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Property inheritance calculator
An Islamic inheritance calculator for Pakistan: give the value of a house or plot, the debts and the family left behind, and see each heir's share as a fraction, in rupees and in marla, with the working and its sources shown step by step.
- Hanafi law with section 4 of the 1961 Ordinance
- Shows the working and the sources
- Free, no sign-up
Calculator
Work out each heir's share
Give the property's value and size, anything owed, and the relatives alive at the death. Each share follows as you type, with the working under it.
Each heir's share
Each heir's share
- Wife1/8 of the estate, 12.5%
- Rs 3,750,0001.25 marla (281.25 sq ft)
- Sons, each of 27/20 of the estate, 35%
- Rs 10,500,0003.5 marla (787.5 sq ft)
- Daughter7/40 of the estate, 17.5%
- Rs 5,250,0001.75 marla (393.75 sq ft)
The working
- Wife: 1/8, as the deceased left children (Quran 4:12).
- What is left, 7/8, goes to the 2 sons and the daughter as residuaries ('asaba), a male taking twice a female: 5 portions of 7/40 each.
- In 40 equal parts of the estate: the wife 5, each of the 2 sons 14 and the daughter 7.
Hanafi law, with section 4 of the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961 as Pakistani courts apply it. Confirm the shares with a mufti, and with a lawyer before any mutation or transfer.
Reference
Shares at a glance
Who takes what under Hanafi law, and when. A share is of what is left after the funeral, the debts and any bequest.
| Heir | Share | When |
|---|---|---|
| Husband | 1/2 | His wife left no children |
| Husband | 1/4 | She left a child or a son's child |
| Wife, or wives together | 1/4 | Her husband left no children |
| Wife, or wives together | 1/8 | He left a child or a son's child |
| Son | What is left, twice a daughter | Never blocked |
| Daughter, with no son | 1/2 | Only one daughter |
| Daughters, with no son | 2/3 shared | Two or more |
| Daughter, with sons | Half a son's share | From what is left |
| Father | 1/6 | A son or son's son |
| Father | 1/6 and what is left | Daughters but no son |
| Father | What is left | No children |
| Mother | 1/6 | Children, or two or more brothers or sisters |
| Mother | 1/3 | Otherwise; a third of what is left beside a spouse and the father |
| Grandmother, or two together | 1/6 | No mother (the father's mother also needs no father) |
| Full sister, alone | 1/2 | No son, son's son, father, father's father or brother |
| Full sisters, two or more | 2/3 shared | The same |
| Sisters beside daughters | What is left | No son, father or brother |
| Brother | What is left, twice a sister | No son, son's son, father or father's father |
| Half brother or sister by the mother | 1/6, or 1/3 shared by two or more | No children, father or father's father |
Nearer relatives block further ones, and when the shares add up to more or less than the whole, 'awl and radd adjust them: the calculator applies all of it.
How it is worked out
From the estate to each heir's share
Nothing is shared until the estate is settled, in this order: the funeral and burial, then every debt, then any bequest (Quran 4:11 and 4:12 give the shares "after any bequest or debt"). An unpaid dower, haq mehr, is a debt, paid to the wife in full before she takes her share. A bequest (wasiyyat) cannot pass a third of what is left (Sahih al-Bukhari 2742) and cannot go to an heir unless the other heirs agree after the death (Sunan Abi Dawud 2870).
Next the nearer relatives shut out the further ones (hajb). A son blocks every brother and sister, and so do the father and the father's father; the father blocks his own father and mother; the mother blocks both grandmothers; a son blocks his brother's children in classical law.
The sharers (ashab al-furud) then take the fixed shares the Quran names in 4:11, 4:12 and 4:176: the husband or wives, the father and mother, the daughters, the sisters, and the half brothers and sisters by the mother, with the grandmother's sixth from the Sunnah. What they leave goes to the residuaries ('asaba), the nearest first (Sahih al-Bukhari 6732): the sons with the daughters, then the father, then the brothers with the sisters, then the half brothers by the father, then nephews, uncles and cousins on the father's side. Wherever a man and a woman of the same standing share, the man takes twice the woman.
