Niece does not inherit from aunt

23-2-2017 | IslamWeb

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.

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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 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.