Methodology
A calculator people use for inheritance has to be honest about what it covers, whose positions it follows, and where it stops. This page is that contract.
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.
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.