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Is it permissible for a Muslim woman to inherit from her half-brother, who is a non-Muslim and who died without children, parents, or siblings, especially since there are other full and half-sisters, and considering that the court has ruled to distribute the inheritance equally among the five sisters, and her refusal of her share might negatively affect the living assistance she receives?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If the full sister is from the father's side (paternal half-sister), she does not inherit because the full sisters (sisters from both parents) exhaust the two-thirds share. However, if the sister is from the mother's side (maternal half-sister), she inherits one-sixth alongside the full sisters. Here, the ruling on a Muslim inheriting from a non-Muslim comes into play. The majority of scholars prohibit a Muslim from inheriting from a non-Muslim, based on the hadith: "A Muslim does not inherit from a non-Muslim, nor does a non-Muslim inherit from a Muslim." Another group, whose opinion was favored by Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim, held that it is permissible for a Muslim to inherit from a non-belligerent non-Muslim. They reasoned that the Prophet (peace be upon him) treated hypocrites as Muslims in matters of inheritance, and because allowing a Muslim to inherit from a non-Muslim encourages the non-Muslim towards Islam. Therefore, the maternal half-sister can inherit one-sixth from her non-Muslim brother.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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