Islamic Laws - ShiaMasjid.com

Inheritance of the Second Group

2749. The second group of persons, which inherits on the basis of relationship, consists of paternal grandfather, paternal grandmother, brothers and sisters and, if the dead person does not have brothers and sisters, their children inherit the estate.

2750. If the heirs of deceased is only one brother, or only one sister, he or she inherits the entire estate, and if he has several real brothers alone or several real sisters alone, they divide the property equally among themselves. If, however, he has several real brothers and some real sisters together, every brother gets double the share of a sister. For example, if he has two real brothers and one real sister, the property will be divided into 5 parts, and each brother will get 2 parts while the sister will get one.

2751. If a deceased has real brothers and real sisters, his half brothers and sisters (whose mother is the stepmother of the deceased) do not inherit his property. And if he has no real brothers or real sisters, and has only one half brother or only one half sister, (both from father's side) the entire estate will be inherited by him or her.
And if he has many paternal half brothers alone, or many paternal half sisters alone, the estate will be divided among them equally. And, if he has paternal half brothers together with paternal half sisters, every brother gets double the share of every sister.

2752. If the only heir of deceased is one maternal half sister, or one maternal half brother, their father being different from the deceased father, she or he gets the entire estate. And if he has several maternal brothers alone, or several maternal sisters alone, or both of them together, the estate is divided equally among them.

2753. If the dead person has real brothers and sisters, together with half brothers and sisters from father's side, and one half brother or one half sister from maternal side, the paternal brothers and sisters will not inherit. In this case, the estate will be divided into 6 parts, from which one part will be inherited by the maternal brother or sister, and the remaining 5 parts will be divided by the real brothers and sisters among themselves, in such a manner that every brother will get double the share of every sister.

2754. If a deceased has real brothers and sisters together with paternal brothers and sisters, and several maternal brothers and sisters, the paternal brothers and sisters will no inherit. In this case, the estate will be divided into 3 parts, from which one part will be divided by the maternal brothers and sisters equally among themselves, and the remaining 2 parts will be divided among the real brothers and sisters, in such a manner that every brother gets double the share of every sister.

2755. If the only heirs of deceased are his paternal brothers and sisters, and one maternal brother or one maternal sister, the estate will be divided into 6 parts. One part will be given to the maternal brother or the maternal sister, and the remaining parts will be divided among the paternal brothers and sisters, in such a manner that every brother gets double the share of every sister.

2756. If the only heirs of deceased is his paternal brother and sister, and several maternal brothers and sisters, the estate will be divided into 3 parts. One part will be shared among the maternal brothers and sisters equally, and the remaining 2 parts will be divided among the paternal brothers and sisters, in such a manner that every brother gets double the share of every sister.

2757. If the brother, the sister, and the wife of deceased are his only heirs, the wife gets her inheritance in the manner which will be explained later, and the sister and brother get their inheritance as stated in the foregoing rules. Also, if a woman dies and her only heirs are her sister, her brother and her husband, the husband gets half of the estate, and the sister and the brother inherit as explained earlier.
However, nothing is reduced from the share of maternal brother and sister to provide for the shares of the wife or the husband. But in the case of real brothers and real sisters, or paternal brothers and sisters, their shares may be reduced.
For example, if the heirs of deceased are her husband, maternal brother and sister, and real brother and sister, half of the estate will go to the husband, and one part out of the three parts of the original estate will be given to the maternal brother and sister, and whatever remains will be the property of the real brother and sister. Hence, if the total estate of the deceased is $6, $3 goes to the husband, $2 are taken by the maternal brother and sister, and $1 will be the share of the real brother and sister.

2758. If deceased does not have sister and brother, their share of the inheritance is given to their descendants, and the share of maternal brother's child and maternal sister's child will be divided among them equally.
And as for the share of the paternal brother's child and paternal sister's child, or real brother's child and real sister's child, the commonly held principle is that every son gets twice as much as the daughter, but it may be true that they too may get equal shares. Therefore, it is better that they should resort to a compromise.

2759. If the heir of the deceased is only one grandfather or one grandmother, regardless of whether they are paternal or maternal, the entire estate goes to them, and the great grandfather of the deceased does not inherit in the presence of the grandfather.
And if only the paternal grandfather and paternal grandmother of the dead person are the heirs, the estate will be divided into 3 parts, from which 2 parts will be taken by the grandfather and one part will be taken by the grandmother. And if the maternal grandfather and maternal grandmother are the heirs, the property will be divided between them equally.

2760. If the heirs of deceased is paternal grandfather or paternal grandmother together with maternal grandfather or maternal grandmother, the property will be divided into 3 parts. 2 parts will go to the paternal grandfather or paternal grandmother, and one part will go to the maternal grandfather or maternal grandmother.