When the fixed shares add up to more than the whole, each is cut in the same proportion ('awl): a husband, two sisters and the mother make 3 + 4 + 1 = 8 parts, so the husband takes 3/8 instead of 1/2. When something is left and no residuary is alive, it goes back to the sharers in proportion to their shares (radd), but not to a husband or wife while any other heir is alive: a wife, the mother and a daughter end with 1/8, 7/32 and 21/32.
The plot is shared in the same fractions as the money. The calculator meets the funeral, debts and bequest from the other assets first and from the property only for the rest, so each heir's marla are of what is left of the plot. If the heirs keep the whole plot and pay the debts from their own pockets in their shares, their marla are of the whole plot.
Pakistani law and the schools
Section 4, the courts, and where scholars differ
In Pakistan the courts divide a Muslim's estate by the personal law of the deceased's own school, under the West Pakistan Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act 1962. Most Sunni Muslims in Pakistan follow the Hanafi school, and this calculator applies its rules, including the positions Hanafi fatwa takes where the schools differ: the father's father blocks brothers and sisters as the father does (Imam Abu Hanifa's view; his students Abu Yusuf and Muhammad, and the other three schools, let them share with him), and full brothers take nothing when the fixed shares use up the estate (the Himariyya case, where the Shafi'i and Maliki schools let them share the maternal half siblings' third).
Section 4 of the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961 gives the children of a son or daughter who died before the deceased the share their parent would have received if alive. Classical fiqh, in all four Sunni schools, gives such grandchildren nothing while a son is alive, and the Federal Shariat Court has held the section repugnant to Islam (Allah Rakha v Federation of Pakistan, PLD 2000 FSC 1). That decision has been under appeal before the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court ever since, so it has not taken effect and the courts apply section 4. The calculator applies it by default and lets you switch it off to see the classical division.
The calculator follows the words of the section, giving the grandchildren all of their parent's share, a grandson taking twice a granddaughter. The Supreme Court reads it as the parent's own estate (Mst. Zainab v Kamal Khan, PLD 1990 SC 1051): the grandchildren take what they would have inherited from that parent, and the rest goes to the parent's other heirs, which matters when the parent left only daughters, or left a husband or a living parent. Courts have not given a son's widow a part of it. The section does not reach great-grandchildren (Supreme Court, 2022) or the children of a brother or sister who died before (Federal Constitutional Court, September 2026).
Shia (Jafari) law divides an estate differently: heirs stand in three classes, and a nearer class shuts out the next; there is no 'awl, and a surplus returns to the blood relatives rather than passing to residuaries as in Sunni law; grandchildren take their parent's place when no child is alive; and a wife takes her share of the value of buildings and trees but not of the land itself. Those rules change the answer for a plot a great deal, so this calculator does not apply them. For a Shia deceased, ask a scholar of Jafari fiqh.
A calculator cannot see everything that decides an inheritance: a divorce and whether its waiting period had ended, a gift made during life, a missing heir, a disputed will, a debt nobody has mentioned. Treat these figures as a guide, confirm them with a mufti, and have a lawyer check them before an inheritance mutation (intiqal) at the land record centre, or before a society or authority transfers a plot on a succession certificate or letter of administration.
Terms
The words used in inheritance
What a mufti, a lawyer or the land record office will mean by them.
- Mirath and fara'id
- The Islamic law of inheritance, and the fixed shares at its heart. It decides who inherits and how much; a will cannot change the heirs' shares.
- Sharers (ashab al-furud)
- Heirs with a fixed share named in the Quran or the Sunnah: the husband or wives, the father, the mother, the grandmothers, daughters, a son's daughters, sisters and half siblings by the mother.
- Residuaries ('asaba)
- Relatives through men who take what the sharers leave, the nearest first: sons, then the father, then brothers, then nephews, uncles and cousins on the father's side. Daughters and sisters join them beside a brother, at half his share.
- Blocking (hajb)
- A nearer relative shutting out a further one: a son blocks every brother and sister, the father blocks his own father, the mother blocks the grandmothers.
