At a glance
countedWhy inheritance is unlike any other subject in this atlas.
Most Quranic themes are moral horizons; this one is a table of fractions. That precision is itself the point — the shares are removed from custom and family power and fixed as ḥudūd Allāh 4:13, so that the vulnerable heir cannot be argued out of a portion.
The founding legislation
interpreted· quran by quranThe two verses that fix nearly every share.
يُوصِيكُمُ ٱللَّهُ فِىٓ أَوْلَٰدِكُمْ لِلذَّكَرِ مِثْلُ حَظِّ ٱلْأُنثَيَيْنِ فَإِن كُنَّ نِسَآءً فَوْقَ ٱثْنَتَيْنِ فَلَهُنَّ ثُلُثَا مَا تَرَكَ وَإِن كَانَتْ وَٰحِدَةً فَلَهَا ٱلنِّصْفُ وَلِأَبَوَيْهِ لِكُلِّ وَٰحِدٍ مِّنْهُمَا ٱلسُّدُسُ مِمَّا تَرَكَ إِن كَانَ لَهُۥ وَلَدٌ فَإِن لَّمْ يَكُن لَّهُۥ وَلَدٌ وَوَرِثَهُۥٓ أَبَوَاهُ فَلِأُمِّهِ ٱلثُّلُثُ فَإِن كَانَ لَهُۥٓ إِخْوَةٌ فَلِأُمِّهِ ٱلسُّدُسُ مِنۢ بَعْدِ وَصِيَّةٍ يُوصِى بِهَآ أَوْ دَيْنٍ ءَابَآؤُكُمْ وَأَبْنَآؤُكُمْ لَا تَدْرُونَ أَيُّهُمْ أَقْرَبُ لَكُمْ نَفْعًا فَرِيضَةً مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا
Allah instructs you concerning your children: for the male, what is equal to the share of two females. But if there are [only] daughters, two or more, for them is two thirds of one's estate. And if there is only one, for her is half. And for one's parents, to each one of them is a sixth of his estate if he left children. But if he had no children and the parents [alone] inherit from him, then for his mother is one third. And if he had brothers [or sisters], for his mother is a sixth, after any bequest he [may have] made or debt. Your parents or your children - you know not which of them are nearest to you in benefit. [These shares are] an obligation [imposed] by Allah. Indeed, Allah is ever Knowing and Wise.
Children and parents: the 2:1 ratio, and a sixth each for parents when there are children.
وَلَكُمْ نِصْفُ مَا تَرَكَ أَزْوَٰجُكُمْ إِن لَّمْ يَكُن لَّهُنَّ وَلَدٌ فَإِن كَانَ لَهُنَّ وَلَدٌ فَلَكُمُ ٱلرُّبُعُ مِمَّا تَرَكْنَ مِنۢ بَعْدِ وَصِيَّةٍ يُوصِينَ بِهَآ أَوْ دَيْنٍ وَلَهُنَّ ٱلرُّبُعُ مِمَّا تَرَكْتُمْ إِن لَّمْ يَكُن لَّكُمْ وَلَدٌ فَإِن كَانَ لَكُمْ وَلَدٌ فَلَهُنَّ ٱلثُّمُنُ مِمَّا تَرَكْتُم مِّنۢ بَعْدِ وَصِيَّةٍ تُوصُونَ بِهَآ أَوْ دَيْنٍ وَإِن كَانَ رَجُلٌ يُورَثُ كَلَٰلَةً أَوِ ٱمْرَأَةٌ وَلَهُۥٓ أَخٌ أَوْ أُخْتٌ فَلِكُلِّ وَٰحِدٍ مِّنْهُمَا ٱلسُّدُسُ فَإِن كَانُوٓا۟ أَكْثَرَ مِن ذَٰلِكَ فَهُمْ شُرَكَآءُ فِى ٱلثُّلُثِ مِنۢ بَعْدِ وَصِيَّةٍ يُوصَىٰ بِهَآ أَوْ دَيْنٍ غَيْرَ مُضَآرٍّ وَصِيَّةً مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَلِيمٌ
And for you is half of what your wives leave if they have no child. But if they have a child, for you is one fourth of what they leave, after any bequest they [may have] made or debt. And for the wives is one fourth if you leave no child. But if you leave a child, then for them is an eighth of what you leave, after any bequest you [may have] made or debt. And if a man or woman leaves neither ascendants nor descendants but has a brother or a sister, then for each one of them is a sixth. But if they are more than two, they share a third, after any bequest which was made or debt, as long as there is no detriment [caused]. [This is] an ordinance from Allah, and Allah is Knowing and Forbearing.
