The causes of inheritance in Imamiyya and Hanafiyya Jurisprudences

There are many factors that direct and determine inheritance in Islam. Due to some impeding causes the heir will not entitled to inherit. What are the causes of inheritance and how Imamiyya and Hanafiyya jurists look at the issue, are two important questions that are going to be addressed in this article. First and foremost, the causes of inheritance, based on Imamiyya jurisprudence, are divided into two ‘relational’ and ‘causal’ categories. Each group has three sub-categories and based on the principle of ‘the nearer the better’, the inheritance will be distributed among them. The causal category includes the following sub-categories: marriage, the patron and the manumitted slave inherit from one another etc. The causes of inheritance according to Hanafiyya legal school are divided into three categories of: relationship, causal and freeing of slaves. Whosoever is included in either of the above-mentioned titles, will deserve to inherit the estates. The writer explains the four causes of inheritance in the light of Hanafiyya School. He has actually conducted a comparative study between the two jurisprudential schools highlighting the commonalities of the two.