The difference between Hanafi and Shafi'i inheritance, case by case

People often assume that choosing a school changes the whole calculation. It almost never does. The shares are explicit Qur'anic text, so for the overwhelming majority of estates all four schools produce identical figures — and this calculator says so plainly on the result when they do. Try your own case in the calculator; the comparison table below the result shows every position at once.

There are four places they genuinely part company. Here they are, with the arithmetic.

1. A grandfather competing with brothers

A man dies with no children, leaving his father's father and two full brothers.

Abu Hanifa held that the grandfather stands in the father's place, and a father excludes brothers — so the grandfather does too. That was the position reported from Abu Bakr and from Ibn Abbas. The other three schools follow Zayd b. Thabit: the grandfather shares, taking whichever is best for him of an equal brother's portion, a third of the residue, or a sixth of the whole estate.

This is the largest divergence in the system, and the one most likely to matter to a real family.

2. Al-Akdariyya

A follow-on from the first. A woman leaves her husband, her mother, her father's father and one full sister — and nothing else.

Under Hanafi rules the case never forms: the grandfather has already excluded the sister, so the husband takes a half, the mother a third, and the grandfather the remaining sixth. In the other three schools the shares first go to awl over nine, and then the grandfather and sister pool their portions and divide them two to one, producing the famous denominator of 27.

3. Al-Mushtaraka

A woman leaves her husband, her mother, two maternal half-brothers and two full brothers. A half, a sixth and a third exhaust the estate exactly, leaving the full brothers — residuaries — with nothing.

Worth noting, because published summaries often get it wrong: Hanbali sides with Hanafi here, not with Shafi'i.

4. What happens to a surplus

This one affects far more ordinary estates than the other three, and it is the one most people have never heard of.

A man dies leaving his mother and one daughter. The mother takes a sixth, the daughter a half — two thirds between them, with no son, brother or uncle to claim the rest.

Ibn Qudamah names Malik and al-Shafi'i alongside Zayd b. Thabit on exactly this: the surplus goes to the treasury and nobody receives more than their allotted share. Where no functioning treasury exists, what should happen to it is a question for a scholar — and the calculator says so rather than quietly assigning it. See awl and radd explained.

One point all four agree on: a surplus is never returned to a husband or wife.

What they all agree on

Everything else, effectively. The spouse's half, quarter and eighth. The daughter's half and two thirds. The parents' sixths. The two-to-one ratio between sons and daughters. Maternal half-siblings dividing their third equally. Every rule of exclusion. Awl, which all four apply.

So if your family has no grandfather competing with brothers and no unclaimed surplus, the school you follow will not change a single figure.

What about those who follow no school?

The calculator also offers an Ahl-e-Hadith option for those who do not follow a school taqlidan. On the points modelled here it currently lands on the same figures as Hanafi throughout.

Common questions

Which school should I choose in the calculator?

The one your family follows. Whichever you pick, the result shows what every other position produces for the same heirs, so you can see immediately whether it makes any difference in your case.

Can heirs from different schools divide one estate?

The estate is divided once, on one set of rules — normally those of the deceased, or of the jurisdiction. Where the answers differ, that is a question to put to a qualified Mufti with the actual family in front of them.

Are these differences new?

No. Each traces back to a disagreement between the Companions themselves, recorded long before the schools were formed. Ibn Rushd's Bidayat al-Mujtahid sets out all sides of each.

Compare every position on your own case, or read the methodology.