Fara'id
Fara'id is the fiqh discipline that fixes exactly who inherits, who does not, and the precise share due to each heir.
What it means for me: You are not expected to calculate your own family's shares. Fara'id assigns fixed fractions to specific relatives once the deceased's debts, funeral costs, and any bequest are settled first. A scholar or a trained calculator applies these fractions to your family's actual facts.
Example: A woman dies leaving a husband, a son, and a daughter, with no debts or bequest outstanding. Fara'id fixes the husband's share first, then divides the remainder between the children by the ratio the sources set.
Do not confuse with: Wasiyyah, a bequest. Fara'id shares are fixed by the sources and cannot be changed by personal wish. A wasiyyah lets someone direct up to a third of the estate outside those fixed shares.
If scholars differ: One of fiqh's oldest recorded disputes concerns a grandfather inheriting alongside full or paternal brothers when there is no surviving father. Companions and later schools differed, and each position carries its own detailed method of calculation.
See the term in context
Are the obligatory duties (fara'id) numerous and beyond enumeration in Islam? And what are the duties and obligations (fara'id) incumbent upon the Muslim woman and girl? And is it possible to enumerate them and perform them all?
Allah Almighty has not imposed upon us any obligations or duties except what is within our capacity. Allah Almighty says: "Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity," and "Allah intends for you ease and does not…
How does a Muslim sister seek knowledge if she lives in a town where people are not interested in studying fundamental Islamic sciences, and what are the recommended books in the science of inheritance (Al-Fara'id/Mawarith) and books on the causes of revelation (Asbab al-Nuzul)?
In this era, Allah has facilitated learning aids such as the Internet, audio tapes, and discs. One can collaborate with a friend, spouse, or one of their mahrams on a program for memorizing the Qur'an and learning the…
How sound is the Hadith: "Learn the Fara'id (obligatory shares of inheritance), for they are part of your religion and half of knowledge, and they are the first knowledge to be removed from my Ummah," and who narrated it?
The hadith: "O Abu Hurairah, learn the fara'id (laws of inheritance) and teach them, for they are half of knowledge, and they are forgotten, and they are the first thing to be taken away from my Ummah," is weak. It was…
Questions that use it
What is the response to one who denies the hadith: "Attach the fara'id (allotted shares) to their rightful recipients..." claiming it contradicts the Quran, and holds that His saying, may He be exalted: "And if there are women, more than two, then for them is two-thirds of what he left" includes the male, and that the matter of 'asabah (agnatic heirs) contradicts the Quran, basing this on the comprehensiveness of the word "walad" (child/offspring) for both male and female in His saying, may He be exalted: "And for his parents, each one of them a sixth of what he left, if he has walad (children)"?
What are the sayings of scholars regarding the obligatory acts (fara'id) and sunnah acts (sunan) of tayammum, and the number of prayers that can be performed with a single tayammum?
Why are the Sunan given precedence over the Fara'id in wudu', such as rinsing the mouth before washing the face?