How is inheritance divided in Islam?

Inheritance in Islam is divided according to a fixed system Allah set out in the Qur'an: each heir receives a share prescribed by Allah, and whatever remains goes to the nearest male relative. The estate is not distributed until the funeral costs, debts and any valid bequest are settled first. The shares are not left to the family's discretion — they are farā'id, portions Allah Himself apportioned and commanded to be delivered to those entitled to them.

The order of distribution

Before any heir receives anything, the estate passes through a fixed sequence of rights. The scholars list five, and they are paid in this order:

Funeral expenses — the cost of washing, shrouding, preparing and burying the deceased, taken from the estate itself.
Rights attached to specific property — such as a debt secured by a pledge.
Debts owed by the deceased — whether owed to Allah, like unpaid zakah, expiation or an obligatory hajj, or owed to people.
The bequest — a will, which is executed from one third of what remains, unless the heirs agree to more.
Inheritance — whatever is left after all of the above is then divided among the heirs.

This order is not optional. The Qur'an itself ties the shares to it:

"…after any bequest he may have made or any debt."— Qur'an 4:11

The Permanent Committee explained that this is precisely how the division is done: the estate follows the prescribed shares, and where the deceased left a bequest, that bequest is carried out first, because a will is an obligation to be fulfilled.

The two ways an heir inherits

Every heir takes their portion in one of two ways, and knowing which applies is the key to reading any inheritance case.

By fixed share (farḍ) — the heir has a portion specified in the Qur'an, such as one half, one quarter, one eighth, two thirds, one third or one sixth. This share does not change with who else is present, except in the ways the scholars detail.
By residual right (ta'ṣīb) — the heir has no fixed portion; they take whatever remains after the fixed shares are paid. If nothing remains, they receive nothing.

The fixed shares in the Qur'an are six: one half, one quarter, one eighth, two thirds, one third and one sixth. A seventh figure, one third of what remains, is established by scholarly reasoning rather than by an explicit text, as Ibn 'Uthaymin notes.

The six fixed shares

Share	Who receives it
One half	The husband, when his wife left no child; a single daughter, son's daughter, full sister or paternal half-sister, when she has no brother to make her a residual heir
One quarter	The husband, when there is a child; the wife, when there is no child
One eighth	The wife or wives, when there is a child
Two thirds	Two or more daughters, or two or more sisters, in the absence of a male of the same degree
One third	The mother, when there is no child and not two or more siblings; two or more maternal half-siblings
One sixth	The father, the mother, the grandmother, the grandfather, and others in the situations the scholars set out

The scholars also note that a daughter's child does not move the husband from one half to one quarter, nor the wife from one quarter to one eighth — the blocking share belongs to the deceased's own child or son's child, not to a daughter's child.

The residual heirs and the male's double share

Where children of the deceased are present — sons and daughters together — the estate is divided among them as residual heirs, and the rule is that the male receives twice the share of the female. This comes directly from the Qur'an:

"Allah instructs you concerning your children: for the male, the like of the portion of two females."— Qur'an 4:11

The same applies when full brothers and full sisters inherit together, and when paternal half-brothers and half-sisters inherit together. Shaykh 'Abd al-Muhsin al-'Abbad explains the underlying logic: this doubling applies specifically to those who inherit as residual heirs — those who, if they were alone, would take the entire estate. It is not a general rule that every male outranks every female.

That distinction matters, because it explains a case many people find puzzling. When the relationship is more distant — nephews, uncles, their sons — the women in that line do not inherit at all alongside the men. A paternal aunt does not inherit with a paternal uncle; a brother's son inherits and a brother's daughter does not. Al-'Abbad's reasoning is that the doubling rule was revealed concerning direct descendants and siblings, where the female would inherit if she were alone. Where she would inherit nothing on her own, she inherits nothing alongside her male relative either.

The Prophet ﷺ stated the governing principle:

"Give the fixed shares to those entitled to them, and whatever remains is for the nearest male relative."— Sahih al-Bukhari 6732, from Ibn Abbas

Who inherits, and who is blocked

The scholars count fifteen categories of male heirs and eleven of female heirs. Among the men: the son and his sons, the father and grandfather, full and half-brothers, their sons, paternal uncles and their sons, the husband, and the manumitter. Among the women: the daughter and son's daughter, the mother and grandmothers, full and half-sisters, the wife, and the manumitress. Anyone outside these lines — maternal uncles, aunts on either side, the maternal grandfather — falls under dhawū al-arḥām, distant kin who inherit only in the absence of the fixed-share and residual heirs.

Three things prevent a person from inheriting at all:

Slavery — an enslaved person neither inherits nor leaves an estate, being the property of his master.
Unlawful killing — a killer does not inherit from the person he killed, whether the killing was intentional or accidental.
Difference of religion — a Muslim does not inherit from a non-Muslim, nor a non-Muslim from a Muslim.

The Prophet ﷺ said:

"The Muslim does not inherit from the disbeliever, nor the disbeliever from the Muslim."— Sahih al-Bukhari 6764, from Usamah ibn Zayd

Why the shares are not negotiable

The Qur'an calls these shares Allah's limits, and attaches a promise and a warning to them. Obedience in delivering each heir their right is met with reward; taking more, taking less, or cutting an heir off entirely is a transgression against those limits. This is why the scholars are so insistent that the estate be divided exactly, and why they repeatedly warn that a general answer cannot replace a careful count of the actual heirs.

Key takeaways

Settle the estate in order: funeral costs, then debts, then the bequest from one third, then the inheritance — nothing is distributed before these.
Every heir takes either a fixed Qur'anic share or what remains after those shares — the residual heirs receive nothing if the fixed shares consume the estate.
The male's double share applies to residual heirs — sons with daughters, and brothers with sisters — not as a blanket rule across every relationship.
Three things block inheritance entirely: slavery, killing the deceased, and difference of religion.
A general answer cannot replace a real count. The scholars stress that the heirs must be identified precisely, with no ambiguity, and that disputes and complex estates belong before a Shari'ah court.

How is inheritance divided in Islam?

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