What Is Faraid? The Islamic Law of Inheritance Explained

Faraid, defined

Faraid is the branch of Islamic law governing how the property of a deceased Muslim passes to their relatives. It is characterised by three features that distinguish it from most inheritance systems:

• The shares are fixed in scripture, not chosen. The Qur’an names fractions — a half, a quarter, an eighth, two thirds, a third, a sixth — and assigns them to specified relatives.
• Eligibility is determined by relationship, not by intention. A person is an heir because of marriage, descent or parentage. Affection, dependency and estrangement do not alter the entitlement.
• The estate is divided among many, not concentrated in one. A typical distribution reaches a spouse, children and often surviving parents at the same time, rather than passing the whole estate to a single beneficiary.

Scholars call the discipline ‘ilm al-fara’id or ‘ilm al-mirath — the science of the ordained shares, or the science of inheritance. It was among the earliest subjects to be systematised in Islamic jurisprudence, and remains one of the few areas of fiqh with a substantial arithmetical component.

What the word means

Fara’id (فرائض) is the plural of faridah (فريضة), from the root f-r-d. The root carries the sense of appointing, apportioning and making obligatory. A faridah is therefore a portion that has been marked out and imposed — not a suggestion, and not a default that applies only in the absence of other instructions.

The name is taken directly from the text. Surah An-Nisa 4:11 concludes the shares it has just listed with the words faridatan min Allah — “an obligation from Allah”. Later jurists adopted that word for the subject as a whole.

In English the field is usually rendered as Islamic inheritance law or the Islamic law of succession. You will also see the spellings fara’id, faraidh and faraid; they refer to the same thing.

The Quranic basis

Three passages of Surah An-Nisa carry the operative rules:

These verses are the foundation, but they are not a complete algorithm. They do not say what happens when the named fractions add up to more than the whole estate, or to less. They do not fully order the residuary heirs. Those gaps were settled by the Prophet’s practice, by the rulings of the early Caliphs — the doctrine of awl is attributed to the time of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab — and by the reasoning of the jurists who followed.

Why Faraid is binding rather than advisory

Two features of the source texts drove the classical position that the distribution is obligatory. The first is specificity: the verses name particular relatives and attach particular fractions to them, which reads as instruction rather than encouragement. The second is the closing formula of 4:11, which describes what precedes it as an obligation from Allah.

The practical consequence is that a Muslim cannot ordinarily redirect the Faraid portion of an estate by preference — favouring one child over another, for instance, or leaving everything to a spouse. The room for personal choice sits in the wasiyyah, and it is deliberately limited.

This is also why a calculation matters. If the shares were advisory, an approximate division would be adequate. Because they are treated as an obligation, identifying the heirs correctly and applying the right fractions is itself a religious duty.

Who counts as an heir

Faraid sorts relatives into three groups. Nearly every question about who inherits is answered by working out which group a person falls into.

Dhul-furud — those with a named share

Relatives the Qur’an gives a specific fraction to. The group includes a husband or wife, the mother and father, daughters, a grandmother, and the several categories of sibling. Their fraction is often conditional: it commonly depends on whether the deceased left children, which is why the same relative can take different amounts in different families.

Asabah — the residuary heirs

Relatives who take whatever remains once the named fractions have been paid. They are ranked in a fixed order of priority beginning with sons, then the father, then the grandfather, then full brothers, and continuing outward through the male agnatic line. Where a son survives, the residue is typically the largest part of the estate.

Dhawu al-arham — the distant kindred

Relatives connected through a female link who are not in either group above, such as a daughter’s son or a maternal uncle. They inherit only in the comparatively rare case where no dhul-furud and no asabah survive, and the schools differ on the detail of how they are treated.

Two points cut across all three groups. Membership is established by marriage, descent or parentage — which is why adoption, as understood in English law, does not create a Faraid entitlement. And a relative who would otherwise qualify can still be excluded by a nearer one; see hajb below.

The core vocabulary

Five terms carry most of the technical weight. Understanding them is most of what it takes to follow a Faraid discussion.

Awl and radd exist because scripture fixes the fractions but not the family. Real households do not arrive in combinations that always sum neatly to one, and the two doctrines are the classical answer to the overflow and the shortfall respectively.

How the system runs, start to finish

A Faraid distribution proceeds in a set order. Nothing later happens until the earlier steps are complete.

1. Funeral expenses. Reasonable costs of burial come out of the estate first.
2. Debts. All outstanding obligations are settled in full before any heir receives anything.
3. Wasiyyah. Any valid bequest is paid, up to a maximum of one third of what remains, and only to someone who is not already a Faraid heir.
4. Identify the heirs. Establish who survives, and apply hajb to remove anyone excluded by a nearer relative.
5. Assign the fixed shares. Give each dhul-furud heir the fraction their situation calls for.
6. Resolve any mismatch. Apply awl if the fractions overshoot; hold the surplus if they fall short.
7. Distribute the residue. Pass what remains to the asabah in order of priority, or apply radd if there is no residuary heir.

