How to Calculate Islamic Inheritance Shares in Pakistan (2026): Worked Examples

To calculate Islamic inheritance shares in Pakistan you work in a fixed order: pay funeral costs, settle debts including any unpaid mahr, honour a will of up to one third to non-heirs, then split what remains using the fixed fractions in Quran 4:11, 4:12 and 4:176, with any residue going to the male-line relatives. A wife takes one eighth if there are children and one quarter if not; two or more daughters share two thirds; each parent takes one sixth when there are children. Pakistan adds one twist of its own: section 4 of the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961 lets the children of a predeceased son or daughter step into their parent's share. The six examples below put rupee figures on all of this.

Step one: what comes off the estate before anyone inherits

The estate that gets divided is not the gross estate. First, reasonable funeral and burial expenses are paid. Second, all debts are settled: bank financing, personal loans, unpaid zakat, and the deferred mahr owed to a widow, which is a debt against the estate and ranks ahead of every heir including her own share. Our guide to what happens to your Islamic financing when you die covers the bank side of this step.

Third, any wasiyya (bequest) is executed, capped at one third of what is left after debts, and valid only in favour of people who are not already heirs unless the heirs consent after the death. A father cannot use a will to give a favoured son an extra share; he can leave up to a third to a charity or to a grandchild who would otherwise be excluded. Our page on whether you need a will in Pakistan explains what wasiyya can and cannot do.

• Funeral and burial costs, kept reasonable.
• Debts, including deferred mahr owed to the widow and unpaid zakat.
• Bequests (wasiyya) up to one third of the net estate, to non-heirs only unless heirs agree.
• Fixed shares (fara'id) to the Quranic heirs.
• Residue to the residuary heirs (asaba), starting with sons.
• If fixed shares exceed the estate, every share is scaled down proportionately (awl).

The fixed shares table from Quran 4:11, 4:12 and 4:176

The table below is the Sunni (Hanafi) position that Pakistani courts apply by default to Sunni Muslims. The conditions column is where most mistakes happen, because the same relative takes a different fraction depending on who else is alive. A child means a son or daughter, and for most rules a son's child counts as a child too.

Brothers and sisters are blocked entirely by a son or a father. For the full ruleset applied to a real family, our Islamic inheritance explainer for Pakistani law walks through who is excluded by whom, and the faraid calculator on this site runs the fractions for you.

Example 1: husband dies leaving wife, two daughters and both parents (the awl case)

Net estate after deductions: Rs 2.7 crore (Rs 27,000,000). Heirs: wife, two daughters, father, mother. Fixed shares: wife 1/8 (there are children), daughters 2/3 together, father 1/6 (a child but no son), mother 1/6. On a common denominator of 24 that is 3 + 16 + 4 + 4 = 27 twenty-fourths, more than the whole estate, so the shares are scaled down proportionately. This is called awl, and it is the most common reason a hand calculation disagrees with a calculator.

The fix is to treat the denominator as 27 instead of 24. The wife takes 3/27, each daughter 8/27, the father 4/27 and the mother 4/27. On Rs 27,000,000 each twenty-seventh is exactly Rs 1,000,000, so the wife receives Rs 30 lakh, each daughter Rs 80 lakh, and each parent Rs 40 lakh. The father takes no residue here, even though there is no son, because awl has consumed the whole estate.

Example 2: wife dies leaving husband, a son and her mother

Net estate: Rs 60 lakh (Rs 6,000,000), say a flat in her name plus gold and a savings account. Heirs: husband, one son, her mother. The husband takes 1/4 because there is a child: Rs 15 lakh. The mother takes 1/6 because there is a child: Rs 10 lakh. The son is the residuary and takes everything left, 7/12 of the estate: Rs 35 lakh. Had there been no mother, the son would have taken 3/4, or Rs 45 lakh.

The gold a woman received as mahr or wedding gifts is her own property and forms part of her estate; our page on gifts (hiba) versus inheritance explains when a lifetime gift takes an asset out of the estate altogether.

