The Islamic Laws of Inheritance and Gender Equity Regarding the Islamic Laws of Inheritance and Gender Equity, it is important to understand that in the Islamic Laws of Inheritance, most of which have been detailed in the Quran in Chapter 4 Surat-ul-Nisa. We find, depending on a number of factors, the ratios of inheritance between fixed-airs and residual-airs. In other words, those-airs that are fixed by the Quran and those that are not fixed make the amount of estate or the inheritance vary from person to person. And the difference in criteria, the difference in how much a person inherits, is tied to how close they are to the deceased, whether or not they are considered responsible for others, whether they are blood relations or marital relations, and whether they belong to the younger generation of children or the older generation of grandparents. These are the main criteria that determine how much a person inherits, not gender. Gender does play a role to some extent when it comes to the question of responsibility. So a lot depends on whose alive and whose dead in the network of people to inherit. One thing we should start with is that there are certain people that must inherit from the Islamic legal framework. That while the property of a person is his or her property while they are alive and they can dispose of it as they see fit and fair, once they pass away, Islamic guards certain individuals as having a right to that inheritance. Islam does not deny a person the ability to write a will regarding how their estate is to be disposed of, but that will usually does not cover more than one third of their estate. And such a will cannot deny six people from inheriting. Parents cannot be denied. So a person's grandmother and grandfather cannot be denied inheritance, a spouse, a husband or a wife cannot be denied inheritance, and children, boys and girls or male and female cannot be denied inheritance. Islam has a legal system that guarantees that spouses, parents and children are given a right to inherit from somebody who passes away. So that is for the first point. Regarding how much you inherit from somebody who passes away depends on who else is alive and the factors we've already listed. A woman may inherit more than a man. She may inherit the same as a man or a man may inherit more than a woman. So in the case of a daughter whose father has passed away, her grandfather's relationship with her father is a parent and child relationship, just as her relationship with her father is a parent and child relationship. However, a girl inherits more than her grandfather does because she belongs to a younger generation. Where a woman may inherit more than a man, for example, would be where a daughter or two daughters lose a father and they don't have a brother. Each daughter would inherit a third and if it's two daughters they would both inherit two thirds. If it's more than that they still inherit two thirds. So only one third goes to be shared according to various ratios, to grandparents, to uncles, to their mother. So you have cases where the woman is inheriting more than any male that is around. In places where you find in the same verses of the Quran in chapter four, parents and grandparents it inheriting one sixth each, circumstances where grandparents will inherit one eighth each, or places where in other was the grandparents or parents are sometimes inheriting the same as each other. The grandfather is inheriting the same as the grandmother, or in some situations where the man is inheriting more than the woman. An a common example is where a brother is inheriting double what his sister is inheriting. Why? Because the males are expected to take care of the females. In Islamic jurisprudence men are financially responsible for women based on the Quranic verse, a Rijaluk, a Wa'amuna, al-Nisa, Beema Fadalabad, Wa'bima Anfaku, that men are caretakers and protectors of women because of what Allah has favored one over the other and it specifies Wa'bima Anfaku because of what they have to spend on them. And so because men are expected to spend on women, Islamic law generally requires as a default that the man will inherit more than women they are supposed to take care of but where they don't have somebody close by like a brother but they have uncles then the women would inherit more because the uncles are more distant. So the more distant you are from the deceased, the less you have. There is a concern that in certain family contexts, in certain societies, the law may not be able to get the men to take care of their women. Or that in some societies it is better because of the qualification of the women or whatever reason that the ratios of inheritance be different. Islamic law has various instruments to handle the problem of maslaha of what would be in the best interest of the objectives of Sharia. And so one example is where a will is written with the permission of the other ears that a particular person who is automatically going to inherit would inherit more. Normally if you are to be added to a will you wouldn't normally be inheriting but if it is with the because that would change the inheritance formula or ratios but if it is with the permission of ears then that is permissible. Also you can have waqf where an endowment is left by the person while he is alive in favor of a particular child not for the sake of injustice but because there is a greater need whether for health reasons or whatever other reasons for which someone feels a particular heir should get more than the Quranic ratio gives for normal circumstances. Another area is heber which means a gift that a person before he dies gives a gift to a particular child if he feels that would be greater justice to all concerned whether because this person feels this child is already taking care of the family and should be empowered to carry on. If it is a case that the Muslim community feels that for the sake of maslaha it needs to take some of these measures then what you have is within the schools of Islamic jurisprudence there are various options that a family can take or a state can take to ensure that the macasit the objectives of fairness and justice are met and so as we find even during the time of Khalif Umar and a number of others where there are clear injunctions in the Quran for a particular action but where it is obvious that those actions would lead to injustice then we find maslaha or public interest is the son juristic discretion or preference coming to play to help achieve the objectives of sharia or fairness of justice to all concerned so ultimately when situations change it is the job of Muhtahid jurists and Muftis to look into the situation and ensure that the changed circumstances do not perpetuate injustice or cause some of the injunctions in the Quran or the Sunnah to cause harm or injustice to the Ummah and Allah knows best.