Some Questions Regarding the Explanation of the Law of Inheritance of the Qur'an... The First Letter In your article on inheritance you have written: Regarding the share of the parents, the Qur'an says: ...if the deceased has children, the parents shall inherit a sixth each, and if he has no children and the parents are his only heirs then his mother shall receive a third, and if he has brothers and sisters then the mother's share is the same one-sixth. If we look at this part of the verse closely, we shall see that in case the deceased has any children or, in the absence of children, has any brothers and/or sisters, the parents are to receive a fixed share (one-sixth each) of the total inheritance. Thus, we may conclude that in the presence of either children or brothers and/or sisters of the deceased, the parents get a fixed share in the total inheritance. Why have you said that the parents' share is a fixed one-sixth? I see the parents share as this amount only in the case that the deceased has left children. In the other cases, whether the deceased has brothers or sisters or no children at all, it says that inheritance goes to the MOTHER, the female parent, not the parentS, as you have it. God bless, Anwar The Second Letter I sent a question about your article on inheritance. I find your derivations unfounded. In the case that the deceased has no children the inheritance goes to the mother. The father is not mentioned. Parents were mentioned before so there is no reason why the passage would not say that in this case 1/6 goes to the parents but it ignored 'parents' and say 'mother' explicitly. Therefore you should correct your article and say that in this case the father gets NO inheritance unless otherwise stated in another verse. God bless, Anwar The Third Letter You have 4:176 translated as: if a man dies childless and he has only a sister, she shall inherit half of what he leaves; and if she dies childless, then her brother shall be her heir; and if their are two sisters, they shall inherit two-thirds of what he [or she] leaves. If there are many brothers and sisters, the share of each male should be that of two females... The second 'and' should be a 'but' to get rid of ambiguity. In addition, staying truer to the Arabic and being clearer 'her brother' should just be 'he'. God bless, Anwar The Fourth Letter I would like to see a Qur'anic explanation of what to do with left over inheritance. Would you be willing to do this? God bless, Anwar Reply... To the First & Second Letter Regarding the share of the parents, the Qur'an says: ...if the deceased has children, the parents shall inherit a sixth each, and if he has no children and the parents are his only heirs then his mother shall receive a third, and if he has brothers and sisters then the mother's share is the same one-sixth. For a closer analysis of the part of the verse, which is specifically related to Mr. Anwar's question, let us highlight the related part of the verse only. In the absence of children as well as brothers/sisters, the Qur'an says: If the deceased has no children and the two parents are his only heirs then his mother shall receive a third. A close look at this part of the verse shows that in view of the structure of the verse, by mentioning the share of the mother, the Qur'an has also fixed the share of the father. To understand this implication, consider the following statements: "If the prize money is to be distributed only between Tom, Dick and Harry, then Tom should get one-twelfth and Dick should get one-sixth of the total prize money." Even though it may seem at first sight that the above statement has only fixed the shares of two of the three partners, yet a closer look shall show that the shares of all the three partners have been stated and fixed. The fact that the statement begins with the defining clause, i.e. "If the prize money is to be distributed only between Tom, Dick and Harry" clearly implies that the total has to be distributed among the three partners. Now, if two of the three shares are stated in the succeeding statement, it would obviously result in the determination of the third share. Thus, in the example given above, the statement has actually (without mentioning it in words) fixed the share of Harry at one-third of the total prize money. In exactly the same manner, if I were to say: If the inheritors are one brother and one sister only, then the share of the sister shall be one-third of the total property. Once again, merely by stating the share of the sister, I have, in fact, determined the share of the brother as well. Thus, the share of the brother, in such a case, is obviously two-thirds of the total property. Keeping the above statement in perspective, in my opinion, it is clear, that by stating: If only the mother and the father (parents) are heirs to a deceased, then the mother shall receive a third of the property. The Qur'an has, in fact, determined (as well as stated) the shares of both the mother as well as the father in the above statement [1] . Thus, to summarize, if the deceased has children, the share of the parents is stipulated by the Qur'an as one-sixth each, while if the deceased has neither children nor parents, and his parents are his only inheritors, then the mother shall get one-third and the father two-thirds of the leftover inheritance. However, if a childless deceased has any brothers and sisters, then the share of the mother is returned to the share, which was stipulated for the mother had the deceased left behind any children. This, obviously, implies that the share of the father, which was raised to two-thirds in the succeeding statement, shall also be returned to the share, which was stipulated for the father had the deceased left behind any children (i.e. one-sixth). The above explanation should clarify the basis of my statement that you have referred to in your first letter. To the Third Letter Your suggested change is definitely closer to the Arabic words and, therefore, more preferable. In my translation I had only explained the pronoun as a clarification. Nevertheless, I realize by your pointing it out that the clarification is not required in the English translation, due to separate. Thank you for your correction. Jazaak Allah . To the Fourth Letter The Qur'an has not stipulated the method or the proportion in which the leftover inheritance (in some cases) is to be distributed. This really implies that only the rights, which the Qur'an wanted to fix for all times to come, have been stipulated in the Qur'an. In the balance, if any, the Qur'an, merely by its silence, has left the decision at the discretion of the deceased. I hope this helps. Regards, Moiz Amjad , Otherwise you may simply Close this Window [1] The share of the father, obviously, is 2/3 rd of the total property.