MirathميراثFRENع

Method, sources and limits

How Mirath works out a division, which texts it relies on, and where it stops.

Order of the calculation

  1. Funeral costs come out of the estate first, then debts, then bequests within one third (art. 647).
  2. Heirs blocked by a closer relative are excluded (hajb).
  3. The Quranic fixed shares are assigned: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 2/3, 1/3, 1/6.
  4. What is left goes to the nearest residuary ('asaba), following the five classes of article 577.
  5. If the shares exceed the whole, they are reduced proportionally ('awl). If a surplus remains with no residuary, it is returned (radd) or left to the treasury, as you choose.
  6. Everything is brought to a common base so each heir receives a whole number of parts.

What changes from one school to another

The grandfather and siblingsMalikis, Shafi'is, Hanbalis: the grandfather shares with them following Zayd (best of three options). Hanafis: he excludes them as the father would.
al-AkdariyyaApplied by Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis. For Hanafis, the grandfather excludes the sister.
al-MushtarakaMalikis and Shafi'is: the full siblings share the maternal siblings' third. Hanafis and Hanbalis: they get nothing.
al-MalikiyyaMaliki only (and the Senegalese Code, art. 639): the grandfather takes the third, siblings get nothing. Other schools apply Zayd's general rule.
The paternal grandmother and the fatherExcluded by the father for Malikis, Hanafis and Shafi'is; she inherits alongside him for Hanbalis.
The surplus (radd)Hanafis and Hanbalis return it to the fixed-share heirs except spouses. Early Malikis and Shafi'is gave it to the public treasury; their later scholars accepted radd where no proper treasury exists. The Senegalese Code (art. 596, 3°) returns it "pro rata" without expressly excluding the spouse: Mirath offers all three readings.

Outside the scope of this version

  • A missing person (mafqud) or an unborn child (haml)
  • The intersex heir (khuntha)
  • Simultaneous deaths (drowning, accidents)
  • Relatives through women (dhawu al-arham), beyond flagging them
  • Impediments (homicide, difference of religion): none are assumed

Privacy

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Note on the Senegalese Family Code

The Family Code (law no. 72-61 of 12 June 1972) provides two succession regimes. Book VI, Title III, articles 571 to 653, governs successions under Muslim law.

Under article 571, those rules apply to "the estates of persons who, during their lifetime, expressly or through their conduct, indisputably showed their wish for their estate to pass under the rules of Muslim law".

Judges assess that conduct. In a ruling of 3 July 2019 (no. 62), the Supreme Court relied in particular on prayer, fasting, celebrating the Eids, and a marriage and burial under Muslim rites.

The Code largely follows Maliki doctrine: fixed-share and residuary heirs (art. 572-584), exclusion (art. 585-595), the special cases of al-Mushtaraka, al-Malikiyya, al-Akdariyya and al-'Umariyyatan (art. 638-641), and bequests capped at one third unless heirs agree after the death (art. 649-653).

This note is for information. It does not replace advice from a notary, a lawyer or a judge.