An Islamic inheritance calculator for a New Zealand estate has to run two calculations, not one. The first is the New Zealand law step: a surviving spouse or partner may elect under section 61 of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976 to take a division of relationship property before the will operates at all, and the funeral, the debts and any wasiyyah of up to one third come out next. Only what remains is divided by faraid, the fixed Qur'anic shares. This page sets out that order, gives the share table, works four common family shapes in illustrative New Zealand dollar figures, and lists the assets that slip past a will unless you plan for them. The live calculator sits on our tools page; if you have no will yet, begin at the estate planning hub.
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The order of deductions in a New Zealand Muslim estate
Classical fiqh fixes the sequence as funeral costs, then debts, then bequests up to one third of what remains, then the heirs. New Zealand law inserts a step before all of those. Under section 61 of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976 the surviving spouse, civil union partner or de facto partner may choose option A, an application for division of the relationship property, or option B, taking whatever the will or intestacy gives them. Section 65 requires the choice to be made in a written notice in the prescribed form with a lawyer's certificate confirming the effect has been explained, and section 68 says that a survivor who makes no choice is treated as having chosen option B. Section 62 sets the time limit at six months after administration of the estate is granted, or six months after death for a small estate, with the court able to extend it.
- Identify assets that never enter the estate: a home held as joint tenants, assets in a family trust, and insurance paid to a named owner rather than the estate.
- Settle the relationship property question: if the survivor elects option A, roughly half of the relationship property is theirs by right and leaves the estate before any Islamic calculation begins.
- Pay funeral expenses, then debts, including any unpaid mahr, which in fiqh is a debt owed to the wife and ranks ahead of the heirs.
- Give effect to the wasiyyah, which cannot exceed one third of the net estate and cannot go to a person who is already an heir, as explained in our guide to the one-third rule.
- Divide the remainder by faraid among the heirs alive at the date of death.
One drafting consequence deserves its own sentence. Section 76 of the Act says that if the survivor chooses option A, every gift to that survivor in the will is treated as revoked unless the will expresses a contrary intention. A Muslim will that silently gives the widow her one-eighth therefore gives her nothing under the will if she also elects to divide the relationship property. Ask the lawyer to address section 76 expressly, in whichever direction you and your scholar decide is right.
The fixed share table for the main heirs
The shares below are those in Qur'an 4:11, 4:12 and 4:176 as applied in the four Sunni schools. Shares are expressed as fractions of the net estate after the deductions above. Descendants means children or the children of sons; where the table says residue, the heir takes what is left after the fixed shares are paid, and if several residuary heirs exist a male takes twice a female.
| Heir | Share | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Husband | 1/4 or 1/2 | 1/4 if the deceased left descendants, otherwise 1/2 |
| Wife, or wives together | 1/8 or 1/4 | 1/8 if descendants, otherwise 1/4 |
| Mother | 1/6 or 1/3 | 1/6 if descendants or two or more siblings, otherwise 1/3 |
| Father | 1/6, plus residue | 1/6 fixed if descendants; residue if no sons |
| One daughter, no son | 1/2 | Takes a fixed half |
| Two or more daughters, no son | 2/3 shared | Share the two thirds equally |
| Sons, with or without daughters | Residue | Each son takes twice each daughter's portion |
| Full brothers and sisters | Residue or fixed | Only when no sons, grandsons or father survive |
Worked example 1: husband dies leaving a wife, two sons and a daughter
Assume, purely for illustration, that after the relationship property election, funeral and debts the net estate is $600,000 and there is no wasiyyah. The wife takes one eighth, $75,000, because there are children. The remaining $525,000 is residue for the children, divided into five equal units because each son counts as two and the daughter as one. Each son receives $210,000 and the daughter $105,000. Parents, if alive, would each have taken one sixth first, which would have reduced the residue.
