Islamic Inheritance Calculator for Nigeria (2026): Mirath Shares in Naira

An Islamic inheritance calculation runs in a fixed order: pay the funeral, settle every debt, honour any bequest up to one third of what remains, then split the rest among the heirs the Quran names, in the fractions it names, with sons and other male agnates taking what is left. A wife takes one eighth if there are children and one quarter if not; a husband takes one quarter or one half; each parent takes one sixth when there are children; daughters alone take one half or two thirds; and a son takes twice a daughter's share of the residue. The four worked examples below put those fractions into naira; the Islamic will guide covers getting a Nigerian court to apply them.

The order of operations before anyone inherits

The estate that heirs divide is not the gross estate. Classical fiqh, which Nigeria's Sharia courts apply, settles four things first, in sequence. Funeral and burial expenses come out before anything else, kept reasonable and without extravagance. Debts owed to people come next, including unpaid rent, business creditors and any deferred dowry (mahr) owed to a wife; most scholars also put unpaid zakat and unperformed obligatory hajj in this layer as debts owed to Allah. Then any bequest is honoured, limited to one third of what is left after debts, and not payable to someone who is already an heir unless the other heirs consent after the death. Only then are the heirs' shares calculated on the net figure.

Two Nigerian specifics sit inside that sequence. Jointly held property and pensions need untangling before the net estate is known: a Retirement Savings Account balance paid to a named beneficiary and the death benefit of a family takaful policy are often argued not to form part of the estate at all, while a house titled in the deceased's name plainly does. And where a man dies owing his wife her deferred mahr, she is a creditor first and an heir second. Our guide to estate planning for Muslim families covers the untangling; our zakat on investments and pensions article covers the unpaid zakat question.

The fixed Quranic shares (ashab al-furud)

Surah an-Nisa verses 11, 12 and 176 fix six fractions: one half, one quarter, one eighth, two thirds, one third and one sixth. Each named relative takes one of those fractions depending on who else survives. The table gives the shares most Nigerian families will actually meet; more distant cases (grandparents with siblings, half-siblings of different kinds) are covered in the blocking section.

Notice the pattern: a child, including a daughter, halves the spouse's share and pins the parents to one sixth. A son, specifically, turns the daughters from fixed-share heirs into residuary heirs sharing with him. That single switch causes most of the confusion in families, so check for it first.

Residuary heirs (asabah) and who gets blocked

After the fixed shares are paid, the remainder goes to the nearest male agnate and the females who share with him. Sons come first; with sons, daughters take half a son's portion of the residue. If there is no descendant, the father takes the residue; if no father, the paternal grandfather; then full brothers (with full sisters at half a brother's portion), then paternal half-brothers, then nephews through brothers, then paternal uncles and their sons. A nearer agnate excludes a more distant one completely.

Blocking (hajb) is the rule that trips people up. A son blocks all brothers, sisters, nephews and uncles of the deceased, and blocks grandchildren too. A father blocks the grandfather and all siblings. A mother blocks the grandmothers. A daughter does not block siblings on her own, which is exactly why a man who leaves only daughters sees his brothers inherit; example four below shows it. Where there is a surviving grandfather but no father, and the deceased also left siblings, the schools differ: the Hanafi position lets the grandfather exclude the siblings, while the Maliki and Shafi'i position, which is what Nigeria's northern Sharia courts apply, makes the grandfather share with full siblings. Flag that case to a qadi or a trained faraid scholar rather than trusting any calculator, including ours.

• A son blocks: brothers, sisters, nephews, uncles, cousins and all grandchildren of the deceased.
• A father blocks: the grandfather, all siblings and their descendants, and uncles.
• A mother blocks: all grandmothers on either side.
• A daughter blocks: uterine siblings only, and reduces a full sister to a residuary heir alongside her.
• Nobody is blocked by a spouse, and a spouse never blocks anyone.

When the fixed shares add up to more than one, the schools apply 'awl: every share is scaled down in proportion. A husband and two full sisters with no children would claim one half plus two thirds, seven sixths in all, so the husband ends up with three sevenths and the sisters four sevenths between them. When the fixed shares add up to less than one and there is no agnate, the majority return the surplus to the sharers in proportion (radd), excluding the spouse; the classical Maliki texts route it to the public treasury instead, and a Nigerian Sharia court's practice can follow either.

Worked example 1: a Lagos family with sons and a daughter

A man dies in Lagos leaving a wife, his mother, two sons and one daughter. His gross estate is N60,000,000: a flat, two cars, a mutual fund holding and a current account. Funeral costs are N1,500,000 and he owed N3,500,000 to a supplier and his bank. He left a written bequest of N5,000,000 to a school. The net after funeral and debts is N55,000,000, and one third of that is N18,333,333, so the N5,000,000 bequest is within the limit and is paid. The heirs divide N50,000,000.

The father of the deceased is absent in this example; had he been alive, he would have taken one sixth as well, and the children's residue would have shrunk to N27,083,333. Note what the daughter actually receives: N7,083,333, more than her mother's fixed share. The 2:1 rule is often described as a daughter getting 'half', but she is half of a son, not half of the family.

Worked example 2: a childless couple

A woman dies in Kaduna leaving a husband, her mother and her father, and no children. Her net estate after funeral and debts is N12,000,000 and she left no bequest. The husband takes one half, N6,000,000, because there is no child. With no children and fewer than two siblings, the mother's share is one third; but the four schools, following the ruling attributed to Umar ibn al-Khattab, calculate it as one third of what remains after the spouse, so that the father as residuary is not left with less than the mother. The mother takes one third of N6,000,000, which is N2,000,000, and the father takes the residue, N4,000,000. A calculator that gives the mother N4,000,000 and the father N2,000,000 is applying the minority reading; the difference here is N2,000,000.

