Fara'id is the Islamic law of inheritance: a system in which named relatives receive fixed fractions of an estate, and the exact outcome depends on which of them survive. Legacy Suite's calculator implements those core rules and carries the result straight into the Islamic Will.
Part of the 7-step Islamic Will. Educational tool — not a substitute for a qualified scholar or an attorney.
One estate, one distribution
A man survived by his wife, both parents, two sons and a daughter.
Fixed shares are assigned first. The children divide what remains, sons taking twice a daughter's portion.
Almost all of Fara'id follows from one structure. A first group takes fixed fractions set out in the Qur'an and Sunnah. A second group takes whatever is left. Understanding that split explains most of what a calculator does.
Furud
al-furud al-muqaddara
A defined set of relatives — spouse, parents, daughters, certain grandparents and siblings — who receive a stated fraction of the estate: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 2/3, 1/3 or 1/6. These are assigned first, before anything else is distributed.
Asaba
al-asaba
Relatives who take the remainder after the fixed shares are paid — typically sons, then grandsons, then the father, then brothers and their sons, then paternal uncles. If there are no fixed-share heirs at all, the nearest residuary heir takes the entire estate.
Hajb
al-hajb
Nearer heirs can reduce or entirely exclude more distant ones. A son excludes the deceased's siblings. A living father excludes the grandfather and the siblings. A living mother excludes the grandmothers. This is why two families with the same relatives on paper can produce very different distributions.
A fixed share is fixed in the sense that it is stated — not in the sense that it never changes. Most fixed shares have two values, and which one applies depends on whether the deceased left children or grandchildren. The calculator's whole job is to resolve that dependency correctly.
| Heir | With children or grandchildren | Without children or grandchildren |
|---|---|---|
| Wife | 1/8 | 1/4 |
| Husband | 1/4 | 1/2 |
| Father | 1/6 fixed | 1/6 plus the residue |
| Mother | 1/6 | 1/3, reduced to 1/6 where siblings survive |
These are the widely-shared Sunni positions the calculator implements. Where a grandmother inherits in place of an absent mother, the nearer degree takes 1/6 and grandmothers of the same degree divide it equally.
A worked illustration of the most common arrangement the engine handles: a man survived by his wife, both parents, two sons and one daughter. The fixed shares are assigned first, and the children divide what remains — sons receiving twice the share of a daughter, the ratio set out in Qur'an 4:11.
The whole estate
100%
The wife takes 1/8, because the deceased left children. Without children her share would have been 1/4.
The father takes 1/6 and the mother takes 1/6, the shares that apply when the deceased left offspring.
That leaves a little over half the estate. It is divided into five parts — two for each son, one for the daughter.
Percentages are rounded for display. The calculator works from the underlying fractions, and this illustration is a teaching example rather than advice about any particular estate.
Rather than one formula, the calculator routes each family to the branch of Fara'id that governs it. Which relatives you are asked about changes with your answers, so you are never asked about heirs who cannot inherit in your situation.
Case 1
Spouse, father and mother take their fixed shares, and the children divide the remainder with sons receiving twice a daughter's portion. A son is a residuary heir who excludes the deceased's brothers, sisters, nephews and uncles entirely.
Case 2
The most intricate branch in the engine, and the longest. Daughters take a fixed share rather than the residue — 1/2 for one daughter, 2/3 shared between two or more — which leaves a remainder that siblings, grandchildren and other relatives may then claim.
Case 3
Where children have predeceased, grandchildren step into their place. A surviving grandson is treated as a son would be; granddaughters without a grandson follow the daughters' rules instead.
Case 4
Without children or grandchildren the estate turns on the ascendants. A living father takes the residue and blocks the siblings; where no father or grandfather survives, maternal siblings can inherit alongside the mother.
Case 5
The spouse's enhanced share applies — 1/4 for a wife, 1/2 for a husband — and the remainder passes down a priority chain: full and paternal siblings first, then nephews and nieces, then paternal uncles and aunts.
Throughout
Exclusion rules are applied to the form itself. Name a son and the questions about siblings are withdrawn, because sons exclude them. Record that the father is alive and the grandfather's questions go away. The form narrows as your answers make relatives irrelevant.
The Inheritance Calculator is the fourth step of the Islamic Will, a seven-step wizard in Legacy Suite. Each step validates before it will advance, and progress is saved as you move between steps.
Your personal details.
Spouse and children — the answers the calculator depends on.
The people who will administer the estate.
The Fara'id engine determines each heir's share.
Specific bequests of named items.
Anything you want recorded alongside the distribution.
A read-only summary, then a generated PDF to download.
Fara'id applies to what is left of an estate, not to its gross value. Classical practice settles a sequence of obligations first, and no calculator can do this part for you.
First
The costs of burial are met from the estate before anything is distributed.
Then
Debts owed by the deceased are settled next. What the heirs divide is what survives this step.
Then
A voluntary bequest may be made, traditionally capped at one third of the remaining estate and generally not to someone who already inherits a fixed share.
Finally
Only the balance is distributed under Fara'id. This is the number the calculator's percentages describe.
Fara'id carries genuine scholarly depth, and schools of thought differ on real questions within it. We would rather tell you the boundary of the tool than let you assume it reaches further than it does.
What it does
What it does not do
Legacy Suite generates your Islamic Will as a PDF you download. It does not sign, witness, or notarise anything, and it is not attorney-reviewed. Executing the document is your step, and the requirements are set by the place you live.
The review step produces a downloadable PDF. Sign the printed copy, not the file.
Signing and witnessing requirements differ by state and by country. Check what yours asks for before you sign.
For an estate of any complexity, have both a qualified scholar and an attorney in your jurisdiction review the result.
How the fixed shares work, what the calculator covers, and where you still need a scholar or an attorney.
The Inheritance Calculator is built into the Islamic Will in Legacy Suite. Work through the seven steps, download the document, and execute it where you live.
Legacy Suite is not a law firm and does not provide legal or religious advice. Confirm complex estates with a qualified scholar and an attorney in your jurisdiction.