In the name of God, the Clement, the Merciful; and

from Him we seek assistance.

[1]

FIRST, we open the discourse

With pronouncing the praise of our Lord most High:
Praise then to GOD for what he hath bestowed,
Praise, by which we remove blindness from the sight!
Next, benediction afterwards and salutation

To the Prophet, whose religion is the ISLAM,
MOHAMMED, seal of his Lord's messengers,
And his family, after him, and his friends!
And let us pray GOD for his aid to us
In what we have proposed to explain

From the system of the Imám, ZAID ALFARADHI *,
(Since this is among the noblest of purposes)

By learning; for learning is the most deserving of efforts
In it, and the worthiest vocation of the pious;

And this branch of knowledge peculiarly belongs to what
Has been openly declared among all the learned;
And ZAID has unquestionably a just title

To what the lord of the mission conferred on him,

By pronouncing his excellence, clearly saying,

"ZAID will teach you the law :" O glorious encomium! He, therefore, best deserves to be followed by the student, Especially since SHAFIEI takes him for a guide.

This then is his doctrine epitomised

* Faradh'éi, a man skilled in the faráyidh', or sacred ordinances contained in the Alcoran.

Free from a particle of ambiguity.

The causes of inheritance among men are three; (The possessor of any one has the advantage of succession) And they are wedlock, collateral relation, and descent: There is not besides them a single cause of inheritance. [2]

And any one of three incapacities

Excludes a person from the succession;

Servitude, and homicide, and a difference of faith:
Understand then; since doubt is not like certainty.
And those, who inherit among males, are ten;
Their names are known, and every where mentioned:
The son, and the son's son, however they descend,
And the father, and his father, in the ascending line;
And the brother, on whichever side he stands,
Since GOD caused the KORAN to descend in his favour;
And the son of a brother related by the same father,
(Hear now the discourse containing no falsehood)
And the paternal uncle, and such uncle's son,

(Be thankful to him, who explains concisely and clearly) And the husband, and the emancipater nearly connected; And all the males, who inherit, are these.

And all the inheriting females are seven,

(To no woman, but them, does the law give that title) The daughter, and the son's daughter, and the tender

mother,

And the grandmother, and the wife, and the emancipatress, And the sister, on whichever side she stands:

And this their number thus appears.

And know, that inheritance is of two sorts, which are The SHARE, and the HEIRSHIP* of what is distributable. Now the shares, by the declaration of the book, are six: (Besides them is no share in the inheritance)

* Pronounced in India, ferz and ásba. See the last words of the report by the Mahomedan doctors in the Patna cause,

A moiety, and a fourth; next, half a fourth,
And a third, and a sixth, as the law declares,
And two thirds; and these are the whole.

Remember then; for "Every one, who remembers, is an IMAM*"

[3]

A moiety then is the share of five persons,
The husband, and the female child,

And the daughter of a son, on failure of daughters,
And the whole sister, by the opinion of every MUFTI,
And, after her, the sister, who has the same father;
This when they stand alone without any HEIR.
And a fourth is the share of the husband, if there be with

him

Any children of the wife, who deprive him of more;
And this is for every wife, or more than one

On failure of children, as it is ordained.
And the eighth is for the wife, or the wives,
Together with sons or with daughters †,
Or with children of sons: learn then,

And remain firm in venerating study, and prosper.
And two thirds are for the daughters all together,
When there are more than one; (hear attentively)
And the same portion is for the daughters of a son:
(Comprehend my discourse with clear discernment)
This also is for two sisters, and for what exceeds that
number;

The ingenuous and the pious have thus decided:
This, whether they be by the father and the mother,
Or by the father only. (Act by this rule; thou wilt be right)
And the third is the mother's share, when there is no child,

* A saying, I believe, of Mahomed: he meaned a rememberer of his oral precepts. Hence the name of Hafidh, or Hafiz, was assumed by many illustrious persons, and, among them, by the celebrated poet.

See the answer of Mohammed Kúsim to the thirteenth question proposed to him in the Patna cause,

Nor any assemblage or number of brethren,

As two brothers, or two sisters, or three;

The rule in this case regards males as well as females. And, if there be a husband, and a mother, and a father, A third of what remains is allotted to her;

And so with a wife: (advance then,

And be not seated apart from the sciences.)

[4]

And a third is for two males or two females
Of the mother's children, without deceit ;

And so, if there be more, and they seek their allotment,
There is no provision for them in what exceeds that share,
And females and males are held equal

In this distribution, as the written law declares.
And a sixth is the share of seven in number,

The father, and the mother, then the son's daughter, and the grandfather,

And the sister, daughter of the father, next the grandmother,

And the mother's child: the number is complete.

And the father has a right to it with the children,
And so the mother, by the revelation of the Eternal:
And the same is for her with two

Of the dead man's brothers: give those two a just allotment.
And the grandfather is like the father, on his death,
In the distribution of what accrues to him and relieves him,
Except when there are brothers living,

Since they are preferable to him in proximity*;
And their due and his due shall be introduced
With a full explanation in the different cases.
And the son's daughter takes a sixth, when
She is with a daughter, alike in descent,

The margin has minho for wahu. From this verse it appears, that the degrees of consanguinity are computed by the Mahomedans in the same manner as by our common lawyers.

And thus a sister with a sister, who

Is related, O my brother, by the same father.
And, if the relation of the grandmothers be equal,
Both of them are called to the succession;

And a sixth is divided between them equally

By the just and the legal mode of partition.

And every female, who claims through one not inheritings Has herself no portion of the inheritance.

[5]

And the distant kinswoman is excluded by the near
By the better opinions: (say now to me, "Enough.")
And here ends the distribution of the SHARES,

Without perplexity or intricacy:

And it is just, that we propound the law of HEIRSHIP
With every sentence concise and exact.

Now every one, who appropriates all the estate,
Among the near descendants or relations,

Or who takes what remains after the portions,

He is distinguished by the title of HEIR*,

As the father, and the grandfather, and his father,
And the son, in a near and a remote degree,

And the brother, and the brother's son, and the uncles,
And the master, who generously manumitted his slave.
And thus their sons, all of them:

{Be attentive then to what I pronounce).

And there is not to the distant, with the near, kinsman

Any share or portion in the inheritance.

And the brother and the uncle by mother and father
Are preferred to those descended by the half blood.
And the son and the brother with females
Have the heirship over them in the estate:

See A Narrative of the Proceedings in the Patna Cause, p. 11. Note b. The Arabick verb ás's'aba primarily signifies to collect and bind together the branches of a tree: hence the secondary sense, to constitute the heir and head of a family.