The Shia (Ithna Ashari) law of inheritance is not a footnote to Sunni doctrine. It is a parallel system, built on different first principles, producing materially different distributions in the same family configurations. Where Sunni (Hanafi) law sorts heirs into the three categories of Sharers, Residuaries and Distant Kindred, the Shia school admits only Sharers and Residuaries — Distant Kindred do not exist as a separate class. Where the Sunni school prefers agnates to cognates and divides per capita, the Shia school prefers the nearest kinsman regardless of sex and divides per stirpes. Where the Sunni school accepts the Caliph Umar's doctrine of Aul (Increase), the Shia school rejects it outright. The candidate who masters these structural differences will dispose of every Shia-versus-Sunni MCQ and most Mains questions on the topic, while still placing the chapter within the broader scheme of Muslim Law as a whole.

The Indian statutory peg is the same as for the Sunni scheme — Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 — examined in the chapter on application of Muslim personal law in India. The substantive content differs because the choice-of-law rule directs the courts to apply the parties' own school. The leading Shia authority cited in the Indian decisions is the Sharai-ul-Islam, supplemented by Baillie's Digest (Volume II) and the older judgment in Aga Sheralli v. Bai Kulsum (1908) 32 Bom 540, where the Bombay High Court adopted the Shia per-stirpes method as binding on Indian courts.

Statutory and shariah anchor

Section 2 of the 1937 Act directs that in matters of intestate succession the rule of decision shall be the Muslim personal law applicable to the parties. Where the propositus is a Shia, the Shia rules apply; where he is a Sunni, the Sunni rules apply. The Quranic anchor is the same — Surah Al-Nisa, verses 11, 12 and 176 — but the Shia interpretation of those verses, supplemented by Shia hadith collections (notably the four canonical Shia compilations), produces the divergent system. The Shia treatment proceeds from the doctrinal premise that the principle of representation, the priority of nearer blood-relations, and the equal entitlement of cognates and agnates are direct Quranic mandates. Aul, the Sunni Increase doctrine, is rejected on the ground that the Quranic shares cannot be diminished by judicial fiat — any apparent excess must instead be absorbed at the expense of designated heirs.

The candidate should note at the threshold that this article concerns the Ithna Ashari (Twelver) Shia school, which governs the largest Shia population in India. The Daoodi Bohra and the Khoja Ismaili sub-sects of Muslim law within the Shia umbrella sometimes apply distinctive sub-rules — for instance, the Daoodi Bohra position laid down by the Dai-al-Mutlaq (the Head Priest) — but for the State judiciary syllabus the Ithna Ashari rules constitute the working content.

Two groups, three classes

Under Shia law all heirs fall into one of two groups: heirs by consanguinity (blood relations) and heirs by marriage (husband and wife). The husband or wife is never excluded; the spouse always inherits as a Sharer alongside whichever blood-class survives. Heirs by consanguinity are then divided into three classes:

  1. Class I — Parents and lineal descendants. Two sections: (i) parents (father and mother); (ii) children, grandchildren, and remoter lineal descendants ("how low so ever").
  2. Class II — Grandparents and collateral siblings. Two sections: (i) grandparents and remoter ancestors ("how high so ever"); (ii) brothers and sisters (full, consanguine, uterine) and their descendants.
  3. Class III — Uncles, aunts, and their descendants. Paternal and maternal uncles and aunts of the propositus, of his parents, and of his grandparents, with their descendants.

The first cardinal Shia rule of exclusion: a class wholly excludes the next class. So long as any heir of Class I survives, no heir of Class II inherits; so long as any Class II heir survives, no Class III heir inherits. Within each class, the two sections succeed together — parents do not exclude children, and children do not exclude parents. The rule of exclusion ("the nearer in degree excludes the more remote") applies within each section only. This per-section operation of the rule of exclusion is fundamental and produces results that diverge sharply from the Hanafi scheme examined in the chapter on Sunni inheritance.

