This entry belongs to the Shahrur glossary. Inheritance, for Shahrur, is a general law for distributing the estate, but it is not the only principle governing the transfer of wealth after death; it is preceded by the sphere of the will.
Meaning in Shahrur
Inheritance achieves public justice at the level of society and groups, and functions as a residual law in the absence of a specific will. It therefore does not address every individual case on its own, but provides an organized general system.
Its function in legislation
- It operates when no specific will exists or after it has been executed.
- It achieves public justice, not special justice for every individual case.
- It determines shares by a general law.
- It is connected more to limits and prescribed shares than to individual choice.
Foundational links
- The will is a special principle and inheritance a residual general law
- Inheritance is a collective legal system with stratified constraints
- Inheritance is a residual law in the absence of a will
- Share in inheritance and portion in the will
- al-Nisa 11
Limits of the reading
Making inheritance residual does not mean abolishing it; rather, it means placing it in its relationship to the will, debt, and public justice, not isolating it from the rest of the verses on the transfer of wealth.