Worked example 3: a polygamous household in Kano

A man dies leaving two wives, three sons, two daughters and his father. His net estate is N90,000,000 with no bequest. The two wives share one eighth equally: N11,250,000 between them, N5,625,000 each. The father takes one sixth, N15,000,000. The residue is N63,750,000, divided into eight portions (three sons at two portions each, two daughters at one each): each portion is N7,968,750, so each son receives N15,937,500 and each daughter N7,968,750. The wives' shares do not depend on which wife bore which child; they split the one eighth equally regardless.

In a polygamous estate the hard part is rarely the fractions. It is the asset list: which wife's house was a gift during the husband's lifetime (and therefore hers, not the estate's), which plot was bought in a son's name, and which business the deceased ran in partnership with a brother. Settle those before the division, and document gifts during life properly; a wasiyyah cannot fix them afterwards.

Worked example 4: daughters only, and why brothers inherit

A man dies leaving a wife, two daughters and a full brother, with both his parents already dead. Net estate N24,000,000. The wife takes one eighth, N3,000,000, because there are children. The two daughters together take two thirds, N16,000,000, which is N8,000,000 each. That leaves N5,000,000 with no son and no father to take it, so it passes to the nearest male agnate, the brother. Many Nigerian families find this outcome hard, and some try to write it away with a will leaving everything to the daughters. Under Islamic law that will fails: a bequest to an heir needs the other heirs' consent after death, and a bequest cannot exceed one third in any case. The tools that do work are lifetime gifts, properly delivered, and a waqf or a family trust, both discussed on the estate planning hub.

The one-third limit and what a will can still do

A Muslim's will is not a device for redistributing shares; it is a device for the one third, for naming an executor, for appointing a guardian for minor children, for listing debts and assets and for instructing the burial. Within the one third you may leave money to a charity, a mosque, a non-Muslim relative who cannot inherit, an adopted child or a long-serving employee. You may not use it to give a son an extra share or to cut a brother out, unless the remaining heirs freely agree after you die. The limit is measured against the net estate after funeral and debts, so a bequest written as a fixed naira figure can be scaled back if the estate shrinks.

Unpaid zakat on the deceased's wealth is a debt and comes out before the heirs' shares. Heirs who receive a lump sum then owe zakat on it once a lunar year has passed on wealth above the nisab; the zakat hub and our nisab in naira article show how to value it.

Which court applies this in Nigeria

Whether an estate is actually divided this way depends on where the deceased lived and how the family proceeds. In the northern states with Sharia courts and Sharia Courts of Appeal, a Muslim's estate goes to a Sharia court, which applies Maliki faraid and issues an enforceable judgment. In Lagos and the other southern states, a Muslim who dies without a valid will is often processed under the general administration of estates rules through the probate registry, and the family then has to assert the Islamic distribution, by agreement or through a court with Islamic jurisdiction. A written will that expressly directs distribution according to Islamic law, with a named executor and a schedule of assets, is the cleanest way to make the probate registry apply mirath in the south. We have not reproduced the state statutes here; the Islamic will guide covers them state by state.

Our view

Mirath is not complicated for the families that most Nigerians live in. If you can answer four questions about the deceased (married? children, and any sons? parents alive? siblings alive?), you can place almost any estate in one of the four examples above and read the fractions off the table. The calculations that need a scholar are the ones with a grandfather and siblings together, fixed shares that overshoot one, a surplus with no agnate, or disputed assets. Run the numbers, write them into a will that says 'according to Islamic law' and names an executor, and keep the asset list current; the tools page carries the calculators we maintain. The worst outcome is not a wrong fraction. It is a family that never did the sum and lets a probate registry or a dominant relative do it for them.

Frequently asked questions

What is the wife's share in Islamic inheritance?

One eighth of the net estate if her husband left any child or grandchild through a son, and one quarter if he did not. If he left more than one wife, they share that one eighth or one quarter equally between them, regardless of which wife bore his children.

How is a daughter's share calculated in Islamic inheritance?

A single daughter with no brother takes one half of the net estate; two or more daughters with no brother share two thirds. If there is a son, the daughters do not take a fixed fraction; they share the residue with him, each daughter taking half of each son's portion.

Can a Muslim write a will giving everything to his children?

No. A bequest can cover at most one third of the net estate and cannot go to someone who already inherits unless the other heirs consent after the death. Children are heirs, so a will that gives them more than their Quranic share is not valid under Islamic law, although lifetime gifts delivered while you are alive are treated differently.

Are debts paid before inheritance is shared?

Yes. The order is funeral expenses, then debts (including deferred mahr owed to a wife, and unpaid zakat on most views), then bequests up to one third, then the heirs' shares. Heirs are never personally liable for the deceased's debts beyond what the estate can pay.

Do brothers inherit when a man leaves only daughters?

Yes, if there is no son and no surviving father. The daughters take two thirds, the wife takes one eighth, and the remainder passes to the nearest male agnate, usually a full brother. Lifetime gifts, a waqf or a trust are the lawful ways to provide more for daughters; a will that overrides the shares is not.

Which inheritance rules do Nigerian Sharia courts follow?

The Sharia courts in the northern states apply the Maliki school. On the common cases the four schools agree; the differences appear when a grandfather inherits alongside siblings and when there is a surplus with no residuary heir. For those, ask the court or a qualified faraid scholar.