Gender and Islamic Inheritance Law: Reassessing Qur’anic Interpretations of Women’s Inheritance Rights
Keywords:
Islamic Inheritance Law, Gender Justice, Qur’anic Interpretation, Women’s Inheritance Rights
Abstract
This article challenges dominant interpretations of Islamic inheritance law by advancing alternative readings of Qur’anic texts that produce more equitable outcomes for female heirs. Although gender justice in Islamic marriage and divorce law has received extensive scholarly attention, inheritance law (mirāth) remains comparatively underexamined, partly because it is widely perceived as immutable. This study demonstrates that inheritance rulings have historically been subject to scholarly disagreement and ijtihād since the era of the Prophet’s Companions, including in the two decisions of ʿUmar (al-ʿUmariyyatān). The article traces three stages in the development of Islamic inheritance law: the initial bequest system, the introduction of fixed Qur’anic inheritance shares, and later restrictions on bequests. It critically examines whether the bequest verses (Q2:180–182) and the widow verse (Q2:240) were abrogated by later inheritance verses. Drawing on the minority yet jurisprudentially rigorous views of Abū Muslim al-Iṣfahānī and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, the article argues against abrogation and contends that the hadith “no bequest to an heir” lacks sufficient authority to override Qur’anic provisions. It further argues that alternative hermeneutical approaches can enhance gender equity while remaining faithful to the Qur’an’s principles of justice.
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Zahraa, Mahdi. “Characteristic Features of Islamic Law: Perceptions and Misconceptions.” Arab Law Quarterly 15, no. 2 (2000): 168–96.
Abū Dawūd Sulaiman bin Ash’ath. Sunān Abū Dawūd, trans. Yaser Qadhi. London: Darussalam, 2008.
Abū ‘Abdullāh Muhammad ibn Ahmad Al-Ansāri al-Qurtubi Tafsīr Al-Qurtubi – Classical Commentary of the Holy Qur’an (Vol.1) (trans) Aisha Bewley, (2003) Dar Al-Taqwa
Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
Ali, Abdullah Yusuf. The Holy Qur’an: Translation and Commentary. London: Murray, 1946.
Al-Mahalli, Jalalu’D-Din, and Jalalu’D-Din As-Suyuti. Tafsir Al Jalālayn, trans. Aisha Bewley. London: Dar al Taqwa, 2007.
Al-Rāzi, Fakhr al-Din. Al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr (32 vol). Place unknown: Abdulhamīd, 1934–62.
Al-Sharmani, Mulki. Islamic Feminism: Hermeneutics and Activism. London: Bloomsbury, 2024.
Amien, Waheeda ‘The Viability for Women’s Rights of Incorporating Islamic Inheritance Laws into the South African Legal System’ (2014) Acta Juridica 192.
An-Nawawi, Al-Imam Abu Zakariya Yahya ibn Sharaf. Riyad as-Salihin (Gardens of the Righteous), trans. Mahomed Mahomedy. Karachi: Zam Zam, 2008.
Anwar, Zainah (ed.). Wanted: Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family. Kuala Lumpur: Musawah, 2009.
Auda, Jasser. A Critique of the Theory of Abrogation, trans. Adil Salahi. Leicestershire: Islamic Foundation, 2019.
Barlas, Asma. “Believing Women” in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002.
Billoo, Yasir. “Change and Authority in Islamic Law: The Islamic Law of Inheritance in Modern Muslim States.” University of Detroit Mercy Law Review 84, no. 5 (2007): 637–64.
Bukhari, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl. Book of Muslim Morals and Manners, trans. Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo. Alexandria: Al-Saadawi, 1997.
Chaudhry, Ayesha S. “‘I Wanted One Thing, and God Wanted Another...’: The Dilemma of the Prophetic Example and the Qur’anic Injunction on Wife‐Beating.” Journal of Religious Ethics 39, no. 3 (2011): 416–39.
Chaudhry, Zainab. “The Myth of Misogyny: A Reanalysis of Women’s Inheritance in Islamic Law.” Albany Law Review 61, no. 2 (1997): 511–55.
Coulson, N. J. A History of Islamic Law. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1964.
Coulson, N. J. Succession in the Muslim Family. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971.
Doi, Abdur Rahman Sharī’ah: The Islamic Law. United Kingdom, Ta Ha Publishers, 1984.