Now add the New Zealand layer. Suppose the family home was relationship property worth $800,000 held in the husband's name. If the widow elects option A she receives $400,000 as her own half before the estate is calculated, and the estate for faraid is the other $400,000 plus the husband's separate property. If she elects option B she takes only her one eighth of the whole. The two routes produce very different outcomes for her and for the children, which is why section 65 requires a lawyer to certify that she understood the choice.
Worked example 2: wife dies leaving a husband, one daughter and both parents
This shape shows why people search for a calculator. On a net estate of $300,000 the husband takes one quarter, the daughter one half, the mother one sixth and the father one sixth. Those fractions add to thirteen twelfths, more than the whole, so the classical rule of awl applies and every share is scaled down in proportion. The husband receives about $69,231, the daughter about $138,462, and each parent about $46,154, rounded. Nobody gets the headline fraction, and an executor who pays the daughter a straight half will have overpaid her at the parents' expense.
Two more shapes, in one table
The figures below are illustrative only and assume no wasiyyah and no relationship property election. The third shape is the one where Sunni and Jafari results diverge most sharply, because in Sunni fiqh the residue after the wife and daughters goes to the deceased's brothers as agnatic heirs, while in Jafari fiqh it returns to the daughters.
| Family at death | Net estate | Sunni division | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wife, two daughters, deceased's two brothers | $400,000 | Wife $50,000; daughters $133,333 each; brothers share $83,333 | Jafari: daughters take the residue, brothers nothing |
| Unmarried, no children, both parents, two siblings | $150,000 | Mother $25,000; father $125,000 | Siblings reduce the mother to a sixth but take nothing while the father lives |
| Widow, no children, deceased's mother and one brother | $240,000 | Wife $60,000; mother $80,000; brother $100,000 | Wife takes a quarter because there are no descendants |
| Husband, three sons | $900,000 | Husband $225,000; sons $225,000 each | Husband takes a quarter; sons share the residue equally |
Sunni and Jafari differences that change the arithmetic
Jafari fiqh organises heirs into three classes, parents and children first, then grandparents and siblings, then uncles and aunts, and a living member of a nearer class excludes the whole of the next. It has no agnatic residuary rule, so when the fixed shares do not exhaust the estate the surplus returns to the Qur'anic heirs in proportion rather than passing to male relatives on the father's side. A widow with daughters and no sons therefore sees her daughters take everything after her share. The dominant Jafari view also limits a widow's share to the value of buildings and movable property, not the land itself, which matters in a country where land is most of the value of a house. For the AhlulBayt Centre's will service and the full Jafari treatment, read our guide to Shia Islamic wills in New Zealand.
Assets that pass outside the will in New Zealand
A calculator that only looks at the will can be wrong by the value of a house. The table lists the assets that New Zealand law routes around the will and what to do about each. Inland Revenue's KiwiSaver page is explicit on one of them: your KiwiSaver savings become part of your estate when you die, and the person looking after your will must contact the provider to get them. There is no binding death nomination in KiwiSaver, so the balance is divided by faraid like any other asset. Joint tenancy is the opposite case: a home held by spouses as joint tenants passes to the survivor by survivorship, not through the estate, so the children's shares never attach to it.
| Asset | How it passes | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Home held as joint tenants | To the survivor automatically, outside the will | Discuss holding as tenants in common with your lawyer so each half is in the estate |
| KiwiSaver balance | Into the estate; executor claims it from the provider | No action needed beyond naming the provider in your executor's file |
| Family trust assets | Under the trust deed, not the will | Review the deed and memorandum of wishes against faraid |
| Life insurance | Depends on policy ownership and the insurer's terms | Ask the insurer whether the payout goes to the estate or a named person |
| Shares in a property-holding company | Under the company constitution and any shareholder agreement | Check buy-out and transfer clauses before relying on the will |
The Family Protection Act risk, in one paragraph
Section 3 of the Family Protection Act 1955 allows a spouse or civil union partner, a de facto partner living with the deceased at death, children, grandchildren, maintained stepchildren and, in limited cases, parents to apply for provision out of the estate. Section 4 lets the court order provision if adequate provision is not available for the proper maintenance and support of an applicant, and that power overrides the Administration Act 1969. A daughter who receives half a brother's share has standing to apply. The practical defences, which include explaining the religious basis in the will and considering lifetime gifts, are set out in our article on faraid and the Family Protection Act.