2761. If the heirs of the deceased are paternal grand parents together with maternal grand parents, the estate will be divided into 3 parts. One part will be divided equally between the maternal grandfather and the maternal grandmother, and the remaining 2 parts will go to the paternal grandfather and the paternal grandmother, from which the paternal grandfather gets twice the share of the paternal grandmother.

2762. If the only heirs of a deceased are his wife together with his paternal grand parents, and his maternal grand parents, his wife gets her inheritance in the manner which will be explained later. And one of the 3 parts of the original estate of the deceased will be given to the maternal grandfather and grandmother, to divide it equally between them.
The remaining part will be given to the paternal grand parents, and the paternal grandfather gets twice as much as the paternal grandmother. And if the heirs of the deceased are her husband together with her paternal or maternal grand parents, the husband gets half of the property, and the grand parents get their inheritance in the manner mentioned in the foregoing rules.

2763. There are a few combinations of brother or sister, or brothers or sisters with the grand parents:

1. That the grand parents and brothers or sister are each from the mother's side. In that event the estate is divided among them equally, though they are of different sex.
2. That all of them are from the father's side. In that case, the property will be divided among them equally, provided that all of them are males, or all of them are females. And if they are different, every male will get twice as much as the female.
3. That the grand parents from the paternal side combine with the real brother or sister. The rule explained in the foregoing clause will also apply in this case. And it should be remembered that if the paternal brother or sister of the deceased combines with real brother or sister, those who are paternal do not inherit alone, but all of them inherit.
4. That there are grand parents, paternal and maternal, all males or all females or mixed, combined with the brothers or sisters who are similarly of diverse categories. In this case, 1/3 of the estate will go to the maternal relatives to be divided equally among them, regardless of their sex.
   And 2/3 of the estate will go to the paternal relatives, among whom every male gets twice as much as a female. And if there is no difference of sex among them, and all of them are males or all of them are females it will be divided equally among them.
5. That paternal grand parents are combined with maternal brother or sister. In this case, if there is only one brother or sister, he/she gets 1/6 of the property, and if they are many, 1/3 of the property is divided among them equally. The balance goes to the paternal grand parents, and if both the grandfather and the grandmother are there, the grandfather gets twice as much as the grandmother.
6. That maternal grand parents combine with the paternal brother. In this case 1/3 goes to the grand parent, although he/she may be alone, and 2/3 goes to the brother although he may be alone. If there is a paternal sister combined with the maternal grandfather or the grandmother, and if she is alone, she will get 1/2 of the property, and if there are several sisters they get 2/3 of it.
   And in every case, the share of the grandfather and grandmother is 1/3. And based on this calculation, there will be a residue of 1/6 if there is only one sister. Therefore, as an obligatory precaution, a compromise should be effected for that extra residue.
7. That there are some paternal and some maternal grand parents combined with one or more paternal brother or sister. In this case, the share of the maternal grandfather or grandmother is 1/3, and if they are many, it will be divided among them equally, although they are of different sex. And the remaining 2/3 of the estate is given to the paternal grandfather or the paternal grandmother and the paternal brother or the paternal sister.
   If they are of different sex, the estate will be divided in the ratio of one to two, and if they are all of the same sex, it will be divided equally. And if there is a maternal brother or maternal sister with those grand parents, the share of the maternal grandfather or maternal grandmother, together with the maternal brother or maternal sister will be 1/3, which will be divided among them equally, even if they are of different sex. And the share of the paternal grandparents will be 2/3, which be divided among them in the ratio of one to two in the case of difference of sex, and otherwise equally.
8. That there are brothers and sisters, some of whom paternal and others maternal, combined with paternal grand parents. In this case, the share of the maternal brother or maternal sister is 1/6, if he/she is alone, and 1/3 if there are many of them, and it will be divided equally among them.
   And as for the paternal brother or paternal sister together with the paternal grand parents, the remaining estate will go to them, to be divided among them equally if they are all of one sex, and if they are different, it will be divided in the ratio of one to two.
   And if there is a maternal grand parent combined with those brothers or sisters, the total share of the maternal grandfather and maternal grandmother with maternal brother and maternal sister is 1/3, to be divided equally among them. The share of the paternal brother or paternal sister will be 2/3, which will be divided among them in the ratio of one to two, if they are of different sex, and equally if they are of the same sex.

2764. If the deceased has brothers or sisters, then the brother's or sister's children do not inherit. However, this law does not apply when the inheritance of brother's child or sister's child does not clash with that of brother or sister.
For example, if the dead person has paternal brother and maternal grandfather, the paternal brother inherits 2/3 and the maternal grandfather inherits 1/3 of the estate. But if the deceased has a son of the maternal brother as well, the brother's son shares with the maternal grandfather the 1/3 of the estate.