Inheritance

One of the most obvious mathematical mistakes of Quran can be found in the division of the inheritance. 

The laws of inheritance are spread out in several Surahs. One can find references to it in Al-Baqarah(2), Al-Maidah(5) and Al-Anfal(8). But the details of this law are spelled out in the Surah Nisa (4).

 Q. 4:11
“Allah (thus) directs you as regards your Children's (Inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females: if only daughters, two or more, their share is two-thirds of the inheritance; if only one, her share is a half. For parents, a sixth share of the inheritance to each, if the deceased left children; if no children, and the parents are the (only) heirs, the mother has a third; if the deceased Left brothers (or sisters) the mother has a sixth. (The distribution in all cases ('s) after the payment of legacies and debts…”

 Q. 4: 12
“In what your wives leave, your share is a half, if they leave no child; but if they leave a child, ye get a fourth; after payment of legacies and debts. In what ye leave, their share is a fourth, if ye leave no child; but if ye leave a child, they get an eighth; after payment of legacies and debts…”

 Q. 4:176
“If it is a man that dies, leaving a sister but no child, she shall have half the inheritance: If (such a deceased was) a woman, who left no child, Her brother takes her inheritance: If there are two sisters, they shall have two-thirds of the inheritance (between them): if there are brothers and sisters, (they share), the male having twice the share of the female. Thus doth Allah make clear to you (His law), lest ye err. And Allah hath knowledge of all things.”

But despite the fact that it says “Allah made them clear”, this subject is far from clear.

For example, verse 4:11 says that if a man has only one daughter, she gets half irrespective of whether there are other heirs. But since the same verse says that the portion of the male is twice that of the female, her brother is supposed to get all the inheritance. Isn’t this a discrepancy? Yet the problem is aggravated further when the share of other heirs like parents and wives are taken into consideration.

There are cases when the total of the shares assigned to the heirs exceeds the patrimony. Take for example the following case.

According to the above verses, if a man dies leaving behind a wife, three daughters and his two parents, His wife’s share of his inheritance would 1/8. His daughters would receive 2/3 and his parents each will get 1/6 of his inheritance. But when you add all these fractions the sum is more than the total of inheritance.

Parents 1/3 = 4/24
Daughters 2/3 = 16/24
Wife 1/8 = 3/24

Total 27/24

Now take another example. Say a man who leaves his wife, his mother and sisters. The wife would receive ¼ of the inheritance, the mother 1/3 and the sisters 2/3. When we add up these fractions they too are more than the total of one.

Mother 1/3 = 4/12
Sisters 2/3 = 8/12
Wife 1/4 = 3/12

Total 15/12

In the above examples, the shares apportioned to the heirs exceed the total of the inheritance. In both cases the total of the inheritance sums to exactly one BEFORE taking into account the wife's share.

In order to solve these problems the Islamic doctors of law have devised a complex and obtuse “science” called “Al-Fara’id”. It contains rules of "Awl" and "Usbah," and the laws of "Usool" of the Fara'id, the laws of "Hajb wa Hirman," and many other issues relating to this matter. 

The laws of “Awl” deal with cases when the inheritor's shares exceed or "overshoot" the sum of the total inheritance. In such case the inheritance is recalculated and redistributed. In the above two cases, the distribution would be

Daughters: 16/27
Parents: 4/27
wife: 1/9 OR 3/27


and for the second case,

Mother: 4/15,
Sisters: 8/15.
Wife: 3/15,

Thus the problem is solved thanks to human ingenuity but the portions are not the same as indicated in Quran. Each party has to waive part of his or its share in order to make it work. This is a clear case in which the words of Allah needed human intervention in order to become applicable.

There are yet cases when the shares of the inheritors do not sum to a whole 100%.

Take for example a man who dies and leaves his wife and his parents.

Parents 1/3 = 4/12
Wife 1/4 = 3/12

Total 7/12

Or someone who leaves only one inheritor:

Wife 1/4

To deal with this problem the law of "Usbah" comes to effect. This law is to regulate the unclaimed shares, which have no corresponding people to receive them. Of course if Quran were clear with no errors that needed amendments, there would have been no need for all these “sciences”.

The law of Usbah is based on the following Hadith.

Sahih Bukhari 8. 80. 724
Narrated Ibn 'Abbas:
The Prophet said, "Give the Fara'id (the shares of the inheritance that are prescribed in the Qur'an) to those who are entitled to receive it. Then whatever remains, should be given to the closest male relative of the deceased."

To put this law into effect, a man who dies and leaves only his daughter with no other close male relative except a second cousin, his daughter will receive half of his inheritance and the other half will go to the man’s second cousin. This seems quite unfair to the daughter. But it would be especially unfair if the man had a needy aunt or a female first cousin that would receive nothing because they are of the wrong gender.
 

Now suppose that a man has no other heir except his wife and a distant male relative. The wife will receive 1/4 and the distant male relative gets the balance, i.e. three times the inheritance that his widowed wife gets. Is this justice?

What if the deceased has no male relative at all? What will happen to the rest of his inheritance? What happens in the reverse case when a wife has no relatives? The husband will receive half of her inheritance; who will get the other half?

Note that in Quran there is no priority for the distribution of the inheritance. In no where it says “first give to these and from what is left, give to those”. Even if we had to reinterpret these laws and prioritize them in the order that they are mentioned, it still dose not work because in that case, each subsequent inheritor will have his or her share shrunk but the total inheritance will never be used up.

The obtuseness of these laws of inheritance is further emphasized in the following example. Say a man with only one daughter and 10 sons. According to Quran, the daughter receives half while all the sons must share among themselves the other half. So each will receive not more than 1/20 of the inheritance. But this would contradict the other ruling that a male is to receive twice the share of the female.

Of course for 1400 years the Muslims have practiced Islam and somehow have managed to make these confusing laws work. What they have done is to reinterpret, adjust and compromise to make sense of what seems to be senseless. For example in the above example, they put all the inheritance in a pool and give to each male child twice the share of their female siblings. This solution, though logical, is not clear from Quran.

Despite all these incongruencies and errors the real problem with these laws is not the fact that they do not add up. The difficulty is with the inherent injustice that they embody. A modern person cannot avoid but to question, why daughters should receive half of what their brothers receive? Why Sisters receive less than brothers? And why a widower is entitled to double the share than a widow? Why Quran states “to the male, a portion equal to that of two females”? (4:11). Think of a man with four wives. All the wives have to share the ¼ of his wealth, in case there he had no children and 1/8 in case he had. In the first case each wife will receive 1/16 of the inheritance and in the second case 1/32. How a woman who may not be young enough to remarry can survive with so meager a share in a male dominated society as Islamic countries are? On the other hand a man who loses all his four wives will inherit half to ¼ of every wife’s wealth. Isn’t this the formula to enrich the men and impoverish the women? It is easier to forget about the mathematical errors of Quran than forgive its unfairness.

The verse (4:175) claims that “Thus doth Allah make clear to you (His law), lest ye err. And Allah hath knowledge of all things.” But as we see the above laws are anything but clear. They do not add up, the portions are not clearly defined, and the shares seem to be distributed unfairly. It is up to us to decide whether Allah, dose not have “knowledge of all things”, cannot add simple fractions, is confused and unfair or that perhaps Quran has been altered or not collected accordingly

By Ali Sina