Islamic inheritance (Faraid), step by step

Updated 1 November 2026 · 10 minute read

Faraid is the system of fixed shares for a Muslim estate. Its core is in the Qur'an — Surah al-Nisa 4:11, 4:12 and 4:176 — and the details of how those verses interact have been worked out by jurists over centuries. This guide follows the order our inheritance calculator uses and explains each step, so you can check the result or repeat it by hand.

The calculator is bilingual (English and Urdu), works in 40+ currencies, and lets you choose a school of law, because some rules — especially returning a surplus to the heirs — differ between them.

Step 1: funeral expenses

Before anything is divided, the reasonable cost of washing, shrouding, burial and the funeral is paid from the estate. It is not a debt owed to a person, but it takes priority over one, because the body must be buried.

Step 2: debts

Every debt of the deceased is paid next: money owed to people, unpaid bills, and unpaid mahr. Debts come before any bequest, because a bequest can only be made from what is truly yours.

Step 3: wasiyyat, up to one-third

A wasiyyat is a bequest: instructions to give something to a person or cause after death. It is paid from the remaining estate but may not exceed one-third of it. If the will asks for more, the excess needs the consent of the heirs; without it, only one-third is valid.

A bequest made in favour of an existing heir is generally not valid unless the other heirs agree, because that heir already has a share fixed by the Qur'an.

Step 4: the fixed shares

What remains is divided among the heirs. Some heirs have a share fixed by the Qur'an (called fard); others receive whatever is left (called asaba, the residue). The fixed shares are the fractions 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 2/3, 1/3 and 1/6, and each depends on who else is alive.

Two principles sit behind the table. A male receives twice the share of a female in the same class (Qur'an 4:11), and a nearer relative blocks a more distant one from a fixed share. Both are explained below.

Residue (asaba)

If heirs with fixed shares do not use the whole estate, the remainder goes to the nearest male relative — typically a son, a son's son, a father, a full brother, a paternal half-brother. When sons and daughters inherit together, the son takes twice the daughter's portion, and the daughters lose their fixed 2/3 or 1/2 and share the residue instead.

Example: after the fixed shares of a wife, mother and father, one son and one daughter share a residue of 39/72 — the son takes 26/72 and the daughter 13/72.

Blocking (hajb)

Some heirs are excluded, completely or partly, by someone closer to the deceased:

• A son blocks a son's son and a son's daughter from fixed shares (they may still inherit as residue if no son is alive).
• A father blocks the paternal grandfather.
• A son or son's son blocks all brothers and sisters.
• A mother is not blocked, but her share falls from 1/3 to 1/6 when there is a child or two or more siblings.
• Grandmothers are blocked by the mother and, in the usual position, by the father.

Closer relatives in the same class also block more distant ones: a full brother blocks a paternal half-brother, and a paternal half-brother blocks a paternal half-brother's son.

When the shares add up to more than the estate (awl)

Sometimes the fixed fractions exceed 1 — a wife, two daughters, the father and the mother add up to 1/8 + 2/3 + 1/6 + 1/6 = 27/24. Rather than cut one heir out, every share is scaled down by raising the common denominator from 24 to 27:

The estate is fully distributed and the proportions between heirs are unchanged. The calculator does the scaling with exact fractions, so the amounts still add up to the total after rounding.

When the shares add up to less (radd)

The opposite case: heirs with fixed shares take less than the whole estate and there is no residuary heir. A daughter alone takes 1/2, for example. What happens to the other half?

• Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali schools: the surplus is returned to the fixed-share heirs in proportion to their shares (radd), except to a spouse, who keeps only the fixed share.
• Shafi'i school: radd is not applied as a general rule; the surplus goes to the bayt al-mal (public treasury) or to distant relatives, depending on the circumstances.

This is why the calculator asks for a school. With a daughter alone and the Shafi'i opinion, the result correctly shows a part of the estate left unclaimed rather than quietly inventing a share.

Two special cases

Umariyyatan. When a spouse and both parents inherit, the mother takes one-third of what remains after the spouse's share, not one-third of the whole estate. With a husband, he takes 1/2, the mother 1/3 of the remaining 1/2 = 1/6, and the father the rest.

Al-mushtarakah. When a husband, the mother, maternal siblings and full brothers inherit and the fixed shares use up the estate, the Hanafi and Hanbali schools let the full brothers share the maternal siblings' one-third equally with them, head by head. The other schools give the full brothers nothing in this specific case. The calculator flags when this rule applies and follows the school you selected.

A worked example

An estate of PKR 1,000,000. Funeral costs PKR 50,000, debts PKR 150,000, and the will asks for PKR 500,000. The heirs are a wife, a son, a daughter, the father and the mother.

The fixed shares are the wife's 1/8, the mother's 1/6 and the father's 1/6 — 33/72 of the estate. The remaining 39/72 goes to the children as residue, with the son taking twice the daughter: 26/72 and 13/72.

Note the wasiyyat: the will asked for 500,000, but the valid ceiling is one-third of 800,000. The other 233,333.33 is not paid without the heirs' consent. If the request had been 200,000, the distributable estate would rise accordingly and every share would be larger.

What this calculator does not do

Some situations depend on details that change the answer, and a calculator that guesses would be worse than one that says so. The tool deliberately declines or leaves out:

• A paternal grandfather together with brothers or sisters. The schools use different methods (muqasama and others) and the result can change case by case. The calculator asks you to consult a scholar rather than pick one.
• Distant relatives (dhawil arham), such as a maternal uncle, aunt or sister's child. Their inheritance depends on the school and on who else is alive.
• A bequest to an heir without the family's consent, a disputed will, an unborn child, a missing heir, or an estate with a business or property that needs valuation.
• Tax and registration rules. These differ by country and are separate from Faraid.

If any of these apply, the calculator's number is a starting point for a conversation with a scholar or an inheritance court, not the final distribution.

Schools at a glance

Where schools agree, the calculator behaves the same way for all four. Where they differ, the selection you make at the top of the tool decides.

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