Who Taught Allah Math?

Throughout my writings I have demonstrated that Muhammad was a liar. In this article I will show that at least in one case he was told the truth. Tthat is when he claimed to be illiterate.

The Quran is replete with scientific heresies, historic blunders, logical absurdities, grammatical errors and ethical fallacies. The most obvious are the mathematical mistakes. They are so elemental that could be expected of a very illetrate person.

This article will show that the prophet of Islam was indeed an illeterate man.

The Islamic law of inheritance is explained out in several verses. One can find references to them in Al-Baqarah(2), Al-Maidah(5) and Al-Anfal(8). But the details of these laws are spelled out in the Surah Nisa (4).

“Allah (thus) directs you as regards your Children’s (Inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females: if only daughters, two or more, their share is two-thirds of the inheritance; if only one, her share is a half. For parents, a sixth share of the inheritance to each, if the deceased left children; if no children, and the parents are the (only) heirs, the mother has a third; if the deceased Left brothers (or sisters) the mother has a sixth. (The distribution in all cases (‘s) after the payment of legacies and debts…” Q. 4:11

“In what your wives leave, your share is a half, if they leave no child; but if they leave a child, ye get a fourth; after payment of legacies and debts. In what ye leave, their share is a fourth, if ye leave no child; but if ye leave a child, they get an eighth; after payment of legacies and debts…” Q. 4: 12

“If it is a man that dies, leaving a sister but no child, she shall have half the inheritance: If (such a deceased was) a woman, who left no child, Her brother takes her inheritance: If there are two sisters, they shall have two-thirds of the inheritance (between them): if there are brothers and sisters, (they share), the male having twice the share of the female. Thus doth Allah make clear to you (His law), lest ye err. And Allah hath knowledge of all things.” Q. 4:176

Despite the claim that “Allah made them clear”, these laws are far from clear.

Verse 4:11 says that if a man has only one daughter, she gets half of the inheritance, irrespective of other heirs. But since the same verse says that the share of the son is twice that of the daughter, her brother is supposed to get all the inheritance. Isn’t this a discrepancy? Certainly there is an error in this law.

The problem is aggravated when the share of other heirs – parents and wives are taken into consideration.

There are cases when the total of the shares assigned to the inheritors exceeds the patrimony. Take for example the following.

According to the above verses, if a man dies leaving behind a wife, three daughters and his two parents, his wife’s share of his inheritance is 1/8. (In what ye leave, their share is a fourth, if ye leave no child; but if ye leave a child, they get an eighth)

His daughters will receive 2/3 (if only daughters, two or more, their share is two-thirds of the inheritance;)

And his parents will get 1/6 of his inheritance each. (For parents, a sixth share of the inheritance to each, if the deceased left children;)

The sum of these shares is more than the total of inheritance.

• Wife with children 1/8 = 3/24

• Daughters 2/3 = 16/24

• Father 1/6 = 4/24

• Mother 1/6 = 4/24

• Total = 27/24

There are not enough shares for everyone to receive their prescribed shares. The shortage is 1/8.

If the wife has no children and the daughters belong to an ex-wife of the diseased, this is what happens:

• Wife with no children 1/4 = 6/24

• Daughters 2/3 = 16/24

• Father 1/6 = 4/24

• Mother1/6 = 4/24

• Total = 30/24

In this case the shortage is ¼.

The injustice of this law is obvious. Let us say a woman has been married to a man for 25 years and has bore him his children. She gets 1/8 of the inheritance, but if the same man has married a new wife just a few days before his death, the new wife will receive twice as much. I believe even Muslims who are generally blind must realize this law is absurd. Humans are born with the sense of fairness. No matter how that sense is impaired through false doctrines and brainwashing, I am sure some residue of that must have been left and at least some Muslims will realize, not just the errors in calculation but the unfairness of these laws and will realize Islam cannot be from God.

Take another example. Say a man is survived by his childless wife, his mother and his sisters.

The wife receives 1/4 of the inheritance, (In what ye leave, their share is a fourth, if ye leave no child.)

The mother 1/3 ( if only one daughter, her share is a half. For parents, a sixth share of the inheritance to each, if the deceased left children; if no children, and the parents are the heirs, the mother has a third.)

And the sisters are to get 2/3. (If there are two sisters, they shall have two-third of the inheritance (between them)

Again the total of the shares exceeds one, this time by 3/12 or 25%. This is negligible.

• Wife1/4 = 3/12

• Mother 1/3 = 4/12

• Sisters 2/3 = 8/12

• Total =15/12

In the above examples, the shares apportioned to the heirs exceed the total of the patrimony. In both cases the total of the inheritance sums to exactly one BEFORE taking into account the wife’s share.