Worked illustrations of the class scheme

The illustrations from the Sharai-ul-Islam, adopted by Indian courts, make the structure concrete:

  1. Daughter's son vs paternal uncle. A Shia leaves a daughter's son, a father's mother, and a full brother. Under Hanafi law the father's mother takes 1/6 as Sharer, the full brother takes 5/6 as Residuary, and the daughter's son — a Distant Kinsman — is wholly excluded. Under Shia law the daughter's son, being a Class I heir, takes the entire estate to the exclusion of the father's mother and the brother, both of whom are Class II.
  2. Brother's daughter vs paternal uncle. A Shia leaves a brother's daughter and a full paternal uncle. Under Hanafi law the uncle (Residuary) takes the whole estate; the brother's daughter (Distant Kinswoman) is excluded. Under Shia law the brother's daughter (Class II) takes in preference to the uncle (Class III).
  3. Paternal uncle's son vs mother's father. Hanafi law gives the whole estate to the paternal uncle's son (Residuary), excluding the mother's father (Distant Kinsman). Shia law gives it to the mother's father (Class II) in preference to the uncle's son (Class III).

The pattern is consistent: relatives whom Sunni law treats as Distant Kindred, postponed to Sharers and Residuaries, are under Shia law full participants alongside the closer blood-relations. The Shias prefer the nearest kinsman whether agnate or cognate; the Sunnis prefer agnates to cognates. This single doctrinal difference accounts for most of the surface contrasts between the two systems.

Sharers under Shia law

The Shia Table of Sharers contains nine entries (against the Hanafi twelve): husband, wife, father, mother, daughter, uterine brother, uterine sister, full sister, consanguine sister. The husband, wife, father and mother are never excluded; all are present in Class I. The Shia Table omits the true grandfather, the true grandmother and the son's daughter — these inherit, but as Residuaries, not as Sharers. The descendants of Sharers are themselves Sharers (with the obvious exception of descendants of spouses, parents).

The fractional shares prescribed are:

  1. Husband: 1/4 with lineal descendant, 1/2 without.
  2. Wife: 1/8 with lineal descendant, 1/4 without; subject to the childless-widow rule examined below.
  3. Father: 1/6 with lineal descendant; takes as Residuary in absence of lineal descendant.
  4. Mother: 1/6 with lineal descendant or with two or more siblings (with the father); 1/3 in other cases.
  5. Daughter: 1/2 alone, 2/3 collectively; takes as Residuary with a son under the rule of double share to the male.
  6. Uterine brother or sister: 1/6 (one); 1/3 (two or more), divided equally without distinction of sex; only when no parent or lineal descendant survives.
  7. Full sister: 1/2 alone, 2/3 collectively; takes as Residuary with full brother or with father's father.
  8. Consanguine sister: 1/2 alone, 2/3 collectively; takes as Residuary with consanguine brother or with father's father.

Of these, four — father, daughter, full sister, consanguine sister — sometimes inherit as Sharers and sometimes as Residuaries. Where a sister would have taken as a Sharer, her descendants succeed as Sharers; where she would have taken as a Residuary, her descendants succeed as Residuaries.

Residuaries — every other heir

The Shia treatment of Residuaries is structurally simple: all heirs other than the nine Sharers are Residuaries. There is no separate Distant Kindred class. Sons, brothers, uncles, aunts, and their respective descendants are all Residuaries. The Shia school therefore admits as Residuaries an extensive list of female relatives — daughters of brothers, daughters of sisters, daughters of uncles, daughters of aunts — whom the Hanafi scheme treats as Distant Kindred and postpones to all Sharers and male Residuaries. This admission of female cognates as direct Residuaries is the most consequential structural difference between the schools, and it explains many of the surprising MCQ outcomes.

Per-stirpes representation

Succession among descendants in each of the three classes is per stirpes, not per capita. The Bombay High Court's classic statement of this rule in Aga Sheralli v. Bai Kulsum remains the leading Indian authority. Suppose a Shia leaves two grandsons GS1 and GS2 by a predeceased son A, and one grandson GS3 by a predeceased son B. Under Hanafi law, the three grandsons take per capita: each takes 1/3, regardless of which of the two predeceased sons was their father. Under Shia law, A and B are notionally treated as alive: each takes 1/2; A's 1/2 then descends to GS1 and GS2 in equal halves (each 1/4); B's 1/2 passes to GS3. The division is by stocks, not by heads.