Spouses: the husband's ½/¼, the wife's ¼/⅛, by whether there are children.
Where the root w-r-th lives in the Qurʾān
countedWord occurrences per sūrah, QAC morphology over the Ḥafṣ/Tanzil text. The root peaks in Al-Aʿrāf and Maryam — where inheritance is spiritual (the righteous inheriting the earth, prophets inheriting prophethood); An-Nisāʾ, the chapter of the fixed legal shares, holds only 4 of the 35 occurrences. Revelation order is the traditional chronology, not a computed fact.
و-ر-ث35 occurrences · 20 of 114 sūrahs
Counted from the QAC morphology over the Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim (Tanzil) text — hover a bar for the sūrah. The Makkī/Madanī labels and the revelation ordering follow the traditional chronology: an inherited scholarly ordering, not a computed fact.
What surrounds the shares
interpreted· quran by quranIn Sūrat al-Nisāʾ the fractions arrive braced by protection of the weak.
- Before4:7
A share is declared — for women too
Before any fraction, the principle: 'for men a share… and for women a share' of what parents and kin leave. The right precedes the arithmetic.
- The mention4:11
The fixed fractions
The furūḍ themselves — the 2:1 ratio, the parents' sixths, the spouses' portions — legislated by name and condition.
- After4:13
These are God's limits
The passage seals the shares as ḥudūd Allāh: obey them and enter gardens, transgress them and the warning of 4:14 follows. The fractions are not advice; they are a boundary.
The fixed limit and its abuse
interpreted· quran by quranThe Qurʾān sets ordered, guaranteed shares against the devouring of the weak's wealth.
Farāʾiḍ — fixed shares
الفرائضPortions guaranteed by the text, beyond family power to withhold.
The bequest and the shares — takhṣīṣ or naskh?
interpreted· quran by quranBefore the fixed shares, 2:180 made a bequest (waṣiyya) to parents and near kin a written duty. Once 4:11–4:12 fixed exact fractions for those same heirs, the two commands appear to collide — and the tradition reads the collision two ways. Takhṣīṣ = the later verse narrows the earlier; naskh = it cancels it.
Did the fixed shares of 4:11-12 abrogate the bequest command of 2:180, or only specify it?
Reading ATakhṣīṣ — the shares specify the bequest
التخصيصṬabāṭabāʾī and most Shia exegetes keep 2:180 in force: the fixed shares limit the waṣiyya rather than delete it, so a bequest remains due to close kin who take no fixed share, within the one-third cap.
- Al-Mīzān minimises abrogation on principle — a later verse restricts an earlier one wherever it can 2:180
- Qurʾān-by-Qurʾān: 4:11-12 legislate shares; they never declare the bequest void 4:11
- A duty of bequest survives for relatives barred from a fixed portion, and for others up to a third
Reading BNaskh — the shares abrogate the bequest
النسخThe classical majority read 2:180 as abrogated: once God fixed the fractions, a mandatory bequest to those same heirs had no room to stand, and a bequest to an heir is no longer valid.
- The fixed shares leave no space for a second, obligatory portion to the same heirs 4:11
- Read together with the report lā waṣiyya li-wārith — 'no bequest to an heir'
- On this view 2:180 is counted among the Qurʾān's abrogated verses 2:180
The atlas records the fork — it crowns no reading.
One question
interpreted· quran by quranA retrieval beat — the answer sits in the verses above.
Test your reading
After fixing every fraction, the passage seals the shares with a two-word phrase. What does 4:13 call them?
Keeping vs. transgressing the limits
interpreted· quran by quran4:13-14 attach opposite ends to obeying or breaching the shares.
How the Qurʾān sorts the heirs
interpreted· quran by quranThe classic division the fractions imply — the counted furūḍ vs. what the text leaves to computation.
Fixed-share heirs
أصحاب الفروضNamed heirs with a stated fraction.
½ or ¼ (husband) · ¼ or ⅛ (wife) — 4:12
⅙ each with children; mother ⅓ without — 4:11
½ one, ⅔ two or more — 4:11
Residuary heirs
العصبةTake what remains after the fixed shares.
