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Niece does not inherit from aunt

Question

Assalaamu alaykum. I heard that girls do not inherit from their aunt, could you please state where this is true or not and provide evidence, if possible? May Allaah reward you.

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

The daughter of the brother does not inherit her paternal aunt; and the daughter of the sister and son of the sister both do not inherit their maternal uncle.

The evidence is that the Sharia did not make them heirs; it is the Sharia that determines whether or not a person is an heir. So if Allah made a person an heir in His legislation, then we make him an heir, and if Allah did not determine a share of inheritance in the Sharia for a person, then we do not make him an heir [he does not inherit].

The rule in inheritance is that every person who is related to the deceased through a female does not inherit, with the exception of three:

1) A grandmother from the mother’s side [the mother of the mother].

2) Half-brothers and half-sisters from the mother’s side.

3) The ‘Asabah in case of the woman who freed her slave (and then he died leaving an estate); the ‘Asabah is the heir who does not have a determined share in the inheritance, so he/she gets the remainder of the inheritance after the heirs have taken their legitimate and fixed shares.

Allah knows best.

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