The principle of representation extends in both directions. In the descending line: great-grandchildren take what their respective grandparents would have taken. In the ascending line: great-grandparents take what the grandparents would have taken; the father's uncles and aunts take what the deceased's uncles and aunts would have taken. Representation, however, does not qualify the rule of exclusion. If a propositus leaves a son and a grandson by a predeceased son, the grandson is excluded by his uncle — they do not divide the estate per stirpes because the rule of exclusion (nearer excludes more remote) operates first.

Distribution among Class I heirs

The mode of distribution proceeds in fixed order:

  1. First, assign the husband or wife his or her Sharer's portion (always present where the spouse survives).
  2. Next, assign Sharer-only claimants their Quranic shares from the remainder.
  3. Next, divide the residue, if any, among the Residuaries.
  4. If no Residuary exists and the sum of Sharers' shares falls short of unity, apply the doctrine of Return as stated in §106 of the Sharai-ul-Islam.
  5. If the sum exceeds unity, apply the Shia doctrine — not Aul, but the proportional reduction of the daughter's or full/consanguine sister's share.

Worked example. A Shia leaves husband, mother and father with no lineal descendant. Husband takes 1/2 as Sharer. Mother takes 1/3 as Sharer. Father, in the absence of lineal descendant, takes the residue 1/6 as Residuary. Compare the Hanafi result: mother takes 1/3 of (1 - 1/2) = 1/6, and father takes the residue 1/3 as Residuary. The Shia distribution gives the father 1/6, the Hanafi gives the father 1/3 — a substantial divergence on the same family pattern.

The childless widow rule

The most heavily examined Shia divergence is the childless-widow rule. A childless Shia widow — meaning a widow whose nikah never produced offspring — takes no share in her deceased husband's lands. She is entitled only to her one-fourth share in the value of the trees and buildings standing on the lands, and in his movable property (including debts due to him, even if secured by usufructuary mortgage). The expression "lands" includes both agricultural land and the site of a building. The rule is recorded in Baillie's Digest at II, 295 and has been applied by Indian courts in Mir Ali v. Sajuda Begum, Aga Mahomed Jaffer v. Koolsom Beebee, Umardaraz Ali Khan v. Wilayat Ali Khan, and Muzaffar Ali v. Parbati.

The rule does not apply to a Shia widow who has had children by her husband, even if those children have predeceased without issue. The qualification of "childless" tracks the historical fact of childbirth, not the survival of the children at the husband's death. Where the deceased Shia leaves no other heir at all, the Oudh Court in Abdul Hamid Khan v. Peare Mirza held — adopting Ameer Ali's view — that the childless widow is entitled to inherit the remaining three-fourths by Return notwithstanding the lands rule, on the ground that escheat to the Crown is a residual jurisdiction that yields when any blood-sharer-equivalent is alive.

Doctrine of Return (Radd) under Shia law

If a residue remains after satisfying the Sharers, but no Residuary exists in the same class, the residue reverts to the Sharers in proportion to their shares. The mechanism is the same as in Hanafi law — examined in the chapter on the Aul and Radd doctrines — but with three Shia-specific exceptions:

  1. Husband and wife. Neither participates in the Return so long as any other heir survives. If the husband is the sole heir, the surplus passes to him by Return. If the wife is the sole heir, the older Shia view (Sharai-ul-Islam) is that the surplus 3/4 escheats to the Imam (now the Government); the contrary view (Ameer Ali, followed in Abdul Hamid Khan v. Peare Mirza) is that the surplus passes to the wife by Return.
  2. Mother. If the deceased left a mother, a father, and one daughter, and also two or more full or consanguine brothers (or one such brother and two such sisters, or four such sisters), the brothers and sisters — though themselves excluded as Class II heirs — prevent the mother from sharing in the Return. The surplus reverts to the father and daughter only. This is the only case in which the mother is excluded from Return.
  3. Uterine brothers and sisters. If full sisters and uterine brothers/sisters survive together, the uterine siblings are excluded from the Return; the surplus goes entirely to the full sisters. The exclusion does not apply to consanguine sisters, who divide the Return with uterines in proportion to their shares.
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Rejection of Aul (Increase)

