Faraid for families: heirs, shares, ʿasabah, exclusion, ʿawl and radd

1Faraid basics and the order before property is divided

Faraid (plural of faridah, an appointed share) is the science of dividing a Muslim's estate. It rests on three verses of Surah an-Nisa': verse 11 (children and parents), verse 12 (husband, wife and maternal half-siblings) and verse 176 (full and paternal siblings, in the case of kalalah). The Prophet ﷺ said: give the faraid shares to those entitled to them, and what remains is for the nearest male (Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Fara'id; Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Fara'id, chapter alhiqu al-fara'id bi ahliha).

The pillars of faraid are three: the deceased (muwarrith), the heir (warith) and the property left behind (mauruth). The grounds of inheritance are lineage (blood relationship), a valid marriage, and wala'.

Faraid is not divided from all the property recorded in the deceased's name. The order is:

1. Take out the jointly acquired matrimonial property of the surviving spouse — that share never belonged to the deceased. See Jointly acquired matrimonial property.
2. Reasonable funeral expenses.
3. Debts — including debts to people (loans, unpaid mahr) and debts to Allah such as outstanding zakat.
4. A valid will, not exceeding one third of the remainder, to non-heirs (an-Nisa' 4:11-12 says "after any bequest and debt").
5. The remainder is the estate divided by faraid.

2Conditions of and bars to inheritance

Three conditions must be met:

• The death of the deceased is established — either an actual death, or a death declared by a court for a missing person (presumed death).
• The heir is alive at the moment the deceased dies, even if only for an instant. If two people die in one accident and it is not known who died first, they do not inherit from each other; each one's property goes to their own surviving heirs.
• The relationship is known — the ground and degree of relationship between the heir and the deceased can be proved.

Two bars relevant today:

• Difference of religion. The Prophet ﷺ said: a Muslim does not inherit from a non-Muslim and a non-Muslim does not inherit from a Muslim (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Fara'id). This includes the non-Muslim parents of a convert, and a non-Muslim spouse. A will within the one-third limit or a lifetime gift (hibah) to them is still permitted.
• Killing. A killer does not inherit from the person he killed (Sunan at-Tirmizi, Kitab al-Fara'id, chapter on the killer's loss of inheritance; also Sunan Ibn Majah). At-Tirmizi himself states that its chain is not sound, but the scholars act on its meaning. The Shafiʿi school takes the meaning broadly: any form of killing, including unintentional killing, bars inheritance.

Who is not an heir, however close: adopted children and stepchildren (Surah al-Ahzab 33:4-5 separates adopted children from lineage); a former wife whose talaq has become baʾin (irrevocable); and a child born out of wedlock in relation to the man linked to him or her — the child's lineage and inheritance run through the mother. For them, the way is hibah or a will.

3Ashab al-furud and their fixed shares

Ashab al-furud are the heirs whose shares are stated as figures by the Quran or the Sunnah: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 2/3, 1/3 and 1/6. They receive their shares first. An important term in the list below is far' warith, meaning inheriting descendants: sons, daughters, and grandchildren (male or female) through a son. Grandchildren through a daughter are not far' warith.

In verse 11, the principle that the male's share equals that of two females applies to children and siblings who are ʿasabah together. It is tied to responsibility: men bear the family's maintenance and the mahr, while a woman's property remains her own. Among maternal half-siblings, males and females receive the same.

4ʿAsabah and exclusion (ḥajb)

ʿAsabah (residuary heirs) are heirs who take the remainder after ashab al-furud, or the whole estate if there are no ashab al-furud. There are three types:

• ʿAsabah bi nafsih (in their own right) — male heirs with no female between them and the deceased. In order: son, son's son, father, grandfather, full brother, paternal half-brother, brother's son (full, then paternal), paternal uncle (full, then paternal), and paternal male cousin. The nearer excludes the more distant.
• ʿAsabah bil ghair (through another) — a daughter alongside a son, a granddaughter alongside a grandson, and a sister alongside a brother of the same standing (full with full, paternal with paternal). They share the remainder in the ratio of two for a male, one for a female (an-Nisa' 4:11, 4:176).
• ʿAsabah ma'al ghair (together with another) — a full or paternal half-sister alongside a daughter or granddaughter. The evidence is the Prophet's ﷺ ruling narrated by Ibn Mas'ud: the daughter 1/2, the granddaughter 1/6, and the remainder to the sister (Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Fara'id, chapter on the granddaughter's inheritance alongside a daughter).

Exclusion (ḥajb) is being blocked by a nearer heir. Hijab hirman excludes entirely; hijab nuqsan reduces the share. Exclusion differs from the bars in section 2: a person excluded remains an heir, merely screened out in that case. In the Shafiʿi school, the grandfather does not exclude full or paternal siblings; they share by a special method (muqasamah) — the Hanafi school holds otherwise.

5'Awl, radd and dhawil arham

ʿAwl occurs when the fixed shares add up to more than one. The solution is to raise the denominator (the base of the case) so that all heirs are reduced proportionately. This method was first decided in the time of ʿUmar, with the agreement of the Companions, and was accepted by the majority, including the Shafiʿi school; Ibn ʿAbbas held a different view. Only bases of 6 (rising to 7, 8, 9 or 10), 12 (rising to 13, 15 or 17) and 24 (rising to 27) undergo ʿawl. A well-known example is al-Minbariyyah: a wife, mother, father and two daughters — 3 + 4 + 4 + 16 = 27 out of a base of 24.

