Inheritance of a childless deceased man

5-7-2004 | IslamWeb

Question:

A deceased man left one wife with no children. He has no father, no mother, no brother, and no sister. His deceased full brother left one male and 6 females. Do the females inherit from their full uncle and by what ratio.

---

Answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

The inheritance of the deceased man will be divided as follows:

The wife will get one-fourth of the inheritance. Allaah says:" In that which you leave, their (your wives) share is a fourth if you leave no child." (An-Nisa 4:12)

The rest of the wealth will be for his nephew.  Ibn Abbas narrated that the Prophet, sallahu alayhi wa sallam, said:" inheritance should be divided among the heirs, and what remains should be given to the closest male as it is more appropriate to give to him."(Bukhari and Muslim)

As regards the nieces, they are relatives but not heirs. Al Dardiri said: "what is meant by relatives are those who do not inherit like aunts, nieces and any grandmother from the mother's side and the maternal aunts and the sons and daughters of all the mentioned people."

Allah knows best.