The Shia school does not accept the doctrine of Aul. Where the sum of Quranic shares allotted to the surviving Sharers exceeds unity, the surplus over unity is invariably deducted from the share of (a) the daughter or daughters; or (b) the full or consanguine sister or sisters. No other Sharer is reduced. The reasoning in the Shia treatises is that since a full sister, when co-existing with uterines, gets the full benefit of Return (§106), it is fair that she bear the deficit when the shares overflow. The same logic, though contested, is extended to the daughter.

Worked example. A Shia leaves a husband, a daughter, a father, and a mother. Husband 1/4 (3/12), daughter 1/2 (6/12), father 1/6 (2/12), mother 1/6 (2/12). Total: 13/12. Excess over unity: 1/12. Under Hanafi law, Aul would proportionally reduce all four. Under Shia law, the entire 1/12 is deducted from the daughter: husband 3/12, father 2/12, mother 2/12, daughter (6/12 - 1/12) = 5/12. Total: unity. Compare the Hanafi result on the same pattern (the famous "13-Aul" case): husband 3/13, daughter 6/13, father 2/13, mother 2/13. The Shia daughter takes 5/12 (≈ 0.417); the Hanafi daughter takes 6/13 (≈ 0.462). The Shia rule, paradoxically, reduces the daughter's share more than Aul does. This is one of the most counter-intuitive results in the syllabus and has spawned a long line of doctrinal critique. The rule applies regardless of how many daughters or sisters exist; the deficit always falls on them. A second worked example: husband 1/4, two daughters 2/3, father 1/6, mother 1/6 — total 15/12. Excess 3/12 deducted from the daughters: each daughter takes (8/12 - 3/12)/2 = 5/24.

Class II — grandparents and siblings together

Where Class II is reached and grandparents and siblings co-exist, the Shia rule treats grandparents as if they were brothers and sisters of corresponding kind. A paternal grandfather counts as a full or consanguine brother; a paternal grandmother as a full or consanguine sister; a maternal grandfather as a uterine brother; a maternal grandmother as a uterine sister. The shares are then assigned as if these substitutions were the actual claimants. On failure of grandparents, remoter ancestors stand in their place. On failure of siblings, their descendants stand in the place of their respective parents per stirpes.

This substitution rule is the Shia school's elegant solution to a structural problem the Hanafi scheme handles by complex residuary tables. The practical consequence is that a paternal grandmother and a full sister will take 2/3 and 1/3 respectively (the grandmother counted as a full sister, sharing 2/3 collectively, with the actual full sister taking 1/3 — or, on the alternative reading where the grandfather counts as a full brother, the full sister takes as Residuary with him).

Class III — uncles, aunts and the Ali exception

Class III heirs are all Residuaries. There are no Sharers in Class III. Distribution among uncles and aunts proceeds in three steps: 2/3 to the paternal side, 1/3 to the maternal side. On the paternal side, uterine paternal uncles and aunts are treated as Sharers (1/6 if one; 1/3 if two or more, equally divided); the remainder goes to full paternal uncles and aunts under the rule of double share to the male, failing whom to consanguine paternal uncles and aunts under the same rule. On the maternal side the procedure is similar, except that full maternal uncles and aunts take equally without distinction of sex (a doubt raised in some treatises whether this rule applies only when no uterine maternal relations survive).

The famous "Ali exception" applies in Class III. If the only claimants are the son of a full paternal uncle and a consanguine paternal uncle, the former — though more remote in degree — excludes the latter. The historical reason is the Shia commitment to Ali ibn Abi Talib as the Prophet's nearest male heir: Ali was the son of Abu Talib (full paternal uncle of the Prophet), and the Prophet had also left Abbas (a consanguine paternal uncle). To preserve Ali's claim to succeed the Prophet, the Shia rule prefers the son of a full paternal uncle to a consanguine paternal uncle. The exception is not academic — Indian courts have applied it in Class III partition disputes. The rule is recorded at Baillie II, 285-286.

