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Fatwa CenterDividing inheritance among wife, full-brother and full-sister
Question
Assalaamu alaykum. Please calculate the inheritance according to the following information: - Does the deceased have male relatives who are entitled to inherit: (A full brother) Number 1 (A nephew from a full brother) Number 1 - Does the deceased have female relatives who are entitled to inherit: (A wife) Number 1 (A full sister) Number 1 - Additional information: 2 full brothers, 5 full sisters at present; 1 brother and 4 sister died. The deceased had no children but adopted the nephew's son. The deceased's wife also died. How to distribute the inheritance when the deceased received the house as family property in which the deceased and his 5 sisters were shareholders and the deceased later purchased all shares of sisters? He was the only owner of the house but had no children.
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.
First of all, you should know that the relatives of the deceased who inherit him are only those who were alive when he died; the heirs who died before him do not inherit from him. So if his wife died before him, then she is not entitled to any share in his inheritance; the same applies to his brothers or sisters who died before him, they are not entitled to any share in the deceased’s inheritance.
Based on the data which you provided us with, we are going to base our answer on the fact that the living heirs when the deceased died were his wife, his full-brother, his full-sister, and his nephew.
Whoever dies and leaves behind a wife, a full-brother, a full-sister, and a nephew and did not leave any other heir, then his wife gets one-fourth as her legal share due to the non-existence of children (direct heirs); Allaah says (what means): {And for them [i.e. the wives] is one fourth if you leave no child.} [Quran 4:12]
The remainder will be divided among his full-brother and full-sister 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): {If there are both brothers and sisters, the male will have the share of two females.} [Quran 4:176]
The nephew does not get anything from the inheritance because he is prevented by the existence of the full-brother. Therefore, the inheritance should be divided into 4 shares, the wife gets one-fourth, which is 1 share; the brother gets 2 shares, and the sister gets 1 share.
The share of the wife would be transferred to her heirs, and it should be divided according to the Islamic sharee'ah.
Allaah knows best.
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