Islamic Inheritance (Faraid) Calculator
Estimate how an estate divides among heirs under classical Sunni Hanafi inheritance law
Frequently Asked Questions
Islamic inheritance (Faraid) distributes an estate according to fixed shares set out in the Quran and Sunnah for specific categories of heirs — spouses, children, parents, and, in their absence, more distant relatives — rather than by a will alone or by equal division, and getting the heir composition right is what determines the entire distribution.
Why heir composition changes everything
Faraid assigns specific fractional shares to designated heirs based on their relationship to the deceased and, critically, on which other heirs are also present — a surviving son changes what a daughter, a parent, or a sibling receives, because certain heirs' shares depend on whether closer relatives exist. Before Faraid shares are calculated at all, the estate must first be reduced by funeral expenses, outstanding debts, and any bequest (up to the classical one-third limit on bequests to non-heirs) — only the remaining net estate is what actually gets distributed among the heirs according to their fixed shares. This calculator asks for the full heir composition (spouse, children, parents, grandparents, siblings by type) precisely because omitting or misstating even one category of heir can change the shares owed to everyone else in the calculation, not just the omitted person's own share.
A worked example
An estate with a surviving spouse, children, and a parent distributes very differently than the same estate size with a surviving spouse and children but no parent — the parent's presence changes the fractional shares that go to other heirs too, which is exactly why Faraid can't be computed heir-by-heir in isolation; the full family composition has to be entered together.
How this connects to your other financial planning
The net estate figure this calculator distributes is what remains after funeral costs, debts, and any bequest are subtracted — if you're estimating gratuity, provident fund, or other end-of-service payments that will form part of an estate, the Gratuity Calculator and Salary Calculator can help estimate those underlying figures before they're aggregated into the total estate value used here.
Common mistakes
The most consequential mistake is entering an incomplete or inaccurate heir list — leaving out a living parent, miscounting siblings by type (full, consanguine, or uterine — each has different Faraid treatment), or overlooking a surviving grandparent — since Faraid shares are interdependent across the whole heir set, one omission can silently distort every other heir's calculated share. For any real estate distribution with meaningful value or a complex heir structure, treat this calculator as a planning and educational tool and confirm the final distribution with a qualified Islamic scholar or legal professional familiar with Faraid.