Writing the result into a Darul Ifta or AhlulBayt template
Do not write dollar amounts into a will. Heirs are fixed at the date of death, not the date of signing, so a will that names figures is wrong the moment a child is born or a parent dies. The free template from Darul Ifta NZ handles this correctly by directing the executor to distribute according to the Islamic law of inheritance and to obtain a schedule of shares from a named authority at the time of death. Attach a separate, dated schedule of your current family shape as guidance, and update it rather than the will. For Shia families the AhlulBayt Centre's will-writing service applies Jafari rules. In both cases the will must be signed and witnessed as the Wills Act 2007 requires, and the clause-by-clause walk-through is in our guide to making an Islamic will in New Zealand.
Verdict: who should run the numbers, and when
If you are married with children, run the calculation twice, once on the assumption that your spouse elects option A and once on option B, and show both results to your lawyer and your scholar before the will is drafted. If your home is held as joint tenants, decide consciously whether that is what you want, because it removes the house from the faraid calculation entirely. If you have daughters and no sons, be clear about which school's rule you follow and expect the agnatic result to be challenged under the Family Protection Act.
If you are single with living parents, the calculation is short and the real work is the wasiyyah. Whatever your shape, use the calculator for the arithmetic and the lawyer for section 61, section 76 and the witnessing formalities. Facts checked against legislation.govt.nz, justice.govt.nz, ird.govt.nz on 30 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate Islamic inheritance for a New Zealand estate?
First remove assets that pass outside the will and settle the surviving spouse's option A or option B election under section 61 of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976. Then pay funeral costs and debts, give effect to any bequest of up to one third, and divide the remainder by the fixed Qur'anic shares. The calculator on our tools page does the final step once you have the net figure.
Does my wife get half the house before the Islamic shares are calculated?
She can. A surviving spouse or partner may choose option A, an application to divide the relationship property, which generally gives her half of it as her own property before the estate is divided. The choice must be made in writing with a lawyer's certificate within six months of the grant of administration. If she makes no choice, section 68 treats her as having chosen option B, taking under the will.
Is KiwiSaver included in the faraid calculation?
Yes. Inland Revenue states that KiwiSaver savings become part of your estate when you die and that the executor must contact the provider to obtain them. New Zealand has no binding death nomination for KiwiSaver, so the balance is estate property and is divided according to the will, which for a Muslim means the faraid shares after debts and any bequest.
What is awl and why did my calculator reduce everyone's share?
Awl is the classical rule for the case where the fixed fractions add to more than the whole estate, which happens in shapes such as a husband, a daughter and both parents. Every share is scaled down in the same proportion so the total equals the estate. It is not an error; it is how the schools reconciled the Qur'anic fractions when they overlap.
How do Shia and Sunni inheritance calculators differ?
A Jafari calculator has no agnatic residue. Surplus after the fixed shares returns to the Qur'anic heirs, so daughters with no brothers take the whole estate after the spouse's share instead of sharing with uncles. Heirs are also grouped in classes, with a nearer class excluding the next, and the dominant Jafari view limits a widow to the value of buildings rather than land.
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Can my children challenge an Islamic will in New Zealand?
They can apply. Section 3 of the Family Protection Act 1955 lists children among those who may seek provision, and section 4 allows the court to order it where adequate provision for proper maintenance and support is not available. A claim is not automatic and the court weighs need and conduct, but a will that gives a daughter half a son's share is the kind of will that attracts an application.
