Inheritance of Wife, Brother, and Two Sisters

7-9-2000 | IslamWeb

Question:

If a man died and he left a wife, a brother, two sisters, and a son of his dead brother, how should his money be divided?

---

Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

First of all, know that the issue of inheritance is a very serious and complicated one. It cannot then be solved through a Fatwa which is only an answer to a given question. It is unlawful to divide the inheritance before ensuring that there are no other heirs, no debts or others, such as a will. For these reasons, we advise you to put this matter in the hands of a legislative Islamic court, if available, as it is the only institution that could solve this problem in the best way.

As for how to divide the inheritance of a person who died leaving a wife, a brother, two sisters and a son of a dead brother, it is as follows:

After taking out all rights related to loans and to any probable will, the inheritance is divided into sixteen shares.

The wife gets one-fourth, which is four shares, and the remainder is divided between the brother and his two sisters, the male twice the share of the female. So, the brother gets six shares, and each sister gets three shares.

As regards the son of the dead brother, he does not inherit as long as there is a direct brother of the deceased who is still alive.

Allah knows best.