Tarikah

Letter T · Updated Sep 5, 2026

In plain terms

Tarikah is everything a deceased person leaves behind — money, property, and rights — before any of it is distributed to heirs.

What it means for me: Before anyone inherits anything, the tarikah has claims on it, paid in order. Funeral costs come out first, then any debt the deceased owed, then a bequest of up to a third. Only what remains becomes the *mirath*, the inheritance, that *fara'id* divides.

Example: A man dies owning a house, a car loan he still owed, and some savings. What remains after the loan and the burial costs are paid is left to divide as mirath.

Do not confuse with: Mirath, the inheritance itself. Tarikah is the whole estate before its obligations are paid; mirath is only what is left over once those obligations are cleared.

If scholars differ: Jurists broadly agree on the order in which an estate's obligations are paid. They differ on whether non-financial rights the deceased held, such as an unexercised legal claim, count as part of the tarikah.

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