- 'Awl
- Cutting every fixed share in the same proportion when together they come to more than the whole estate.
- Radd
- Returning what is left to the sharers, in proportion, when no residuary is alive. A husband or wife takes no part of it while any other heir is alive.
- Dhawu al-arham
- Relatives through women, such as a daughter's or sister's children and maternal uncles and aunts. They inherit only when there is no sharer but a spouse and no residuary.
- Wasiyyat
- A bequest: up to a third of the estate, after the debts, to someone who is not an heir, such as a grandchild who does not inherit, a friend or a mosque.
- Haq mehr
- The dower a husband owes his wife. Whatever of it is unpaid at his death is a debt of his estate, paid to her before the shares.
- Intiqal (mutation)
- The entry in the land record that moves land into the heirs' names in their shares, made at the revenue office or land record centre.
Questions
Inheritance questions
Still have a question?
Ask our team during Pakistan business hours, in English or Urdu.
+92 333 2466662Chat on WhatsAppWhat is a daughter's share in her father's property in Pakistan?
Half a son's share. With sons, the children take what the fixed shares leave, each son twice each daughter; a daughter with no brother takes half the estate, and two or more daughters share two thirds (Quran 4:11). In the example on this page, a wife, two sons and a daughter sharing a 10 marla house worth Rs 3 crore, the daughter's share is 7/40, Rs 5,250,000 (52.5 lakh), or 1.75 marla. Keeping a woman from her inheritance by deceit or illegal means is a crime under section 498A of the Pakistan Penal Code.
What is the wife's share in her husband's property?
An eighth if he left a child or a son's child, and a quarter if he left none (Quran 4:12). Two, three or four wives share that eighth or quarter equally. Any dower (haq mehr) still owed to her is a debt, paid in full before the shares, and she inherits on top of it. In the example on this page the wife's share is 1/8, Rs 3,750,000 (37.5 lakh).
What is the husband's share in his wife's property?
Half if she left no child or son's child, and a quarter if she did (Quran 4:12), taken from what is left after her funeral, debts and any bequest. Like a wife, a husband takes no part of a surplus returned to the heirs while any other heir is alive.
What is the share of sisters in property?
In a father's or mother's estate, sisters inherit as daughters, each taking half a brother's share. In a brother's or sister's estate, sisters inherit only when there is no son, son's son, father or father's father: one sister alone takes half, two or more share two thirds (Quran 4:176), with a brother each takes half his share, and beside the deceased's daughters sisters take what is left after the fixed shares.
What is the mother's share in her son's or daughter's property?
A sixth if the deceased left a child or a son's child, or two or more brothers or sisters of any kind, and a third otherwise (Quran 4:11). When the only heirs are a husband or wife and both parents, the mother takes a third of what is left after the spouse's share, as Umar ruled with the Companions' agreement.
Do grandchildren inherit if their father or mother died before the grandparent?
In Pakistan, yes: section 4 of the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961 gives them the share their parent would have received if alive. The Federal Shariat Court has held the section repugnant to Islam, but the appeal against that decision is still pending before the Supreme Court, so the courts apply it; the Supreme Court reads it as giving the grandchildren what they would have inherited from that parent. It does not reach great-grandchildren. In classical fiqh such grandchildren inherit nothing while a son is alive, and scholars urge grandparents to leave them a bequest of up to a third.
Can a father leave his property to one child, or cut a daughter out?
Not by a will. A bequest cannot go to an heir unless the other heirs agree after the death (Sunan Abi Dawud 2870), and a bequest to anyone else is limited to a third. A gift made and handed over during life is a different matter in law, but the Prophet told a father to treat his children alike in gifts (Sahih al-Bukhari 2587); ask a mufti and a lawyer before making one.
Does an adopted child or a stepchild inherit?
No. Inheritance follows blood and marriage, so an adopted child, a stepchild, a son-in-law or a daughter-in-law does not inherit, and neither does a son's widow from her father-in-law. Any of them can be left a bequest of up to a third of the estate.
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