Inheritance glossary
The Arabic terms of the science of shares (‘ilm al-fara’id), with their meaning.
- fara’id الفرائض
- The shares fixed by the Quran; by extension, the science of dividing estates (‘ilm al-fara’id).
- mirath الميراث
- Inheritance; mawarith (المواريث) is its plural.
- tarika التركة
- The estate: everything the deceased leaves (property, claims, rights).
- muwarrith المورِّث
- The deceased whose estate is divided.
- warith الوارث
- The heir.
- fard الفرض
- Fixed share: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 2/3, 1/3 or 1/6.
- ashab al-furud أصحاب الفروض
- The fixed-share heirs.
- ‘asaba العصبة
- Heirs to the remainder: they take what the fixed shares leave, or everything if there are none.
- ‘asaba bi-nafsihi العصبة بالنفس
- Heir to the remainder in his own right: a man linked to the deceased through men.
- ‘asaba bil-ghayr العصبة بالغير
- Heir to the remainder through another: the daughter with the son, the sister with her brother.
- ‘asaba ma‘a al-ghayr العصبة مع الغير
- Heir to the remainder with another: the sister with a daughter of the deceased.
- hajb الحجب
- Exclusion: total (hirman) or reduction of a share (nuqsan).
- hajb hirman حجب الحرمان
- Total exclusion of an heir by a closer one.
- hajb nuqsan حجب النقصان
- Reduction of a share (the mother from 1/3 to 1/6, for example).
- mahjub المحجوب
- An excluded heir.
- asl al-mas’ala أصل المسألة
- Base of the calculation: the common denominator of the fixed shares.
- tashih التصحيح
- Correction of the base so that each heir receives a whole number of parts.
- siham السهام
- The whole parts each heir receives out of the base.
- ‘awl العول
- Raising the base when the fixed shares exceed the estate.
- radd الرد
- Returning the remainder to the fixed-share heirs when there is no heir to the remainder.
- bayt al-mal بيت المال
- The Muslims’ public treasury.
- kalala الكلالة
- A deceased with no descendant and no father (Surah An-Nisa, verses 12 and 176).
- far‘ warith الفرع الوارث
- Inheriting descendant: a child or a son’s child.
- asl warith الأصل الوارث
- Inheriting ascendant: father, mother, grandfather, grandmother.
- shaqiq الشقيق
- Full: a brother or sister with the same father and mother.
- li-ab لأب
- Paternal half: a brother or sister through the father only.
- li-umm لأم
- Maternal half: a brother or sister through the mother only.
- dhawu al-arham ذوو الأرحام
- Relatives through women, who only inherit when there are no other heirs (according to the schools).
- jadd sahih الجد الصحيح
- A “true” grandfather: linked to the deceased with no woman in between (the father’s father).
- jadda الجدة
- Grandmother.
- muqasama المقاسمة
- The grandfather sharing with the brothers as if he were one of them.
- mu‘adda المعادة
- Full siblings count paternal half-siblings against the grandfather, then take back their share.
- takmila التكملة
- The sixth that completes two thirds (son’s daughter with a daughter; paternal half-sister with a full sister).
- wasiyya الوصية
- A bequest (will), at most one third, to non-heirs.
- wasiyya wajiba الوصية الواجبة
- Obligatory bequest created by some laws for orphaned grandchildren.
- haml الحمل
- An unborn child.
- mafqud المفقود
- A missing person who is not known to be alive or dead.
- khuntha الخنثى
- A person whose sex is not established.
- munasakhat المناسخات
- Successive estates: an heir dies before the division.
- takharuj التخارج
- An arrangement by which an heir gives up his share in return for something.
- wala’ الولاء
- The tie of emancipation, a historical cause of inheritance.