Example 3: deceased with no children, leaving wife and both parents

Net estate: Rs 1.2 crore (Rs 12,000,000). Heirs: wife, father, mother, no children, no siblings. The wife takes 1/4 because there are no children: Rs 30 lakh. Now the mother. The table says 1/3 when there is no child and fewer than two siblings, but in this specific combination of spouse plus both parents the accepted Sunni ruling, attributed to Umar ibn al-Khattab and followed by all four schools, gives the mother one third of what remains after the spouse's share, not one third of the whole. One third of Rs 90 lakh is Rs 30 lakh. The father takes the residue: Rs 60 lakh.

If a calculator gives the mother Rs 40 lakh and the father Rs 50 lakh here, it has applied one third of the whole and skipped the Umariyyatan rule. Check how a tool handles the spouse-plus-parents case before trusting its other outputs.

Example 4: husband dies leaving wife, one son, two daughters and his mother

Net estate: Rs 4.8 crore (Rs 48,000,000), typical for a Karachi or Lahore family home plus a business stake. Heirs: wife, son, two daughters, mother. The wife takes 1/8: Rs 60 lakh. The mother takes 1/6: Rs 80 lakh. The residue is Rs 3.4 crore, split between the children at two portions for the son and one for each daughter, four portions in all. The son receives Rs 1.7 crore and each daughter Rs 85 lakh. Had the father also been alive he would have taken 1/6 and the children's residue would have shrunk to Rs 2.6 crore.

This is the shape behind the question about a daughter's share in her father's property, and the honest answer is that it depends on who else survives. Here each daughter takes 17.7% of the net estate; a single daughter with no brother would take a fixed half, and two daughters with no brother two thirds.

Example 5: unmarried woman leaving her mother, a brother and a sister

Net estate: Rs 18 lakh (Rs 1,800,000), mainly a provident fund balance and savings. Heirs: mother, one full brother, one full sister; father already deceased, no spouse, no children. The mother takes 1/6 because there are two or more siblings: Rs 3 lakh. The brother and sister are residuaries together, two portions to one, so the residue of Rs 15 lakh splits into Rs 10 lakh for the brother and Rs 5 lakh for the sister.

Had there been two sisters and no brother, Quran 4:176 would have given them a fixed 2/3 (Rs 12 lakh) and the mother 1/6 (Rs 3 lakh), with the remaining Rs 3 lakh passing to the nearest male relative on the father's side, such as a paternal uncle. A provident fund or gratuity paid to a nominee is still estate property that the nominee must distribute to the heirs.

Example 6: the Pakistani difference, section 4 of the MFLO 1961

Under classical fiqh, a grandchild whose own parent died before the grandparent is excluded by any surviving son of the deceased. Pakistan changed that. Section 4(1) of the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961, as published on pakistancode.gov.pk, provides that where any son or daughter of the deceased died before the succession opened, their children living at the time shall per stirpes receive a share equivalent to the share their parent would have received if alive. The section has been challenged as contrary to classical fiqh and that challenge has sat before the Shariat Appellate Bench for many years; until it is decided, section 4 is the law every Pakistani court applies.

Net estate: Rs 3.2 crore (Rs 32,000,000). Heirs: wife, one living son, and a grandson and granddaughter whose father (the deceased's other son) died two years earlier. The wife takes 1/8: Rs 40 lakh. The residue of Rs 2.8 crore is divided as if both sons were alive, Rs 1.4 crore each. The predeceased son's Rs 1.4 crore passes to his children 2:1, so the grandson receives about Rs 93.3 lakh and the granddaughter about Rs 46.7 lakh. Under the classical rule the grandchildren would have received nothing and the living son Rs 2.8 crore. A 2021 amendment, on the statute as section 4(2) to 4(5), separately fixes a Shia widow's share in her husband's immovable property at one quarter of its value with no child and one eighth with a child, valued at the time of payment.

After the shares are known: succession certificate and letters of administration

Working out the fractions does not transfer anything. Movable assets held by third parties, meaning bank balances, shares, fund units, provident fund money and vehicles, are released against a succession certificate; immovable property needs letters of administration or a mutation at the land record office. For undisputed cases, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs page we checked describes NADRA's five-step process: the applicant files with the death certificate, the CNIC numbers of the deceased and all heirs, and authorisations from the other heirs; NADRA records the heirs and the assets; every heir completes biometric verification at a NADRA centre or a listed Pakistan mission abroad; NADRA publishes a public notice; and if no objection arrives within fourteen days the certificate is printed and handed over.

