Division of inheritance among a wife, a grandmother, and a son

24-1-2016 | IslamWeb

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 1 - Does the deceased have female relatives who are entitled to inherit: (A wife) Number 1 (A grandmother [from the mother])

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  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

If the deceased did not leave behind any other eligible heirs other than those mentioned in the question, then the estate should be divided as follows:

The deceased's wife gets one eighth of the estate as a fixed share because the deceased has descendants entitled to inherit, i.e. the son; Allaah, The Exalted, says about the share of the wife (what means): {...But if you leave a child, then for them is an eighth of what you leave...} [Quran 4:12]

The deceased's grandmother gets one-sixth of the estate as a fixed share because of the absence of the deceased's mother. The Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) assigned one-sixth of the inheritance for the grandmother if the deceased did not leave a mother to inherit. [Abu Daawood and others - Ibn Khuzaymah graded it saheeh (sound)]

The deceased's son gets the remainder of the estate after deducting the shares of the wife and grandmother by virtue of taʻseeb (by virtue of having a paternal relation with the deceased and not having a prescribed share), for the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) said, "Give the prescribed shares of inheritance to those who are entitled to them and the remainder (of them) is for the nearest male blood relative." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

Hence, the estate should be divided into twenty-four shares; the wife gets one-eighth of them (three shares), the grandmother gets one-sixth (four shares), and the son gets the seventeen shares that are left.

Allaah knows best.

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