Free tool
Islamic Inheritance Calculator
Enter the relatives who survive the person who passed away, and see how the classical rules of Islamic inheritance divide the estate among them. Each share is shown as a fraction and a percentage, with the reasoning step by step.
Before you begin
- Only the relatives listed below are standard heirs. A relative who is not listed does not take a share under these rules.
- Non-Muslim relatives are not standard heirs. They may still be remembered through a bequest in a will.
- An unborn child of the person who passed away counts once the child is born. Enter the child in the row that fits.
- Nothing you enter leaves your device. The calculation happens in your browser and is not saved.
How shares are decided
The rules below are a plain-language summary of what the calculator applies. They are a guide to the results, not a substitute for a scholar.
- Fixed shares come first
- Some relatives receive a fixed portion of the estate: a husband takes 1/2, or 1/4 when there are children; a wife takes 1/4, or 1/8 when there are children; a mother takes 1/3, or 1/6 when there are children or several siblings; a father takes 1/6 when there are children. One daughter takes 1/2 and two or more share 2/3 when there is no son, and the same pattern holds for granddaughters and sisters.
- Closer relatives exclude more distant ones
- A son excludes grandchildren and every brother, sister, nephew, uncle and cousin. A father excludes grandparents and siblings. A mother excludes both grandmothers. A full brother excludes paternal siblings, and so on down the line. A spouse, a parent, a son or a daughter can never be excluded.
- What remains goes to the nearest male-line relatives
- After the fixed shares are paid, the rest of the estate passes to the closest relative through the father's line: sons first, then grandsons, the father, brothers, nephews, uncles and cousins, in that order. Daughters and sisters join in when a brother of the same rank is present.
- Two to one within the same class
- When sons and daughters, or brothers and sisters, share the remainder together, each male takes the share of two females. This ratio never applies to maternal siblings, who always share equally.
- When the fixed shares exceed the estate (ʿawl)
- Occasionally the fixed shares add up to more than the whole. When that happens every share is reduced in proportion so that the total is exactly one estate.
- When something is left over (radd)
- When the fixed shares leave a remainder and there is no male-line relative to take it, the remainder is returned to the fixed-share heirs in proportion to their shares. A spouse's share is not increased this way unless no other relative exists.
Who are the standard heirs
The twenty-nine relatives the calculator recognizes, arranged around the person who passed away.
Grandparents
- Father's father
- Father's mother
- Mother's mother
Parents
- Father
- Mother
Spouse
- Husband
- Wife
- The person who passed away
Brothers and sisters
- Full
- Paternal
- Maternal
Children
- Son
- Daughter
Grandchildren
- Son's son
- Son's daughter
Further along the father's line
Through a brother
- Full or paternal brother
- His son (nephew)
- His son's son
Through the father's brother
- Full or paternal uncle
- His son (cousin)
- His son's son
- His son's son's son
Relatives through a daughter, a sister or the mother's father are not standard heirs, apart from the mother's mother.
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