Disputed estates, or estates where an heir will not give consent, still go to the civil court under the Succession Act 1925, and the court applies exactly the arithmetic set out above. Our succession certificate process guide covers documents, fees and timelines.

Why online calculators disagree, and which inputs to check

Three calculators fed the same family routinely produce three different answers. Run any tool against the examples above before you rely on it, and make sure it lets you choose the Hanafi ruleset rather than defaulting to a Gulf or Malaysian implementation. The usual causes of disagreement:

• Awl handling: some tools stop at the fixed fractions and report a total above 100% instead of scaling down.
• The Umariyyatan rule: whether the mother takes one third of the whole or of the remainder when only a spouse and both parents survive.
• Radd (return): when fixed shares total less than the estate and there is no residuary, Hanafi practice returns the surplus to the fixed heirs other than the spouse.
• The grandfather with siblings: Hanafi rules exclude siblings when a paternal grandfather survives; Shafi'i and Maliki tools let them share.
• Section 4 MFLO 1961: no mainstream calculator applies it, so orphaned grandchildren show as excluded.
• Debts and mahr: calculators divide the number you type in; the deductions in step one are your job.

Our view: calculate first, then decide what you can still change

Run the fixed shares on your own estate while you are alive. If the result is not what you want, you have three lawful levers. You can gift (hiba) during your lifetime, with delivery of possession, which removes the asset from the estate. You can leave a will of up to one third to anyone who is not an heir. And you can take out family takaful so that liquid money reaches dependants outside the succession process. What you cannot do is write a will that reshuffles the Quranic fractions among your heirs; a Pakistani court will not enforce one that tries. Start with the estate planning hub, then the Islamic will guide, and remember that unpaid zakat is a debt that comes off the top before anyone inherits. Facts checked against pakistancode.gov.pk, mofa.gov.pk on 18 September 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is a daughter's share in her father's property in Islam?

It depends on who else survives. A single daughter with no brother takes a fixed one half. Two or more daughters with no brother share two thirds equally. Where there is a brother, daughters divide the residue with him, each taking half of what each son takes. The widow, parents, debts and bequests are settled first, so the daughter's rupee figure is a fraction of the net estate.

How much does a wife inherit from her husband in Pakistan?

A widow takes one eighth of the net estate if her husband left any child or son's child, and one quarter if he did not; co-wives share that single fraction equally. Her deferred mahr is a debt paid before the division, in addition to her share. For Shia widows, a 2021 amendment to section 4 of the MFLO fixes the share in immovable property at one quarter or one eighth of its value at the time of payment.

Can a father give his whole property to his sons and nothing to his daughters?

Not by will. A wasiyya in favour of an existing heir is void unless the other heirs consent after the death, and a will cannot exceed one third of the net estate. A lifetime gift (hiba) with delivery of possession is legally effective, but most scholars consider deliberately disinheriting daughters sinful even when the paperwork is valid, and Pakistani courts examine such transfers closely when a daughter challenges them.

What does section 4 of the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961 change?

It allows the children of a son or daughter who died before the deceased to inherit the share their parent would have taken, divided among them per stirpes. Under classical fiqh those grandchildren are excluded by any surviving son. The provision is unique to Pakistan among major Muslim jurisdictions, has been challenged before the Shariat Appellate Bench, and remains in force. Online calculators do not apply it, so it has to be worked by hand.

Do I need a succession certificate even when the heirs agree?

Yes, for assets held by third parties. Banks, brokers, fund companies and provident fund trustees will not release a deceased person's money without a succession certificate or a court order, however clear the family agreement is. For undisputed cases NADRA issues the certificate after biometric verification of every heir and a fourteen-day public notice period. Immovable property needs letters of administration or a mutation in the land record.

Why do Islamic inheritance calculators give different answers?

Because they encode different rulings and different schools: how they scale shares down when fractions exceed the estate (awl), whether the mother takes a third of the whole or of the remainder when only a spouse and parents survive, how they return a surplus (radd), and whether siblings share with a grandfather. Check a tool against a case you have worked by hand, and set it to the Hanafi ruleset where that option exists.