The wife’s share of the inheritance: how much is calculated and what are its conditions and reasons?

Islamic law determined the woman’s share of the inheritance upon the death of her husband, as Islam gave the woman the right to have a special financial responsibility separate from her husband and her relatives, and it also gave her the full right to dispose of her financial responsibility, however she wanted, and given the many branches of the science of inheritance or what is called

The science of impositions in some Arab countries, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, so the wife’s share of inheritance is considered one of the most important of these branches, so you should read this article until the end to benefit from this information.

What is inheritance and its causes?

The linguistic definition of inheritance is survival and permanence, and inheritance is what remains of things after their annihilation, and it is defined in Islamic law as the money or benefits that the deceased leaves for his family and children as a legacy to them after his death.

There are many jurisprudential rulings and issues that concern the issue of inheritance and show the method of distributing the estate to the heirs of the deceased after his death.

We will show you what are the causes of inheritance and what are the conditions and barriers to inheritance:

reasons for inheritance

Inheritance has three causes in general: the marriage bond, the loyalty bond, and the lineage bond. Here are the details:

• Marriage relationship: Once a valid marriage contract is concluded with all the conditions and elements, this generates a right for each of the spouses to the inheritance of the other, meaning that if one of the spouses dies and leaves money, a will, or an inheritance, then the other has the right to take his share of the other’s money, as stipulated in Islamic law.
• The connection of loyalty: And the meaning of loyalty is the relationship of the slave with his master when his neck is freed. Hadiths of the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, have been mentioned in this matter.
• Lineage: Lineage means kinship that arises in a sense with the individual and his kin, so if a person dies, then his relatives, whether they are ancestors or descendants of the deceased, have the right to the estate unless there is an impediment to inheritance.

Inheritance conditions:

Three conditions must be met for the inheritance process to take place:

• Complete verification of the death of the inheritor, whether the death is real or legal.
• Verification of the life of the heir after the death of his bequeather.
• Determining the cause of inheritance, the relationship between him and the deceased, whether it was a relationship of lineage, marriage, or loyalty.

Contraindications to inheritance:

The provisions of the Islamic Sharia clarified the rules on the basis of which the inheritance is distributed among the heirs, as well as the reasons that prevent one of the heirs from his legal right to inheritance, and the Islamic Sharia limited them to three reasons:

• First: the difference of religion: it means that the religion of the deceased differs from the religion of one of his heirs. As he can’t inherit something from the money of his bequeather if they are not on the same religion, and all islamic scholars have agreed on that.
• Second: Murder: The murderer has no right to anything in the estate of his inheritor. If the son kills his father, he is deprived of the inheritance for this reason.
• Third: slavery: the meaning of slavery is slavery, and the wisdom behind that is that slaves do not have money, so all their money goes to their master.

What is the wife’s inheritance from her husband and her sons and daughters?

Islamic law has taken care of the woman and her full rights, especially her right to inheritance, whether she is a wife, a mother, a daughter, an aunt or an aunt. Saudi law has also taken care of that, as it was mentioned in Article 210 of the Personal Status Law the wife’s share of the inheritance.

Where Islamic law declared that the wife’s share of the inheritance is the price of the estate in the event that the wife had sons or daughters.

And the remainder of the estate is divided among the children, among the sons and daughters, for the male, like the share of the two females, and when there is more than one wife, in this case they share the price.

In order for the wife to obtain her full right to inheritance, she and her husband must have a valid marriage contract complete with all the conditions and elements, and this contract must continue until the husband’s death.

The wife’s inheritance from her husband when she has children

If the husband dies and leaves behind children, then the wife inherits like the rest of the heirs, each according to his share determined by the Sharia. If the husband dies and leaves behind children, the wife’s share of the inheritance is one-eighth, whatever the number of these children. When there is a descendant of the deceased, the wife’s share of the inheritance is one-eighth.

How much inherit the wife who did not have children?

The provisions of Islamic law have shown the legal right of every person to inheritance with the utmost accuracy and justice. The Holy Qur’an mentioned in Surat Al-Nisa, which is the first legislation for the whole nation, that the wife’s share of the inheritance in the event that she has no children, that her legal right is a quarter of the estate.

How to calculate the wife’s share of the inheritance?

We have previously stated that the wife’s right to inheritance is either a quarter or an eighth. In the case of a wife who has children, her right is the eighth, but if she has no children, then her legal share of the inheritance is the eighth and is calculated in the following way:

If the wife’s share of the inheritance is a quarter, then in this case the wife’s share of the inheritance can be calculated by dividing the total of the entire estate by the number four;

For example, if the wife’s share of the inheritance is 5 million riyals, then it is calculated as follows 5 million ÷ 4 = one million and 250 thousand riyals, which is the wife’s share of the inheritance that Sharia has determined for her.

If the wife’s share of the inheritance is one-eighth, then in this case the wife’s share of the inheritance can be calculated by dividing the total amount of the entire estate by the number 8

For example, if the wife’s share of the inheritance is 5 million Saudi riyals, then it is calculated as follows 5 million ÷ 8 = 156,250 Saudi riyals.

In the case of polygamy, the share that we mentioned earlier is distributed equally among all wives, whatever their share is, whether a quarter or an eighth is the legal share for them.

Thus, we explain the wife’s right to her husband’s inheritance in detail, and for more details, you can contact one of the legal experts and consultants in personal status from the office of the legal expert Al Othman.

The wife’s inheritance from her husband and daughters

After clarifying all the necessary procedures for the distribution of the estate on the basis of the texts of Islamic law.

If the wife had daughters, then her share is the one that Islamic Sharia decided for her to be one-eighth, because Sharia considers the daughters as a branch of the deceased’s heir in his estate, regardless of the number of daughters. Accordingly, Article 210 of the Personal Status Law states that the wife’s share of the inheritance when the inheriting branch of the estate is one-eighth of the inheritance.

In the event that there are several wives, they share the price, and given the share of the daughters, if the deceased had only one daughter, then her share is half of the estate, and in the case of multiple daughters, if they were two daughters or more than that, then the right in the estate is two-thirds, as decided by the Islamic Sharia.

When does the wife not inherit?

The provisions of Sharia law have clarified the wife’s share of the inheritance and all the provisions related to it, but there are some reasons that prevent the spouses from obtaining their legal right to the inheritance of the other, and they have been limited to three reasons:

• Difference of religion: For example, if the husband’s religion is Islam and the wife is not Muslim, then in this case the wife is deprived of inheritance.
• Murder: If the wife kills her husband, in this case, she is deprived of her legal right to inheritance, based on the words of the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him (the murderer does not inherit).
• Major irrevocable divorce

The wife’s right to inheritance is forfeited if her husband irrevocably divorces her because of the severance of their marital relationship

But if the divorce is revocable, then in this case the wife is not deprived of her legal right to inheritance.

With this information and the provisions that we presented to you, we will have finished the article in which we spoke in detail about the wife’s share of the inheritance, and I hope that it will benefit you.

For more clarification, you can contact the legal experts in Saudi law of personal status at Al Othman Law Firm for Legal Consultations.