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Fatwa CenterDeceased made will that his sons and daughters receive equal shares of inheritance
Question
Assalaamu alaykum. Please calculate the inheritance according to the following information: - Does the deceased have male relatives who are entitled to inherit: (A son) Number 4 (A grandson [from the son]) Number 4 (A son of the son's son) Number 2 (A nephew from a full brother) Number 3 - Does the deceased have female relatives who are entitled to inherit: (A daughter) Number 12 - The information about the missing relatives of the deceased is: 1 grandson. The mother took him away from the father (son of the deceased) when the grandson was about two years old and prevented the father from seeing him ever since. - The will that the deceased left behind and that is related to his inheritance is: Divide all his inheritance to all his 16 children in equal shares.
Answer
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.
If the deceased did not leave any other heirs than those mentioned in the question – such as a father, a mother, a grandfather, a grandmother, or a wife – then his entire inheritance should be divided between his 4 sons and 12 daughters by ta’seeb (by virtue of having a paternal relation with the deceased and not having an allotted share, so they get what is left after the allotted shares have been distributed); the male twice the share of the female, as Allaah says (what means): {Allaah instructs you concerning your children [i.e. their portions of inheritance]: for the male, what is equal to the share of two females.} [Quran 4:11]
The other heirs whom you mentioned in the question will not get anything from the inheritance because they are prevented by the existence of the sons.
Therefore, the inheritance should be divided into 20 shares, each son gets 2 shares and each daughter gets 1 share.
The will of the deceased, which says that his inheritance should be divided equally between his sons and daughters, is of no consideration, and it is not binding because it contradicts the Command of Allaah that the inheritance be divided between the sons and daughters; the male twice the share of the female. The Command of Allaah is worthier to be applied than the will of the deceased. Also, his will is a will for an heir because if he had made a will that the female takes the same share as the male, then this means that he had made a will for her from the inheritance, for which she has no Islamic right.
Indeed, we have repeatedly mentioned that a will for an heir is Islamically forbidden and it is not effective unless all the other heirs approve of it. So if a son agrees while he is adult and in sound mind that the daughter of the deceased [i.e. his sister] takes the same share as his share, then he may do so, and this will be deducted from his share. Other sons who do not agree with the will or who are not adult or in sound mind will take their full share.
As regards the grandson of whom you mentioned that he is missing, then he does not inherit in any case because the grandson does not inherit with the existence of the son regardless of whether he is present or missing, it does not have any effect on the division of the inheritance.
Allaah knows best.
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