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Is it permissible to cancel a man's will that allocates 60% of his assets to his living sister's son and 40% to the sons of his deceased former wife, knowing that French law distributes the inheritance as 45% to the state, 27.5% to the living sister, and 27.5% to the sons of the deceased sister?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If a man dies leaving a sister and the children of a sister, then his entire inheritance goes to his sister, by both fard (prescribed share) and radd (residuary return). The fard is one half, and the remainder is returned to her, because radd takes precedence over dhawu al-arham (distant kindred). A bequest to a non-heir is executed within the limits of one-third of the estate; anything exceeding that is subject to the heirs' approval. A law that contradicts Islamic law regarding the distribution of inheritance is not to be applied, nor is it permissible to invalidate a valid will. If the state takes a portion of the inheritance, it is deducted from everyone, and the remainder is then divided.

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

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