Inheritance of wife, father, grandmother and 3 daughters Fatwa No: 146399
- Fatwa Date:4-1-2011
Assalaamu ‘Alaykum; Please calculate the inheritance according to the following information ۞-Does the deceased have male relatives who are entitled to inherit: (A father) (A full brother) Number 2 (A nephew from a full brother) Number 7 ۞-Does the deceased have female relatives who are entitled to inherit : (A daughter) Number 3 (A wife) Number 1 (A grandmother from the mother) (A full sister) Number 2 ۞- Information about the deceased’s debts : (Debts to people)
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
First of all, the heirs should pay the debts of the deceased because debts come in priority over the right of the heirs in the inheritance as Allaah Says in the verses of inheritance (what means): {… after any bequest he [may have] made or debt.}[Quran 4:11]
If there is anything remaining after paying the debts, it should be divided amongst the heirs.
Therefore, if the deceased did not leave any other heirs except those mentioned in the question, then his father gets one-sixth as his legal share due to the existence of children of the deceased as Allaah Says (what means): {And for one’s parents, to each one of them is a sixth of his estate if he left children.}[Quran 4:11] His wife gets one-eighth as her legal share due to the existence of the children of the deceased; Allaah Says (what means): {But if you leave a child, then for them [i.e. the wives] is an eighth of what you leave, after any bequest you [may have] made or debt.}[Quran 4:12] His daughters get two-thirds as their legal share as Allaah Says about the existence of daughters (what means): {But if there are [only] daughters, two or more, for them is two-thirds of one’s estate.}[Quran 4:11] His grandmother gets one-sixth as her legal share as Abu Buraydah said: "The Prophet appointed one-sixth share of the inheritance to the grandmother if no mother is left to inherit before her." [Abu Daawood and An-Nasaa’i – Ibn Khuzaymah and Ibn Jaarood graded it Saheeh (sound) and Ibn ‘Adiyy graded it strong]
Ibn Al-Munthir said: “The scholars agreed in a consensus that the grandmother gets one-sixth of the inheritance if the deceased does not leave a living mother…”
However, his brothers and their children, and his sisters do not get anything from the inheritance because they are prevented by the existence of the father.
Therefore, the inheritance will be divided into 27 shares because there is what is called in Arabic ‘Awl, which means that the shares of inheritors exceed the sum of the total inheritance and by applying the laws of ‘Awl the inheritance here should be regulated and divided into 81 shares, the father gets 12 shares, the grandmother gets 12 shares, the wife gets 9 shares and each daughter gets 16 shares.
Allaah Knows best.