Eldest son — the Hibwa rule

A peculiar Shia rule, sometimes flagged in PYQs alongside other school divergences in mahr (dower) recovery patterns, preserves a special entitlement for the eldest surviving son. If of sound mind, the eldest son is exclusively entitled to the deceased father's wearing apparel, his Quran, his sword and his ring — provided the deceased has left other property besides those articles. The rule (Baillie II, 279) does not appear in the Sunni system and is sometimes set in MCQ as a Shia divergence. The rule is interpreted strictly: the four articles only, no extension to other personal effects.

Illegitimate children

An illegitimate child does not inherit at all under Shia law — not even from the mother or her relations, and they do not inherit from the child. The Sunni rule, by contrast, allows the illegitimate child to inherit from the mother. The Shia stricter position is recorded at Baillie II, 305 and applied in Sahebzadee Begum v. Himmut Bahadur. The candidate should remember that legitimacy and acknowledgment of paternity operate as a preliminary filter: the bar on illegitimate-child inheritance applies only after a finding that the child is not legitimised by acknowledgment under the Sunni rules of acknowledgment, where applicable.

Homicide as bar to succession

Under Shia law, homicide bars succession only where the death was caused intentionally. The Sunni rule is wider: any homicide — intentional, accidental, by mistake, or by negligence — disqualifies the killer from inheriting from the victim. The Shia narrower rule reflects the school's more rigorous view of mens rea in succession-bar cases. The point arises occasionally in matrimonial litigation alongside questions of dissolution of marriage by the wife, where the husband's death in custody or violent circumstance is contested.

Spes successionis under Shia law

The Sunni rule is that the expectant right of an heir-apparent cannot pass by succession to his heir or by bequest to a legatee under his will. The Shia school admits an exception: the expectant right does pass by succession in the cases specified in §93 of the Sharai-ul-Islam (the per-stirpes representation provisions). The point arises in factual patterns where one of two predeceased sons has himself left children: under Shia law those grandchildren stand in their father's place under representation; under Sunni law they are excluded by their surviving uncle.

Escheat under Shia law

On total failure of all natural heirs, the estate of a deceased Shia escheats to the Government — historically described in the treatises as escheat to the Imam, with the Government of India treated as the Imam's representative for the purpose. The leading Indian authority is Musammat Khursaidi v. Secretary of State (1926). The rule of escheat is residual: it does not displace the doctrine of Return where any heir-equivalent (notably, a sole-surviving widow on the Ameer Ali / Oudh view) is alive to take the surplus.

Indian decisions and exam-angle distinctions

The leading Indian decisions applying Shia inheritance rules are Aga Sheralli v. Bai Kulsum (per-stirpes representation), Abdul Hamid Khan v. Peare Mirza (sole-widow Return; childless-widow inheritance of residue), Khursaidi v. Secretary of State (escheat), and the early Privy Council decision in Agha Ali Khan v. Altaf Hasan Khan (1892) recognising the Sharai-ul-Islam as the canonical Shia text and the Sources Quran-Sunnah as the foundational sources of Muslim law. The Bombay High Court has consistently treated Baillie's Digest as the standard treatise on Shia rules.

Three PYQ traps are common. First, candidates assume the Shia school accepts Aul because both schools accept Radd; in fact the schools converge on Radd (with Shia exceptions) but diverge sharply on Aul. Second, candidates apply the Sunni rule of double share to the male across the board; in fact uterine siblings under Shia law (and uterine paternal uncles and aunts and full maternal uncles and aunts) take equally without distinction of sex. Third, candidates forget the childless-widow rule on the lands of the husband; this is one of the most-tested specific rules in Shia inheritance. A fourth trap — in advanced papers — is to forget the Class III Ali exception preferring the full paternal uncle's son over a consanguine paternal uncle.

