Inheritance and Succession, Islamic Law Of

Social Context

An understanding of Islamic inheritance law requires some introduction to the social world from which it originates. For while the Quran revolutionized Arab society, the imprint of pre-Islamic inheritance is clearly evident in Islamic law. The basic social unit in pre-Islamic Arabia was the tribe. Membership in the tribe was based on male (agnatic) bloodlines. Tribal inheritance practice functioned to consolidate wealth within the tribal group by designating the nearest male agnatic relative as the sole heir. The identity of this person, called the asaba in Arabic, was determined by a system of priorities that placed descendants ahead of ascendants and lineal relations ahead of collaterals. The son therefore stood first in line, followed by agnatic grandsons, the father, agnatic grandfathers, full or consanguine brothers, male agnatic cousins, and so on. Women had no hope of inheritance.

The Prophet Muhammad (c. 570–632) introduced significant changes to the law of inheritance that greatly improved the social and legal status of women and led to the eventual transformation of Arab society from one based on common blood ties to one based on common religious commitment. A series of revelations received by Muhammad and recorded in the Quran assign inheritance rights to a new group of heirs. Subsequent generations of scholars elaborated and systematized the Quranic texts to produce a comprehensive law of succession.

Quranic Heirs, Shares, and Limitations

The Quranic verses on inheritance grant fixed fractional shares of the estate—for example, one-half, one-quarter, one-sixth—to nine named relatives. The nine individuals whose inheritance rights are expressly stated in the Quran are the deceased's husband, wife, father, mother, daughter, germane sister, consanguine sister, uterine brother, and uterine sister. Three additional heirs, not specifically mentioned in the Quran, were added to the list of Quranic heirs by analogy. These include the agnatic granddaughter (the daughter of a son), the agnatic grandfather (father's [Page 756]father), and the grandmother (maternal and paternal). These individuals become substitute heirs in the absence of their linking relative. Thus, the agnatic granddaughter inherits a daughter's portion if her father, the son of the deceased, died before the estate opened to inheritance.

The Quranic texts do not comprise a complete system of inheritance. The absence of any express provision for the deceased's son is only the most notable omission. The architects of Islamic law constructed a comprehensive and systematic inheritance law by grafting the Quranic inheritance verses onto the agnatic tribal inheritance system that preceded it. In the construction of a complete inheritance law, the Quranic texts were interpreted as supplementing rather than replacing the pre-Islamic tribal system of succession.

Islamic inheritance law thus combines two distinct sources. The result of this merging of Quranic and customary succession rights is to create two distinct categories of heirs. One group, the Quranic heirs, or sharers, consists of those individuals who are assigned a fixed fractional share in the Quran. The second group, the asaba, is made up of the traditional Arab customary heirs. The doctrine integrates the two categories by granting the Quranic heirs first charge against the estate and awarding the residue to the asaba.

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