Methodology

How gold is weighed and valued

• Every piece is normalized to pure-gold grams: weight × unit (1 tola = 11.6638 g, 1 troy ounce = 31.1035 g) × karat ÷ 24. Shares are computed on pure content, which is the only fair basis for mixed jewelry, coins and bars.
• Monetary values use the live international spot price (USD per troy ounce, refreshed about once a minute) converted at the day's exchange rate. Jewelry resale prices are typically below pure-content value (making charges, dealer margins) — values here are a fair-division reference, not a sale quote.

Farāʾiḍ rules implemented (majority Sunni positions)

• Supported heirs: husband or wife/wives, sons, daughters, father, mother, full brothers and sisters, maternal (uterine) siblings.
• Fixed shares (furūḍ)per Qur'an 4:11, 4:12 and 4:176 — spouse (1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 depending on descendants), mother (1/3, reduced to 1/6 by a child or by two or more siblings — even siblings who are themselves blocked), father (1/6 when a child exists), daughters (1/2 alone, 2/3 for two or more), full sisters likewise, maternal siblings (1/6 for one, 1/3 shared equally for two or more).
• Blocking (ḥajb): the father blocks all siblings; a son blocks all siblings; any child or the father blocks maternal siblings.
• Residue (ʿaṣaba): sons (with daughters, 2:1 per person); the father when no son exists; full brothers (with sisters, 2:1); full sisters take the residue alongside daughters (ʿaṣaba maʿa al-ghayr).
• ʿAwl: when fixed shares oversubscribe the estate (e.g. the famous minbariyya case — wife, two daughters, both parents → 24 becomes 27), all shares scale down proportionally.
• Radd: surplus with no residuary heir returns pro-rata to the fixed-share heirs, excluding the spouse (majority view).
• ʿUmariyyatān: spouse + both parents → the mother takes 1/3 of the remainder after the spouse (majority view; the calculator notes the minority position).
• Disputed cases are flagged: e.g. al-mushtaraka (husband, mother, two maternal siblings, full brothers) — shown per the Ḥanafī/Ḥanbalī view with an explicit note that Mālikī/Shāfiʿī schools differ.

Full estate: order of operations

• 1. Debts & funeral costs are settled first, from the gross estate (gold + cash + other assets). If they exceed the estate, nothing remains to distribute — the calculator says so rather than showing shares.
• 2. Waṣiyya (bequest)comes next, capped at one third of the net estate. A bequest beyond the third takes effect only with the heirs' consent (majority view) — the calculator caps it and says it did.
• 3. The Qur'anic shares then apply to what remains. With only gold entered, results stay weight-first; with a mixed estate they are value-first with a gold-equivalent column.

Zakat on gold

• Niṣāb: 20 mithqāl of gold, taken at the contemporary standard of 1 mithqāl ≈ 4.25 g — so 85 g of pure gold. The check runs on pure-gold content (weight × karat ÷ 24), the same normalization the other calculators use. The threshold is inclusive: exactly 85 g owes zakat.
• Rate: one fortieth (2.5%), shown in grams of pure gold and its live monetary value.
• Jewelry in regular use (ikhtilāf):the Ḥanafī school holds all gold zakatable — the calculator's default. The majority (Shāfiʿī, Mālikī, Ḥanbalī) exempt jewelry in customary personal use; the method toggle switches to that view and lets you mark worn pieces. When in doubt the calculator counts a piece — overstating the obligation is the cautious direction.
• Gold only: if you also hold cash, silver or trade goods, many scholars apply the lower silver niṣāb to the combined wealth, which can make zakat due even when your gold alone is under 85 g. This calculator does not combine asset classes.
• Ḥawl: zakat falls due after one lunar year of continuous possession at or above the niṣāb. The calculator values what would be due today and does not track your zakat date.

Where the calculator stops

If the family includes anyone outside the supported set — grandparents, grandchildren of a predeceased child, paternal half-siblings, uncles, nephews, or more distant kindred — the calculator returns no numbers at all and refers you to a scholar. Those relatives change every other share, and a confident wrong answer is worse than none. The same applies before any real distribution: debts, funeral costs and bequests (waṣiyya, capped at 1/3) come off the estate first, and national inheritance law may impose its own requirements. Treat every result as informational, not as a fatwa or legal advice.

Sources

Share rules follow the Qur'anic verses above as elaborated in standard farāʾiḍ references in the al-Sirājiyya tradition; the implementation is tested against classical worked examples (minbariyya, the ʿUmariyyatān, radd and blocking cases) and cross-checked against established faraid calculators for identical family structures. Arithmetic uses exact fractions — shares like 1/6 + 1/6 + 2/3 sum to exactly 1, with no rounding drift.

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