Practical contrasts with the Sunni scheme

A handful of comparative observations capture the structural divergence and serve as a revision checklist:

  1. Sunnis prefer agnates to cognates; Shias prefer the nearest kinsman regardless of sex.
  2. Sunnis recognise three categories — Sharers, Residuaries, Distant Kindred. Shias recognise only Sharers and Residuaries.
  3. Sunni division among descendants is per capita; Shia division is per stirpes throughout.
  4. Sunni law applies Aul to overflow; Shia law deducts the deficit from the daughter or sister.
  5. Sunni law allows Return to the spouse only when no other heir exists; Shia law allows Return to the husband freely as sole heir, but the older Shia view denies Return to a sole widow (the modern Indian view favours her).
  6. Sunni illegitimate child can inherit from the mother; Shia illegitimate child cannot.
  7. Sunni homicide bar is broad (any homicide); Shia bar is narrow (intentional homicide only).
  8. Sunni law has no special rule for the eldest son; Shia law gives the eldest son the apparel, Quran, sword, and ring.
  9. Sunni law makes no special exception for the childless widow's lands; Shia law restricts her to one-fourth in value of trees, buildings and movables.

Comparison with the doctrine of Aul and Radd

The candidate is likely to be tested on the interaction of Shia inheritance with the underlying corrective doctrines. The doctrine of Return (Radd) is accepted in altered form, with the husband-wife exception, the mother exclusion in the brother-sister combination, and the uterine-sibling exclusion when full sisters are present. The doctrine of Increase (Aul) is rejected and replaced by the daughter/sister deficit rule. Both doctrines, as applied in the Sunni scheme, are examined in the chapter on the doctrine of Aul and Radd, where the comparative arithmetic is worked out in detail. Both doctrines apply only after the testamentary cap of one-third under a Muslim will has been honoured and after debts and funeral expenses have been deducted.

Reading list — what to commit to memory

For the State judiciary candidate, the Shia inheritance chapter requires the following working knowledge: (a) the two-group/three-class scheme and the rule that a class wholly excludes the next class; (b) the Shia Table of nine Sharers with their fractions; (c) the per-stirpes principle of representation in Aga Sheralli; (d) the rejection of Aul and the daughter/sister deficit rule with worked examples; (e) the three exceptions to Return — husband-wife, mother, and uterine siblings; (f) the childless-widow rule on the husband's lands; (g) the Ali exception in Class III preferring the full paternal uncle's son over a consanguine paternal uncle; (h) the eldest-son rule on apparel, Quran, sword, ring; (i) the narrower Shia homicide bar; (j) the comparative table against the Sunni scheme; (k) the relevant landmark Indian decisions; and (l) the threshold question of identifying the propositus's school before applying any rule.

The chapter rewards systematic preparation. The Sunni-Shia divergence is the most heavily-examined comparative topic in the personal-laws section across State judiciary syllabi, and the candidate who has internalised the nine differences listed above will recognise the question pattern in seconds and produce a clean comparative answer in three to four minutes — a reliable scoring opportunity in a paper that often turns on whether the candidate has done the comparative work in advance.

Frequently asked questions

What is the basic structural difference between Sunni and Shia inheritance?

The Sunni (Hanafi) scheme classifies heirs into three categories — Sharers, Residuaries, and Distant Kindred — and prefers agnates (relations through males) to cognates. The Shia (Ithna Ashari) scheme classifies heirs by consanguinity into three classes (parents and lineal descendants; grandparents and siblings; uncles and aunts) and recognises only two categories of heirs — Sharers and Residuaries. The Shia school prefers the nearest kinsman whether agnate or cognate. Distant Kindred do not exist as a separate class in Shia law; relatives the Sunni scheme treats as Distant Kindred are admitted as full Residuaries under the Shia scheme. Distribution among descendants is per stirpes under Shia law and per capita under Sunni law.

Why does the Shia school reject the doctrine of Aul?