Radd is the opposite situation: the fixed shares do not exhaust the estate and there is no ʿasabah. Here the Shafiʿi school has two layers of opinion that must be distinguished carefully:

• The classical view (Imam al-Shafiʿi and the earliest scholars of the school). The residue is not returned (radd) to the ashab al-furud, and dhawil arham (relatives who are neither ashab al-furud nor ʿasabah, such as a daughter's children, maternal uncles and aunts) do not inherit. The residue is handed to the Baitulmal (public treasury) for the benefit of the Muslim community.
• The view of later Shafiʿi scholars. Where the Baitulmal is not properly ordered (lam yantazim amr baitil mal), the residue is returned to the ashab al-furud other than the husband or wife, in proportion to their shares. If there are no ashab al-furud other than the spouse, the estate goes to the dhawil arham. Imam al-Nawawi records that this is the fatwa of the later scholars (Minhaj al-Talibin, Kitab al-Faraʾid).

Practice in Malaysia may differ between states. The Baitulmal under each State Islamic Religious Council exists as an institution, and whether the residue goes to the Baitulmal or is returned to the ashab al-furud other than the spouse depends on the gazetted fatwa and the practice of the Syariah Court in that state. Do not assume one answer for every state; the position in a particular case is determined by the Syariah Court that issues the faraid certificate.

6Worked examples

All examples assume that jointly acquired matrimonial property (harta sepencarian), funeral expenses, debts and bequests have already been settled, and the ringgit amounts are hypothetical figures for ease of reading.

Example 1 — a husband dies: two wives, a mother, one son and one daughter. The father has already died. The wives share 1/8 (there are children); the mother 1/6 (there are children); the residue goes to the children as ʿasabah bil-ghayr, 2:1. Base of the case 24: wives 3, mother 4, residue 17. Because 3 cannot be divided by two and 17 cannot be divided by three, the base is multiplied by 6 (tashih, correction) to become 144. The deceased's siblings are excluded by the son.

Example 2 — a wife dies: husband, father and two daughters. Husband 1/4 (there are children); father 1/6 plus ʿasabah (daughters only); two daughters 2/3. Base 12: 3 + 2 + 8 = 13. The shares exceed the estate, so ʿawl to 13 applies. The father receives nothing as ʿasabah because there is no residue.

Example 3 — a husband dies: two wives, one daughter and a mother, with no ʿasabah at all. Wives 1/8, daughter 1/2, mother 1/6: 3 + 12 + 4 = 19 out of 24, residue 5. This is a radd case. If there were any ʿasabah, even a paternal uncle or a cousin, he would take that 5/24 and radd would not arise.

7Faraid in a polygamous family

• All wives share one portion. One, two, three or four wives — all share 1/4 (no farʿ warith) or 1/8 (with a farʿ warith) equally (al-Nisaʾ 4:12). The first wife does not receive more for having been married longer, and a wife with no children still receives the shared 1/8 if the husband has children with another wife. See Faraid.
• The children of every wife inherit equally. All of the husband's children are the same farʿ warith; shares are determined by sex, not by who their mother is. There is no division of "half for the first household, half for the second household". See Children in polygamy.
• Children do not inherit from a stepmother, and a stepmother does not inherit from her stepchildren. When a wife dies, her estate goes to her husband, her own children and her family — not to her co-wife or her co-wife's children.
• A wife in the ʿiddah of a revocable talaq (rajʿi) inherits. If the husband dies before the revocable ʿiddah ends, she is still counted as a wife and shares in the wives' portion (and likewise the other way round). Once the revocable ʿiddah has ended, or if the talaq is irrevocable (baʾin), according to the authoritative view of the Shafiʿi school she does not inherit. See ʿIddah & rujuʿ.
• Each wife's jointly acquired matrimonial property is assessed separately before faraid, according to her contribution during her own marriage.

8Common mistakes in Malaysia and next steps

• Dividing by faraid before jointly acquired matrimonial property has been claimed. The contributing spouse's share must be taken out first; correcting a division that has already been completed is far harder.
• Assuming the nominee is the owner. According to a decision of the National Fatwa Committee's Muzakarah, a Muslim nominee for savings such as the EPF (KWSP) receives the money as a wasi (trustee) to distribute according to faraid, not for themselves. For takaful, the nomination provisions of the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 distinguish between a nominee as a recipient of hibah and a nominee as a wasi — check your nomination form.
• An incomplete hibah. A hibah is valid when there is offer, acceptance and delivery of possession (qabd). A hibah that was only intended, or not yet handed over (no qabd yet), is incomplete, and the property remains part of the estate. A hibah made during a terminal illness (marad al-mawt), in the Shafiʿi school, is treated like a bequest and is subject to the 1/3 limit and the heirs' consent.
• A bequest of more than 1/3, or to an heir. The Prophet ﷺ set a limit of one third (Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Wasaya; Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Wasiyyah; narrated by Saʿd ibn Abi Waqqas) and there is no bequest for an heir (Sunan Abi Dawud and Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Kitab al-Wasaya). In the Shafiʿi school, a bequest exceeding that limit is valid only if the other heirs agree after the death.
• Delaying for years. If an heir then dies, the case becomes munasakhat (layered estates), which is far more complicated.
• Giving an adopted child or a daughter's child a "faraid" share. They are not heirs in ordinary circumstances; protect them through hibah or a bequest.

The administrative steps are explained in Managing an estate. In brief: a faraid certificate or declaration is issued by the state Syariah Court (for the Federal Territories, the jurisdiction of the Syariah High Court under Act 505 s.46(2)(b), with procedure under Act 585). A small estate containing land is administered by the Estate Distribution Unit of the Department of the Director General of Lands and Mines (JKPTG), under the Small Estates (Distribution) Act 1955 [Act 98]; Amanah Raya Berhad handles the summary administration of certain movable property under the Amanah Raya Berhad Act 1995 [Act 532]; other estates are applied for at the civil High Court under the Probate and Administration Act 1959 [Act 97]. The value limits for each route are set by law and have been amended from time to time — check the latest figures on the agency's official website.

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