The four Sunni schools in Islamic inheritance

The calculator runs every estate through the same engine with the school as an input. Each section lists the positions the engine applies for that school; the comparison tables at the end are computed when the page loads.

Ḥanafī

Founding jurist

Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān (d. 150 AH / 767 CE)

Mainly followed in

Turkey, the Balkans, Central Asia and South Asia

What the calculator applies

• The grandfather (jadd) stands in for the father and excludes all brothers and sisters.
• No Mushtaraka: in that same family the full brothers are residuaries (ʿaṣaba) and get nothing once the fixed shares take the whole estate.
• Radd (return): a surplus with no residuary heir goes back to the fixed-share heirs, never to a spouse who shares with them.
• A spouse who is the only heir takes the whole estate: the later Ḥanafī fatwa returns the surplus to them (Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār).
• Extended family (dhawū al-arḥām) inherit by closeness of kinship (ahl al-qarāba), class by class, a male taking twice a female.

Mālikī

Founding jurist

Mālik ibn Anas (d. 179 AH / 795 CE)

Mainly followed in

North and West Africa

What the calculator applies

• The grandfather (jadd) inherits alongside full and paternal siblings by Zayd ibn Thābit's method — sharing (muqāsama), a third or a sixth, whichever is best for him — including al-muʿādda and al-Akdariyya.
• al-Mushtaraka: when a husband, a mother or grandmother, two or more maternal siblings and full brothers meet, the full brothers share the maternal siblings' third instead of going without.
• Radd (return) as the school's later scholars apply it — the earlier position sends the surplus to the bayt al-māl (public treasury) — spouses excluded. The result carries a note saying so.
• A spouse who is the only heir takes their fixed share and the school sends the rest to the bayt al-māl (public treasury), so the calculator marks the case for a scholar's review.
• Extended family (dhawū al-arḥām) inherit by substitution (ahl al-tanzīl), following the later scholars: each takes the share of the heir they connect through, a male taking twice a female. Combinations the texts leave open are marked for review.

Shāfiʿī

Founding jurist

Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204 AH / 820 CE)

Mainly followed in

Egypt, East Africa, Yemen and Southeast Asia

What the calculator applies

• The grandfather (jadd) inherits alongside full and paternal siblings by Zayd ibn Thābit's method — sharing (muqāsama), a third or a sixth, whichever is best for him — including al-muʿādda and al-Akdariyya.
• al-Mushtaraka: when a husband, a mother or grandmother, two or more maternal siblings and full brothers meet, the full brothers share the maternal siblings' third instead of going without.
• Radd (return) as the school's later scholars apply it — the earlier position sends the surplus to the bayt al-māl (public treasury) — spouses excluded. The result carries a note saying so.
• A spouse who is the only heir takes their fixed share and the school sends the rest to the bayt al-māl (public treasury), so the calculator marks the case for a scholar's review.
• Extended family (dhawū al-arḥām) inherit by substitution (ahl al-tanzīl), following the later scholars: each takes the share of the heir they connect through, a male taking twice a female. Combinations the texts leave open are marked for review.

Ḥanbalī

Founding jurist

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241 AH / 855 CE)

Mainly followed in

Saudi Arabia and Qatar

What the calculator applies

• The grandfather (jadd) inherits alongside full and paternal siblings by Zayd ibn Thābit's method — sharing (muqāsama), a third or a sixth, whichever is best for him — including al-muʿādda and al-Akdariyya.
• No Mushtaraka: in that same family the full brothers are residuaries (ʿaṣaba) and get nothing once the fixed shares take the whole estate.
• Radd (return): a surplus with no residuary heir goes back to the fixed-share heirs, never to a spouse who shares with them.
• A spouse who is the only heir takes their fixed share and the school sends the rest to the bayt al-māl (public treasury), so the calculator marks the case for a scholar's review.
• Extended family (dhawū al-arḥām) inherit by substitution (ahl al-tanzīl): each takes the share of the heir they connect through, males and females equally.

Where the schools give different shares

60 families in the calculator's test suite come out differently in at least one school. Each table below is computed by the engine as this page loads.