Absorb the residue, daughters at half a son's portion — 4:11
When there is no child, takes the remainder
The law in full
interpreted· quran by quranلِّلرِّجَالِ نَصِيبٌ مِّمَّا تَرَكَ ٱلْوَٰلِدَانِ وَٱلْأَقْرَبُونَ وَلِلنِّسَآءِ نَصِيبٌ مِّمَّا تَرَكَ ٱلْوَٰلِدَانِ وَٱلْأَقْرَبُونَ مِمَّا قَلَّ مِنْهُ أَوْ كَثُرَ نَصِيبًا مَّفْرُوضًا
For men is a share of what the parents and close relatives leave, and for women is a share of what the parents and close relatives leave, be it little or much - an obligatory share.
For men a share, and for women a share.
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَأْكُلُونَ أَمْوَٰلَ ٱلْيَتَٰمَىٰ ظُلْمًا إِنَّمَا يَأْكُلُونَ فِى بُطُونِهِمْ نَارًا وَسَيَصْلَوْنَ سَعِيرًا
Indeed, those who devour the property of orphans unjustly are only consuming into their bellies fire. And they will be burned in a Blaze.
Devouring orphans' wealth is swallowing fire.
تِلْكَ حُدُودُ ٱللَّهِ وَمَن يُطِعِ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ يُدْخِلْهُ جَنَّٰتٍ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَٰرُ خَٰلِدِينَ فِيهَا وَذَٰلِكَ ٱلْفَوْزُ ٱلْعَظِيمُ
These are the limits [set by] Allah, and whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger will be admitted by Him to gardens [in Paradise] under which rivers flow, abiding eternally therein; and that is the great attainment.
These are the limits of God.
وَمَن يَعْصِ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ وَيَتَعَدَّ حُدُودَهُۥ يُدْخِلْهُ نَارًا خَٰلِدًا فِيهَا وَلَهُۥ عَذَابٌ مُّهِينٌ
And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger and transgresses His limits - He will put him into the Fire to abide eternally therein, and he will have a humiliating punishment.
And whoever transgresses His limits…
يَسْتَفْتُونَكَ قُلِ ٱللَّهُ يُفْتِيكُمْ فِى ٱلْكَلَٰلَةِ إِنِ ٱمْرُؤٌا۟ هَلَكَ لَيْسَ لَهُۥ وَلَدٌ وَلَهُۥٓ أُخْتٌ فَلَهَا نِصْفُ مَا تَرَكَ وَهُوَ يَرِثُهَآ إِن لَّمْ يَكُن لَّهَا وَلَدٌ فَإِن كَانَتَا ٱثْنَتَيْنِ فَلَهُمَا ٱلثُّلُثَانِ مِمَّا تَرَكَ وَإِن كَانُوٓا۟ إِخْوَةً رِّجَالًا وَنِسَآءً فَلِلذَّكَرِ مِثْلُ حَظِّ ٱلْأُنثَيَيْنِ يُبَيِّنُ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمْ أَن تَضِلُّوا۟ وَٱللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمٌۢ
They request from you a [legal] ruling. Say, "Allah gives you a ruling concerning one having neither descendants nor ascendants [as heirs]." If a man dies, leaving no child but [only] a sister, she will have half of what he left. And he inherits from her if she [dies and] has no child. But if there are two sisters [or more], they will have two-thirds of what he left. If there are both brothers and sisters, the male will have the share of two females. Allah makes clear to you [His law], lest you go astray. And Allah is Knowing of all things.
The ruling on kalāla — one who leaves no parent or child.
كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذَا حَضَرَ أَحَدَكُمُ ٱلْمَوْتُ إِن تَرَكَ خَيْرًا ٱلْوَصِيَّةُ لِلْوَٰلِدَيْنِ وَٱلْأَقْرَبِينَ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ حَقًّا عَلَى ٱلْمُتَّقِينَ
Prescribed for you when death approaches [any] one of you if he leaves wealth [is that he should make] a bequest for the parents and near relatives according to what is acceptable - a duty upon the righteous.
The bequest (waṣiyya) prescribed before the shares.
Al-Mīrāth in the web of the Qurʾān
interpreted· quran by quranHow the inheritance law connects to its neighbouring rulings and themes.
What the fractions cannot fix
interpreted· quran by quranThe Qurʾān rarely legislates in fractions; here it does, and then, mid-verse, it adds a sentence that dissolves the arithmetic: you know not which of them are nearer to you in benefit 4:11. The shares are fixed precisely because human judgement of who deserves what is not to be trusted. A map can lay out the halves and sixths exactly; it cannot weigh the benefit only God sees, nor settle whether a dying person's bequest still binds beside the shares. That the passage closes as ḥudūd Allāh 4:13 — God's own limits — is the reminder that the fractions were never merely maths.