The Shia school rejects Aul on the doctrinal ground that the Quranic shares cannot be diminished by judicial fiat. Where the sum of Sharers' shares exceeds unity, the deficit is invariably deducted from the share of the daughter or daughters, or full or consanguine sisters — no other Sharer is reduced. The reasoning is that since the full sister, when co-existing with uterines, gets the full benefit of the Return, she should bear the deficit when shares overflow. The result is sometimes counter-intuitive: in the classic 13-Aul case, the Shia daughter takes 5/12 while the Hanafi daughter takes 6/13, so the Shia rule actually reduces the daughter's share more than Aul does. Aul is attributed to the Caliph Umar; the Shia school has historically rejected post-Quranic juristic innovations of that era.

What is the childless widow rule under Shia law?

A childless Shia widow takes no share in her deceased husband's lands. She is entitled only to her one-fourth share in the value of the trees and buildings standing on those lands, and in his movable property including debts due to him (even if secured by a usufructuary mortgage). The expression 'lands' includes both agricultural land and the site of a building. The leading Indian decisions applying the rule are Mir Ali v. Sajuda Begum, Aga Mahomed Jaffer v. Koolsom Beebee, and Umardaraz Ali Khan v. Wilayat Ali Khan. Where the widow is the sole surviving heir, the Oudh Court in Abdul Hamid Khan v. Peare Mirza held — adopting Ameer Ali's view — that she takes the residue by Return notwithstanding the lands rule, on the ground that escheat is residual.

How does per-stirpes representation work under Shia law?

Under Shia law, succession among descendants is per stirpes — by stocks, not by heads. If a propositus leaves grandchildren by predeceased sons, the estate is notionally first divided among the predeceased sons as if they were alive; each son's notional share then descends to his children under the rule of the double share to the male. Suppose two grandsons by predeceased son A and one grandson by predeceased son B: under Shia law A and B notionally take 1/2 each, A's 1/2 splits between his two sons (each 1/4), B's 1/2 passes to his sole grandson. Under Sunni law the three grandsons take per capita (each 1/3). The Bombay High Court in Aga Sheralli v. Bai Kulsum is the leading Indian authority on the Shia per-stirpes method.

What is the Ali exception in Class III of Shia heirs?

The general Class III rule is that the nearer in degree excludes the more remote. The Ali exception departs from this: where the only claimants are the son of a full paternal uncle and a consanguine paternal uncle, the former — though more remote in degree — excludes the latter. The historical justification rests on Shia commitment to Ali ibn Abi Talib as the Prophet's nearest male heir. Ali was the son of Abu Talib (the Prophet's full paternal uncle); the Prophet had also left Abbas (a consanguine paternal uncle). To preserve Ali's claim of succession the Shia school prefers the son of a full paternal uncle to a consanguine paternal uncle in this narrow factual pattern. The rule is recorded in Baillie's Digest at II, 285-286 and has been applied by Indian courts in Class III partition disputes.

Are uterine brothers and sisters treated equally with full siblings under Shia law?

No. Under Shia law uterine brothers and sisters take 1/6 (one) or 1/3 (two or more) as Sharers, divided equally without distinction of sex; full siblings take as Sharers under different fractions and may also take as Residuaries with the rule of the double share to the male. The Shia treatment of uterine siblings is closer to the Hanafi rule than most Shia divergences — both schools admit uterine siblings as Sharers — but the Shia school differs on the Return: uterine siblings are excluded from the Return where full sisters are also present, and the surplus goes entirely to the full sisters. The exclusion does not apply to consanguine sisters, who divide the Return with uterines in proportion to their shares.

Does an illegitimate child inherit under Shia law?

An illegitimate child does not inherit at all under Shia law — not from the mother, not from the mother's relations, and the mother and her relations do not inherit from the child. The Sunni rule is more permissive: the illegitimate child can inherit from the mother (and her relations from the child). The Shia stricter position is recorded at Baillie II, 305 and applied in Sahebzadee Begum v. Himmut Bahadur. The bar operates only after a preliminary finding that the child has not been legitimised by acknowledgment of paternity under whichever rules apply to the propositus's school. Since the Shia school does not recognise acknowledgment of paternity in the same broad way as the Sunni school, the bar tends to operate more strictly in Shia cases.