Besides, these are recognized (a) residuaries for special cause to which class belongs the emancipator of a slave, (b) the patron of the deceased, (c) heirs by acknowledgement, (d) the universal legatee (one to whom the deceased has bequeathed the whole of his property), and lastly the bait al-māl or public treasury. The subject is too technical and complicated to be dealt with in a book intended for the layman; and the bare outlines of the law of inheritance according to the jurists, as given above, is sufficient for the purpose of this book. If however the law is applied in its simplicity, as given in the Holy Qur’ān, even the layman will find no difficulty in its application as shown above.
It will be seen that debts are the first charge on the property of the deceased, as the words “or a debt” in verses 11 and 12 show. The expenses relating to burial are also regarded as a debt which must be paid out of the property of the deceased. The wife’s dower, if unpaid, is also a debt and must be paid out of the property before it is divided. In the case of a person who leaves no issue, the words are “or a debt that does not harm others”, the implication evidently being that a person who has no children may contract a debt simply to deprive his heirs. The jurists divide debts into three kinds: (a) those contracted in health; (b) those contracted during illness which ends in death; and (c) those contracted partly in health and partly in illness (AA.). All wages due to servants are also included in debts.
The legality of a bequest is clearly admitted in both the verses dealing with the law of inheritance. The property left is to be divided “after payment of a bequest that may have been made or a debt” (4:11, 12). There is a further injunction, of an earlier date, relating to bequests: “It is prescribed for you, when death approaches one of you, if he leaves behind wealth for parents and near relatives4, to make a bequest in a kindly manner; it is incumbent upon the dutiful” (2:180). There is also mention of a bequest in a verse which was decidedly revealed later than 4: 11, 12: “O you who believe, call to witness
4 Generally the words “for parents and near relatives” are supposed to be connected with the injunction to make a bequest, the import of the passage thus being that a man who leaves wealth should bequeath it to parents and kindred, and owing to this interpretation the verse is looked upon as being abrogated by 4:11, 12. But as already shown, both these verses expressly speak of the bequest and require the property to be divided only after payment of bequest or debt. The interpretation I have adopted makes it consistent with the other verses of the Holy Qur’ān.