Risala fi al-Mawarith - ضمن "Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dar Alam al-Fawa'id lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi'
Risala fi al-Mawarith (Treatise on Inheritance) is a legal and polemical work by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Mu'allimi al-Yamani (d. 1386 AH / 1966 CE), written to defend the consensus of Islamic jurisprudence on the laws of inheritance against unorthodox interpretations . The treatise was later published as part of his collected works, Athar al-Mu'allimi .
Background and Context
Al-Mu'allimi composed the treatise during his residence in India as a direct rebuttal to the book al-Wiratha fi al-Islam (Inheritance in Islam), authored by Aslam al-Jayraji (al-Jayrajpuri) and printed in Aligarh in 1341 AH . In that work, al-Jayraji challenged the established principles of Islamic inheritance law (ilm al-fara'id), asserting that jurists had corrupted Quranic rules by relying on weak narrations and personal opinions . Among his disputed stances was the claim that making a bequest (wasiyya) to parents and close relatives remains an ongoing obligation rather than an abrogated rule, meaning the fixed shares of inheritance applied only if the deceased died without leaving a will . He also rejected the standard juristic framework regarding agnates (asaba) and distant kin (dhawu al-arham) . In a biographical notice of al-Mu'allimi written by his son Abdullah al-Mu'allimi, the work is cited under the alternate title Ighathat al-Ulama min Tan Sahib al-Wiratha fi al-Islam (Succoring the Scholars from the Slanders of the Author of Inheritance in Islam), though this title is not found in the author's own handwriting .
Contents and Scope
The treatise systematically examines the verses of succession and refutes al-Jayraji's arguments across several core areas:
- Bequest and Abrogation: Al-Mu'allimi provides an exegesis of the Quranic verses regarding bequests and inheritance, demonstrating that the verse of bequest was abrogated through the Quran, the Sunnah, and consensus (ijma'), contrary to al-Jayraji's stance .
- Fixed-Share Heirs (Dhawu al-Fara'id): He examines the categories of primary heirs, establishing that maternal siblings are legally designated among the fixed-share inheritors .
- Agnation (Ta'sib): He presents the textual and legal proofs for agnatic succession (al-asaba), refuting al-Jayraji's mathematical examples and objections to agnates inheriting the residue of the estate .
- Distant Kin (Dhawu al-Arham): He discusses non-standard relatives who are neither fixed-share heirs nor agnates, answering al-Jayraji's claims and his interpretation of Quranic verses concerning kinship .
Manuscript and Printed Edition
The text survived in an autograph draft (musawwada) . Although al-Mu'allimi planned to address proportional reduction (al-awl) and exclusion (al-hajb)—having created a heading for al-awl followed by blank space and referencing al-hajb throughout the text—the manuscript lacked those specific completed chapters . Instead, the manuscript contained two distinct drafts commenting on the inheritance share of parents in Surat al-Nisa (4:11), both of which the editors retained in the published edition for their detailed exposition of differences among jurists .
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