Steps four through seven are where errors cluster in practice, and almost always at step four — an excluded relative left in the calculation, or an entitled one left out. Our Islamic inheritance calculator runs these steps and names any heir it excludes, together with the relative who excluded them.

Faraid and the wasiyyah: two different instruments

Faraid and the wasiyyah are frequently confused, and they do quite different jobs.

They operate together, not as alternatives: the wasiyyah is paid first, and Faraid governs what is left. A UK will can and generally should contain both. Our guide to writing an Islamic will in the UK covers how the two are drafted into a single document.

The four schools and where they differ

The Hanafi, Shafi‘i, Maliki and Hanbali schools agree on the Quranic fractions and on the basic architecture. The differences are narrow and cluster in a few recurring situations: how the grandfather is treated when siblings also survive, whether a surviving spouse shares in a radd, and the musharraka case involving a husband, a mother, maternal siblings and full siblings.

For most families the choice of school makes no difference to the outcome. Where it does, it can be material. The comparison, with the same family worked through each school, is in our guide to how the four madhabs differ on Faraid.

Faraid in Britain

Faraid has no automatic legal force in the United Kingdom. Where a person dies without a valid will in England and Wales, the estate passes under the statutory intestacy rules, which follow a different order — generally giving a surviving spouse considerably more than Faraid would, and parents and siblings considerably less or nothing at all. The statutory position is set out on GOV.UK.

The route by which Faraid takes effect here is a will: a document executed to the standard of the Wills Act 1837 and drafted to distribute the estate along Faraid lines. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own succession rules and are not covered by the description above.

Two features of English law can defeat a Faraid distribution even where a will exists. Property held as joint tenants passes automatically to the surviving co-owner and never enters the estate at all. And the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 permits certain people to claim against an estate notwithstanding a valid will. Both are covered in Faraid vs UK intestacy.

Four common misunderstandings

“Faraid means daughters are treated unfairly”

The 2:1 ratio between a son and a daughter applies where they inherit as residuary heirs together, and it sits inside a wider structure in which a woman’s property is her own and financial responsibility for a household falls on male relatives. It is also not universal: a mother and a father can take the same sixth, and maternal half-siblings share equally without regard to sex. Reading the ratio in isolation from the obligations attached to it produces a distorted picture.

“I can write an Islamic will leaving everything to my wife”

Not within Faraid. The wasiyyah caps discretionary giving at one third, and cannot be directed to an existing heir. A spouse is an heir, so a bequest to them falls outside what the wasiyyah permits.

“Faraid applies automatically because we are Muslim”

Not in the United Kingdom. Absent a valid will, an English estate is distributed under intestacy law regardless of the family’s faith.

“A calculation is all we need”

A calculation establishes the shares. Giving them legal effect requires a will drafted and executed by a solicitor, and unusual family circumstances still warrant a scholar’s view.

Where to go next

• To see what each relative actually receives — Islamic inheritance shares explained, which covers the fractions heir by heir with worked examples.
• To work out the figures for your own family — the Islamic inheritance calculator.
• To compare the schools — how the four madhabs differ on Faraid.
• To make it legally effective in the UK — writing an Islamic will (Wasiyyah) in the UK.
• For a specific question — the Islamic inheritance FAQ.

Common questions

What does Faraid mean in English?

“The ordained portions”, or “the fixed shares”. It is the plural of faridah, from a root meaning to appoint, apportion and make obligatory. In English the subject is normally called Islamic inheritance law or the Islamic law of succession.

Is Faraid the same as a will?

No. A will (wasiyyah) is chosen, can dispose of at most one third of the estate, and cannot be directed to an existing heir. Faraid governs the rest and is not discretionary. The two work together.

Where does Faraid come from in the Qur’an?

Surah An-Nisa 4:11 (children and parents), 4:12 (spouses and maternal half-siblings) and 4:176 (full and paternal siblings). Verse 4:11 closes with faridatan min Allah — an obligation from Allah — which gives the subject its name.

Who counts as an heir under Faraid?

Three groups: dhul-furud, who hold a named fraction; asabah, who take the residue in order of priority; and dhawu al-arham, distant kindred who inherit only where neither of the first two survives. Entitlement rests on marriage, descent or parentage.

Does Faraid apply automatically in the UK?

No. England and Wales apply the statutory intestacy rules where there is no valid will. Faraid takes effect here only through a will executed under the Wills Act 1837 and drafted to distribute along Faraid lines.

Why is Faraid an obligation rather than advice?

Because the verses name specific relatives and specific fractions, and describe what they set out as an obligation from Allah. Classical jurists treated the distribution as binding and built ‘ilm al-fara’id as a distinct science to apply it accurately.