Islamic Inheritance Calculator (Faraid)

Islamic inheritance law (faraid) is the most precisely specified area of Islamic financial practice: the Quran names the heirs and fixes most of their shares outright, which is why it can be calculated at all. This tool takes an estate and a list of surviving relatives and applies those fixed shares. The sections below cover the part a calculator does not explain — the order in which an estate is settled, the one-third will, why the male share is double in one specific case, and the situations where you should have the result checked by a scholar before distributing anything.

The order of distribution — four steps before any heir is paid

Faraid shares apply to what remains of an estate, not to the gross total. Four deductions come first, and getting them out of order produces an answer that is wrong by construction:

1. Funeral and burial costs — reasonable and modest, taken from the estate.
2. Outstanding debts — every debt of the deceased, including an unpaid deferred mahr, is settled before inheritance (see the mahr calculator on why a deferred mahr is an estate debt).
3. A valid will (wasiyyah) — capped at one third of what remains, and only to people who are not already Quranic heirs.
4. The fixed shares — distributed over the residue, followed by any residuary heirs.

The one-third will, and why it must not touch the heirs

A Muslim may bequeath up to one third of the estate, and the bequest may not be made in favour of someone who already inherits — the fixed shares are the Quran's decision and a will cannot be used to re-cut them. Three practical consequences follow: the will must be written and witnessed while healthy; a bequest to an heir requires the consent of the other heirs; and the remaining two thirds pass under faraid regardless of what the will says. The verses behind the distribution are 4:11, 4:12 and 4:176 (the last covering the case of a person who leaves neither parents nor children).

Why one son receives the share of two daughters

The 2:1 ratio set in 4:11 applies when sons and daughters inherit together and the residue is divided between them. It is read alongside the maintenance obligation (nafaqah) that Islamic law places on men — a husband's duty to maintain his household is a legal duty, not a preference, and the verse distributes both the estate and the obligation. Where there are only daughters, the ratio never applies at all: they receive fixed shares (one half for a single daughter, two thirds shared between two or more), and if there are no sons the shares do not depend on gender.

Where a calculator helps, and where it cannot finish the job

The tool is strong on the ordinary case and useful as a first pass on the hard ones. Four classes of situation need a scholar's eye on the numbers:

Getting the inputs right

• • List the estate honestly — bank balances, shares, property at market value, business interests and gold holdings. Use the sukuk calculator or mortgage calculator where an investment or a property needs a valuation.
• • Confirm who is alive at the time of death — an heir who died before the deceased does not inherit, and their children may.
• • Deduct debts and the will first, then run the calculation on the residue.
• • Write the outcome down and date it — the Hijri date converter is useful for dating an estate record, and a written record prevents the kind of dispute the shares exist to prevent.
• • Kinship comes before charity. A will that leaves most of the estate to a mosque while close relatives are in need is against the purpose of the law; see the zakat calculator for the separate obligation that runs alongside inheritance.

Sources: Quran 4:11, 4:12, 4:176 (quran.com); AMJA fatwa archive (amjaonline.org) for madhhab-specific cases. Educational only — for a real estate, have the schedule of heirs and the calculation reviewed by a qualified scholar or an Islamic inheritance specialist.

Fixed Shares in Islamic Inheritance