#1136 Yahya related to me from Malik from Zayd ibn Aslam that Umar ibn
al-Khattab asked the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant
him peace, about someone who died without parents or offspring, and
the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said
to him, "The ayat which was sent down in the summer at the end of the
Surat an-Nisa (Sura 4) is enoughfor you."


Malik said, "The
generally agreed on way of doing things among us, in which there is no
dispute, and which I saw the people of knowledge in our city doing, is
that the person who leaves neither parent or offspring can be of two
types. As for the kind described in the ayat which was sent down at
the beginning of the Surat an-Nisa in which Allah, the Blessed, the
Exalted! said, 'If a man or a woman has no direct heir, but has a
brother or a sister by the mother, each of the two has a sixth. If
there are more than that, they share equally in a third.' (Sura 4 ayat
12) This heirless one does not have heirs among his mother's siblings
since there are no children or parents. As for the other kind
described in the ayat which comes at the end of the Surat an-Nisa,
Allah, the Blessed, the Exalted, said in it, 'They will ask you for a
decision. Say, "Allah gives you a decision about the indirect heirs.
If a man perishes having no children, but he has a sister, she shall
receive a half of what he leaves, and he is her heir if she has no
children. If there are two sisters, they shall receive two-thirds of
what he leaves. If there are brothers and sisters, the male shall
receive the portion of two females. Allah makes clear to you that you
might not go astray. Allah has knowledge of everything" ' " (Sura 4
ayat 176).


Malik said, "If this person without direct heirs
(parents) or children has siblings by the father, they inherit with
the grandfather from the person without direct heirs. The grandfather
inherits with the siblings because he is more entitled to the
inheritance than them. That is because he inherits a sixth with the
male children of the deceased when the siblings do not inherit
anything with the male children of the deceased. How can he not be
like one of them when he takes a sixth with the children of the
deceased? How can he not take a third with the siblings while the
brother's sons take a third with them? The grandfather is the one who
overshadows the half-siblings by the mother and keeps them from
inheriting. He is more entitled to what they have because they are
omitted for his sake. If the grandfather did not take that third, the
half-siblings by the mother would take it and would take what does not
return to the half-siblings by the father. The half-siblings by the
mother are more entitled to that third than the half-siblings by the
father while the grandfather is more entitled to that than the half-
siblings by the mother."