The opening chapters of the text: the three causes of inheritance, the three impediments (the line you already memorized from chapter 01), and the list of 10 + 7 heirs per the nazham version.
The three causes of inheritance
Ar-Rahbiyyah opens with three causes — the same across madhhabs:
- Marriage — a valid contract, even without consummation; including the waiting period (iddah) of a revocable divorce.
- Wala’ — the bond of manumission (the manumitter inherits from the former slave).
- Nasab — blood kinship: ushul (parents and above), furu’ (children and below), hawasyi (siblings, uncles, and their descendants).
Outside these three there is no inheritance — an adopted child’s route is a bequest (maximum 1/3, and it may not go to an heir).
The three impediments (mawani’)
From the line “riqqun wa qatlun wakhtilafu dini”: slavery, killing, difference of religion. A person hit by an impediment is treated as not existing at all (mamnu’) — unlike someone blocked by hajb (mahjub), who is still counted as present and can affect other people’s shares (chapter 04). The line closes with the guiding caution of this entire science: “doubt is not the same as certainty” — inheritance is only divided on the basis of certainty (certain death, an heir certainly alive, a clear line of kinship).
Conditions for inheritance
Three: certainty that the deceased has died; certainty that the heir was alive at that time; and clarity of the kinship line. From the second condition come the rules for an unborn child and for people who die together in a shared disaster (chapter 09).
The list of heirs per the nazham version
The text counts 10 males (in brief; 15 when broken out in full) and 7 females (10 when broken out in full):
flowchart LR
classDef lk fill:#1e3a8a,stroke:#3b82f6,color:#dbeafe
classDef pr fill:#134e4a,stroke:#14b8a6,color:#ccfbf1
classDef luar fill:#7f1d1d,stroke:#ef4444,color:#fee2e2
subgraph L["10 males"]
L1["son · son's son (and below) · father ·<br/>grandfather (and above) · brother (3 kinds) ·<br/>brother's son · paternal uncle · paternal uncle's son ·<br/>husband · manumitter"]:::lk
end
subgraph P["7 females"]
P1["daughter · son's daughter ·<br/>mother · grandmother · sister (3 kinds) ·<br/>wife · manumitter"]:::pr
end
subgraph X["Outside the list (dzawil arham)"]
X1["daughter's children · maternal grandfather ·<br/>sister's son · maternal uncle · paternal aunt"]:::luar
end
Note the red box: in the Zayd/Shafi’i system this text follows, kin outside the list (dzawil arham) are not heirs at all — if there is no fixed-share holder and no ‘ashabah, the estate goes to bayt al-mal, not to them (chapter 07). This is a sharp contrast with the Hanbali line of the two previous bundles.
Five claims that precede inheritance
Same as what you already know: claims tied to the estate’s property → funeral costs → debts → bequest (max 1/3) → inheritance. The nazham touches on it briefly; the commentaries spell it out.
Sources: The text of ar-Rahbiyyah, the lines on the causes of inheritance & mawani’ (Shamela 11372); Syarh al-Hazimi (Shamela 36125); the position on dzawil arham: al-Fiqh al-Muyassar. Full list in 15-references.