Who inherits when a Muslim dies without a will?
Muslim intestate shares are not the Hindu Class I table. They come from Muslim personal law as applied in India: fixed Quranic shares for certain relatives, then residue to residuaries, with school-specific rules (including awl and radd in Sunni law). A wife, a husband, children and parents usually take — but the fractions change with who else survived. This page explains the shape of the law. It does not compute your family’s shares.
Why this is not a calculator
Sunni Hanafi practice (the majority of Indian Muslims) and Shia Ithna Ashari practice do not divide an estate the same way. The presence of a daughter with no son, of a father with no child, or of siblings, changes the arithmetic. Doctrines that increase or return surplus (awl, radd) exist in some schools and not others.
A website that prints “the widow gets one-eighth” without asking who else is alive is guessing. Mera Hissa does not auto-generate a Muslim intestate pack for that reason. Those cases go to an advocate who will compute the shares and we prepare the institution papers around that computation.
What families can still do immediately
Nomination on a bank account still works the same way. The bank pays the nominee. The nominee then accounts to the heirs under Muslim personal law.
A will, where there is one, can dispose of up to one-third of the estate to a non-heir without the heirs’ consent; the rest follows the intestate rules unless the heirs agree. Reading that will is not a form-filling exercise.
For the bank: death certificate, claim form, and either nomination or the indemnity / court document the bank’s threshold requires. The religion of the deceased does not invent a new SBI form. It changes who must sign the heir papers.
Common questions
- Does a Muslim widow get everything if there are children?
- No. A widow is a Quranic sharer. Her fraction depends on whether the deceased left children. She does not take the whole estate the way a sole Hindu Class I heir sometimes can.
- Can a daughter inherit if there is a son?
- Yes. Children inherit. The son’s and daughter’s shares are not equal under classical Sunni rules — a son typically takes twice a daughter’s share in the residue. Confirm the school that applies to the family before anyone signs an NOC that gives that away.
Find out what your case needs
The free check applies all of the above to your actual family and your actual accounts, and tells you the shares and the document list in two minutes.
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Last reviewed 2026-09-24. This is general information, not legal advice. Institution requirements change — confirm before you file.