The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 188
CH. 4 Commentary: AN-NISA' verse The first part of this determines the share of the husband and the wife in inheritance and needs no comment. The latter part deals with the case of a Kalalah, i. e. one who leaves neither parent nor child and whose property is inherited by his or her brother and sister. Now, if there is only one brother and one sister, each of them will get one-sixth. But if they are more than that, they will be sharers in one-third. It should, however, be noted that in this respect brothers and sisters fall under three heads; firstly, real brothers or sisters, offspring of the same parents (such brothers or sisters are technically known as a 'yānī); secondly, brothers and sisters on the side of the father only (these are technically known as 'allāti); thirdly, brothers and sisters on the side of the mother only, their father being not the same as that of the deceased (such brothers and sisters being technically called akhyāfi). It is to the last-mentioned class that the commandment given in the present verse pertains; the law with regard to the first two classes of brothers and sisters being given in the last verse of this Sūrah. The reader will further note that the shares allotted to the brothers and sisters of the last-mentioned class are smaller than those allotted to the brothers and sisters of the first two classes, the reason being that the brothers and sisters of this class are on the side of the mother only, while the brothers and the sisters of the 628 PT. 4 other two classes are the children of the same father as the deceased. It is also noteworthy that in the property of a person who dies as a Kalālah, as mentioned in the present verse, both brothers and sisters have equal shares, the usual ratio of two to one not being observed in their case. The words, "without prejudice to the debt", are important. They mean that the payment of debts should not suffer by the payment of bequests. In other words, debts are to be paid prior to the payment of bequests. It was in compliance with this Quranic injunction that the Holy Prophet used to have the debts paid before the payment of bequests. The rights of other people must be safeguarded before any bequest made by the deceased is complied with. So strict was the Holy Prophet in these matters that he refused to perform the funeral service of the man whose debts were likely to remain unpaid. It may incidentally be noted here that heirs are divided into two main groups:- 1. (Dhawul-Fara'id), i. e. persons to whom Islam allots a fixed and definite share (1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 2/3, 1/3 or 1/6), or in the estate of a deceased person. 2. (Aṣabāt), i. e. the heirs who receive the residue after the Dhawul- Fara'iḍ have received their allotted shares. It is, however, not necessary that a member of the first group should always remain a Dhul-Farīdah. In certain cases, he may be both a Dhul- Faridah (sharer) and an 'Aşaba