Emon, Anver M. “The Paradox of Equality and the Politics of Difference: Gender Equality, Islamic Law, and the Modern Muslim State.” In Gender and Equality in Muslim Family Law: Justice and Ethics in the Islamic Legal Tradition. Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Kari Vogt, Lena Larsen, and Christian Moe (Eds). London: IB Tauris, 2011.
Essop, Fatima. “The Intersection Between the Islamic Law of Inheritance and the South African Law of Succession. PhD thesis, University of Cape Town, 2022.
Harasani, Hamid. “The Role of Ijtihād in Progressing Islamic Law in Modern Times.” US-China Law Review 10 (2013): 361–72.
Ibn Rushd. The Distinguished Jurist’s Primer Vol II: A Translation of Bidayat Al-Mujtahid, transl. Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee. Berkshire: Garnet, 1996.
Ishaque, Shabnam. “Islamic principles on adoption: examining the impact of illegitimacy and inheritance related concerns in context of a child’s right to an identity.” International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family 22, no. 3 (2008): 393-420.
Khan, Hamid. The Islamic Law of Inheritance: A Comparative Study of Recent Reforms in Muslim Countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Kimber, Richard. “The Qur’anic Law of Inheritance.” Islamic Law and Society 5, no. 3 (1998): 291–325.
Malik ibn Anas. Al-Muwatta, trans. Aisha A. Bewley. London: Routledge, 2010.
Masud, Muhammad Khalid. “Ikhtilaf al-fuqaha: Diversity in fiqh as a social construction.” Wanted: Equality and justice in the Muslim family (2009): 65-93.
Mernissi, Fatima. The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam. New York: Basic Books, 1992.
Mir-Hosseini, Ziba. “A Woman’s Right to Terminate the Marriage Contract: The Case of Iran.” In The Islamic Marriage Contract: Case Studies in Family Islamic Law. Asifa Quraishi and Frank E. Vogel (Ed). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008.
Mir-Hosseini, Ziba, Mulki Al-Sharmani, Jana Rumminger, and Sarah Marsso. Justice and Beauty in Muslim Marriage: Towards Egalitarian Ethics and Laws. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2022.
Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʻī. al-Risāla Fī Usūl al-Fiqh (Treatise on the Foundations of Islamic Jurisprudence) trans. Majid Khadduri. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1961.
Muneer Abduroaf. “The Impact of South African Law on the Islamic Law of Succession. LLD thesis, University of Western Cape, 2018.
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary. San Francisco: Harper One, 2015.
Nyazee, Imran Ahsan Khan. Islamic Jurisprudence (Usūl al-Fiqh). Herndon: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2000.
Pavlovitch, Pavel, and David S. Powers. “‘A Bequest May Not Exceed 1/3’: An Isnād-cum-Matn Analysis and Beyond.” In Islamic Cultures, Islamic Contexts. Behnam Sadeghi, Patricia Crone, Asad Q. Ahmed, Adam J. Silverstein and Robert G. Hoyland (Eds). Leiden: Brill, 2014.
Powers, David Stephan. Studies in Qur’an and Hadith: The Formation of the Islamic Laws of Inheritance. Oakland: University of California Press, 1986.
Russel, Alexander David, and Abdullah Al-Ma’Mun Suhrawardy. Muslim Law: An Historical Introduction to the Law of Inheritance. London: Routledge, 2008.
Samodien, Ibtesiam, and Belqes Al-Sowaidi. ‘Investigating the Experience of Muslim Widows in Cape Town: A Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah Approach. Al-Wasatiyyah 1, no. 1 (2022): 101.
Shahrur, Muhammad. The Quran, Morality and Critical Reason: The Essential Muhammad Shahrur, transl. Adreas Christmann. Leiden: Brill, 2009.
Tucker, Judith E. Women, Family and Gender in Islamic Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Usmani, Justice Mufti Mohammad Taqi. An Approach to the Quranic Sciences, transl. Mohammad Swaleh Siddiqui. Karachi: Darul Isha’at, 2000.
Wadud, Amina. Qur’an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Zahraa, Mahdi. “Characteristic Features of Islamic Law: Perceptions and Misconceptions.” Arab Law Quarterly 15, no. 2 (2000): 168–96.
Published
2026-06-22
How to Cite
Essop, F. (2026). Gender and Islamic Inheritance Law: Reassessing Qur’anic Interpretations of Women’s Inheritance Rights. Mazahib, 25(1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.21093/mj.v25i1.11956
Section
Articles
Copyright (c) 2026 Fatima Essop
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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