Month: October 2014
Solving Problems Using the Principle of Radd
Radd is just a bit more complex than `awl but, insha’Allah, by the end of this post you will have a pretty good understanding of it.
Lets get started with a very simple example.
Example 1: A woman dies leaving behind
- Husband
- 2 Daughters
We know that both of them will inherit, so there is no total exclusion in this case. The husband, however, will be partially excluded to 1/4 while the daughters, of course, will get 2/3. Right off the bat we know that we will need to apply radd in this problem because:
(1) 1/4 + 2/3 is less than 1 and
(2) there are no `asabaat to claim the residue
First lets at least draw out our initial chart and then, insha’Allah, we can work from there:
Introduction to Radd
Below is the answer to the problem presented at the end of the previous post:
The estate will be divided into 30 equal portions:
The Husband gets 9 portions.
Each Haqeeqi sister gets 4 portions.
Each Akhyaafi brother gets 2 portions.
The Mother gets 3 portions.
The rest are all deprived.
As usual, if there is any confusion as to how the above answer was reached, please let us know in the comments section, insha’Allah.
Consider a problem in which only zaawil furoodh heirs are inheriting, and there shares add up to less than 1. Who would get the residue? Usually we would give it to the `asabaat, but this time there are no `asabaat. So what happens now? This is where the principle of radd comes in. The principle of radd can be thought of as the opposite of the principle of `awl. While in `awl the shares add up to greater than 1, in radd the shares add up to less than 1.
Radd is applied when the shares of zaawil furoodh heirs add up to less than 1 and there are no `asabaat inheriting to claim the residue. The basic idea behind radd is to increase the share of each category of heirs in proportion to their shares or – thinking of it another way – in proportion to the portions they received. Simply speaking, by the time we are done applying radd, the residue will be redistributed among each of the zaawil furoodh categories according to the ratio of their respective portions.
Islamic Inheritance Laws 