Islamic · Faraid · Hanafi Fiqh
Islamic Inheritance Calculator
Distribute an estate among heirs according to Islamic inheritance law (Faraid) following Hanafi Fiqh. Enter who survives the deceased to see each heir's Qur'anic share and amount.
Surviving spouse
Children
Parents
More relatives — grandchildren, grandparents, siblings, nephews, uncles, cousins
Grandchildren (through a son)
Great-grandchildren (through a son's son)
Grandparents
Siblings
Nephews (brother's sons)
Uncles (father's brothers)
Cousins (uncle's sons)
Kindred one degree more distant than a nephew or cousin (e.g. a cousin's son, or an uncle's grandson) are a separate, more intricate category and are not covered here — consult a qualified scholar for estates where they are the closest surviving relatives.
Visualized
Family inheritance tree
Every relative you've entered, arranged by generation. Highlighted heirs inherit a share; dimmed relatives are entered but excluded, with the reason shown.
- Inherits a share
- Entered but excluded
Step by step
How Islamic inheritance is distributed
Settle the estate first
Pay funeral costs, then all debts, then any bequest (wasiyya, up to one-third). What remains is the net estate to distribute.
Fixed shares (Furud)
Certain heirs — spouse, parents, daughters and others — receive fixed Qur'anic fractions such as 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 2/3, 1/3 or 1/6.
Residuary heirs (Asaba)
Whatever remains after the fixed shares passes to the residuary heirs — typically sons (with daughters at 2:1), the father, or brothers.
Awl & Radd
If the fixed shares exceed the estate they are scaled down (Awl); if a surplus is left with no residuary heir it returns to the fixed-share heirs (Radd).
Good to know
Key principles of Faraid
Nearer excludes farther
Closer heirs can block (Hajb) more distant ones — for example a son blocks grandchildren and siblings, and a father blocks the grandfather.
Bequests are capped
A valid bequest cannot exceed one-third of the estate and cannot be made in favour of an heir who already inherits, unless the other heirs agree.
Scope of this tool
It covers the common heirs and the standard Hanafi rules. Rare combinations (e.g. grandfather with collateral siblings) and disputed estates should be referred to a scholar.
Methodology & transparency
Where Hanafi fiqh differs from other schools
al-Mushtarikah ("the Shared Case")
When a husband/wife, mother, full brothers, and two or more uterine (maternal) siblings survive together, the fixed shares exactly consume the estate and the full brothers — as pure agnatic heirs — inherit nothing. Some scholars (and the Maliki school) instead pool the full brothers in with the uterine siblings' share. This calculator follows the standard Hanafi position: full brothers receive nothing in this specific case.
Grandfather with siblings
When the father has already passed away, the Hanafi school treats the paternal grandfather exactly as it would the father — he fully excludes full and paternal siblings from inheriting. The Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools instead split the estate between the grandfather and the siblings. This calculator follows the standard Hanafi position: the grandfather excludes the siblings.
Scope: up to nephews and cousins
This calculator covers spouse, descendants (to great-grandchildren), ascendants (to great-grandfather), siblings, and one degree of nephews, uncles and cousins — the heirs present in almost every real estate. Kindred one degree further still (e.g. a cousin's son) require a fuller agnatic-tree calculation and remain out of scope; consult a qualified scholar for such cases.
Reading the result
Debts and bequests come first
The shares are applied to what is left after funeral expenses, the deceased's debts, and any valid bequest of up to one third. Dividing the gross estate straight into shares overstates every heir's entitlement.
Debts include those owed to family members. An informal loan from a brother is still a debt of the estate, and settling it before distribution is part of the sequence rather than a favour.
Who else is alive changes each share
The fixed shares interact. A spouse's share differs depending on whether there are children. A daughter's position changes if there is also a son, and again if there is none. Working out one heir's entitlement in isolation almost always gives the wrong answer — the whole set of surviving heirs has to be entered.
Distribute rather than leave it undivided
Property left in a deceased parent's name for years, with heirs holding it informally, becomes progressively harder to divide as the original heirs themselves die and their shares fragment. What was a straightforward division between four becomes a dispute among thirty.
Obtaining a succession certificate and completing the mutation early is far easier than untangling two generations later.
Where this stops
This applies the Hanafi shares, which is what most of Pakistan follows — other schools differ in places. Unusual combinations of heirs, and the position of a grandchild whose parent predeceased, are areas where competent advice is worth having rather than relying on any calculator.
FAQs
Islamic inheritance calculator FAQs
What does this Islamic inheritance calculator do?
It distributes a deceased person's net estate among their heirs according to the rules of Islamic inheritance (Faraid / Mīrāth) following Hanafi Fiqh — the fixed Qur'anic shares, the residuary (Asaba) heirs, and adjustments such as Awl and Radd.
Which school of thought (Fiqh) is used?
The Hanafi school, which is the most widely followed in Pakistan and South Asia. On two well-known points Hanafi fiqh gives a different result than the other three Sunni schools — see "Where Hanafi fiqh differs" below. Rulings on rarer cases differ between individual scholars too, so confirm complex estates with a qualified Mufti.
What should I settle before distribution?
Islamic inheritance applies to the net estate — after funeral expenses, all outstanding debts, and any valid bequest (wasiyya), which may not exceed one-third of the estate unless the heirs agree.
Why do sons receive more than daughters?
In the residuary share a son receives twice the share of a daughter (2:1), reflecting the male relative's financial obligations to maintain the family under Islamic law. Daughters, by contrast, keep their share entirely for themselves.
What are Awl and Radd?
Awl means the fixed shares add up to more than the whole estate, so every share is reduced proportionally. Radd means there is a surplus after the fixed shares with no residuary heir, so the surplus is returned to the fixed-share heirs (a spouse does not share in Radd).
Does the calculator cover uncles, nephews and cousins?
Yes, one degree of each: full and paternal (half) nephews (a brother's sons), full and paternal (half) uncles (your father's brothers), and their sons (your cousins) as full or paternal-uncle's-son. These inherit only when every nearer heir — descendants, ascendants, and brothers of either kind — is absent. Kindred one degree further still (e.g. a cousin's son, or an uncle's grandson) are a separate, more intricate category ("asaba ba'eeda") and remain out of scope; please consult a qualified scholar for such estates.
Is this a substitute for a scholar or lawyer?
No. It is an educational estimate. For probate, disputed estates, missing heirs, or unusual family structures, consult a qualified Islamic scholar (Mufti) and a lawyer.
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