares
Add the relatives who are alive to see the shares.
How an estate is shared in Islam
- Funeral costs, kept modest.
- Debts, to people and owed to Allah, such as unpaid zakat in the view of most scholars.
- The bequest (wasiyyah), at most a third of what is left (“a third, and a third is a lot”, in al-Bukhari and Muslim), and not to an heir.
- The heirs share the rest by the fara‘id.
First come the fixed shares (ashab al-furud) that the Quran names in Surah an-Nisa (4:11, 4:12 and 4:176). What is left goes to the residuaries (‘asaba), the nearest male relatives on the father‘s side: “Give the shares to those they belong to, and what is left goes to the nearest man” (al-Bukhari and Muslim). A nearer relative excludes a farther one (hajb): a son excludes brothers, a father excludes grandfathers.
The six fixed shares
- 1/2: the husband with no children; one daughter; one son‘s daughter with no daughter; one full sister; one paternal sister with no full sister.
- 1/4: the husband with children; the wife or wives with no children.
- 1/8: the wife or wives with children.
- 2/3: two or more daughters, son‘s daughters, full sisters or paternal sisters, in that order.
- 1/3: the mother with no children and fewer than two brothers or sisters; two or more maternal brothers and sisters.
- 1/6: the father or grandfather with children; the mother with children or with two or more brothers or sisters; the grandmothers; one maternal brother or sister; a son‘s daughter or paternal sister completing the 2/3.
Where the four schools differ
- The grandfather with brothers and sisters. Hanafi (Abu Hanifa): the grandfather excludes them, like the father. Maliki, Shafi‘i and Hanbali: they share by the method of Zayd ibn Thabit, and the grandfather takes the best of sharing as a brother, a third, or a sixth.
- Al-Mushtaraka. A husband, a mother, two maternal siblings and a full brother: the shares use up the estate. Maliki and Shafi‘i: the full brother joins the maternal siblings‘ third. Hanafi and Hanbali: he gets nothing.
- The father‘s mother with the father. Hanbali: she inherits with him. The other three: he excludes her.
- A surplus with no residuary. Hanafi and Hanbali return it to the blood relatives (radd). Maliki and Shafi‘i first gave it to the public treasury; their later scholars return it as well. Nobody returns it to the husband or wife in the main view.
- No heir at all among these relatives. The distant kindred (dhawu al-arham), such as a daughter‘s children or a maternal uncle, or the public treasury. The calculator says so but does not work out their shares.
Pick your school in the calculator. If you do not follow one, the result usually stays the same: the schools agree on almost every family.
What this calculator does not handle
- Distant kindred (dhawu al-arham) shares, and relatives further away than the cousins listed
- Great-grandchildren and great-grandparents
- A missing person, an unborn child, or a person of unclear sex (khuntha)
- Relatives who died together, when nobody knows who died first
- Non-Muslim relatives: they do not inherit from a Muslim by the fixed shares (leave them a bequest instead)
- An heir who killed the deceased: he does not inherit
- Your country’s inheritance law and taxes
For any of these, and for every real estate, ask a scholar or your local Islamic authority. To learn the basics of the faith first, see how to become Muslim and the zakat calculator.
Questions about Islamic inheritance
Why does a son get twice what a daughter gets?
The Quran sets it (4:11). Scholars explain it with the duties that come with it: a man must pay the mahr and provide for his wife and children, and often his parents, while a woman’s wealth stays hers alone and nobody can make her spend it on the family. It is not the rule for every woman: a mother and father with a child of the deceased get the same sixth each, and maternal brothers and sisters share equally.
How much does a wife inherit?
A quarter of the estate if her husband left no children or son’s children, an eighth if he did. Two, three or four wives share that one quarter or eighth equally.
How much does a husband inherit?
Half of the estate if his wife left no children or son’s children, a quarter if she did, including children from another marriage.
My family are not Muslim. Do they inherit from me?
In the mainstream position of all four schools, a Muslim and a non-Muslim do not inherit from each other by the fixed shares, as in the hadith in al-Bukhari and Muslim. That is not the end of it: you can leave non-Muslim parents, children or anyone else a bequest of up to a third of your estate, because they are not your heirs. Many reverts do exactly that. New to Islam? Start here
Can I leave a bequest to one of my children?
Not on top of their share. The hadith says there is no bequest for an heir, and most scholars allow it only if the other heirs agree after the death. A bequest to someone who is not an heir is fine, up to a third of the estate. More than a third also needs the heirs’ consent.
Do adopted children or stepchildren inherit?
Not by the fixed shares: inheritance follows blood and marriage. You can leave them a bequest of up to a third, and many people do.
What happens when the shares add up to more than the whole?
Every share is reduced in proportion. This is called ‘awl. The best known case is al-Minbariyya: a wife, two daughters, a father and a mother. Their shares are 3, 16, 4 and 4 of 24, which is 27, so the estate is split into 27 parts instead. Try it with the example button in the calculator.
Do I need a will?
In many countries, such as the UK, the US and most of Europe, the state shares out an estate without a will by its own rules, and those are not the Islamic shares. Muslims there often write a will that follows the fara’id and names their bequest. Ask a lawyer who knows Islamic wills in your country.
Is anything I type here saved or sent?
No. The calculator runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere or stored.