What should be done if a man has two wives, one with children and the other without children?

What should be done if a man has four wives? Do all his wives get ¼ of the inheritance? They can’t because there will be nothing left his sisters and parents. Does it mean that all wives share the ¼ each getting 1/16?

This law is not only mathematically wrong it is also confusing and unjust.

Let u say a man dies leaving behind, his parents, two sisters and four wives. Let is ignore the mathematical error for now. The two sisters will receive 1/3 each, but the wives will get 1/16 of the inheritance each. Does that sound a fare division?

What if the deceased is a woman?

Husband receives half (In what your wives leave, your share is a half, if they leave no child.)

Brother receives everything (If such a deceased was a woman, who left no child, Her brother takes her inheritance.)

If the brother gets everything, how the husband can get half?

• Husband, (1/2) = 1/2

• Brother (everything) = 2/2

• Total = 3/2

Again this division is mathematically wrong and it’s also unjust.

What about her parents and sisters? Don’t they inherit anything?

This verse does not specify that the brother gets everything only when there are no other heirs. It just says when there are no children he gets everything. In the same verse it says that if a man dies leaving behind a sister, she gets half. What will happen to the other half?

Here is another absurd case: A woman leaves behind a husband, a sister and a mother.

• Husband, (1/2) = 3/6

• Sister (1/2) = 3/6

• Mother (1/3) = 2/6

• Total = 8/6

The funds are 1/3 short!

It’s clear that in matters of inheritance the Quran is very obtuse. These errors are elemental. It’s hard to believe God does not know how to add simple fractions. These errors are made by a very illiterate man.

The law of inheritance is so obtuse that the Shiites and the Sunnis practice it differently. For example:

If a man leaves a wife and the two parents, the Shiits will give the wife 1/4 of the entire inheritance first and then distribute the remainder among other heirs. The Shiites have devised a hierarchy in inheritance. The hires in the higher hierarchy receive their shares first and whatever is left is divided among the hired in the lower hierarchy. According to this provision, the shares received by the hires are not the same as dictated in the Quran. (see #2741).

The Sunnis give the wife 1/4, the mother 1/3 and the father, is counted as the nearest male relative and gets the rest, i.e. 5/12.

In order to solve these problems the Islamic jurists have devised a complex science called “Al-Fara’id”. It contains rules of “Awl” and “Usbah,” and the laws of “Usool” of the Fara’id, the laws of “Hajb wa Hirman,” and many other laws relating to this matter.

The law of “Awl” (accommodation) deals with cases when the inheritor’s shares exceed or “overshoot” the sum of the total inheritance. In such cases the shares are adjusted to accommodate everyone. This is how it works:

• Wife1/8 =3/24 is changed to 3/27

• Daughters 2/3 =16/24 is changed to 16/27

• Father 1/6 =4/24 is changed to 4/27

• Mother1/6 =4/24 is changed to 4/27

• Total =27/24 27/27

For the second case,

• Wife1/4 =3/12 is changed to 3/15

• Mother 1/3 =4/12 is changed to 4/15

• Sisters 2/3 =8/12 is changed to 8/15

• Total =15/12 15/15

The problem is solved thanks to human ingenuity, but not without violating the Quran. Each party has to waive part of his or her share. This is a clear case in which the words of Allah needed human intervention in order to become applicable. Muslim jurists were forced to twist the law of the Quran in order to make it work.

There are also cases where the shares of the inheritors don’t sum to a whole 100%, which leaves a surplus.

Take for example a man who dies and leaves his wife and his parents.

• Parents 1/3 = 4/12

• Wife 1/4 = 3/12

• Total = 7/12

Who will receive the balance 5/12 of the inheritance?

The following are other cases that leave a surplus of Inheritance::

scenario funddistributed surplus

Only a wife: = 1/4 ¾

Only a mother: = 1/3 2/3

Only a daughter = 1/2 ½

Two daughters = 2/3 1/3

Only a Sister = 1/2 1/2

A mother and a sister= 1/3 + 1/2 = 5/6 1/6

A wife and a mother = 1/4 + 1/3 = 5/12 7/12

A sister and a wife = 1/2 + 1/4 = 3/4 1/4

In all these cases and many other combinations there is a surplus. What will happen to this surplus? Who will inherit it?

To deal with this problem the law of “Usbah” has been devised. This law regulates the unclaimed shares, which have no corresponding people to receive them. Of course if the Quran was clear with no errors, there would be no need for all these “sciences” and amendments.

The law of Usbah is based on the following Hadith.

Sahih Bukhari 8. 80. 724 Narrated Ibn ‘Abbas: The Prophet said, “Give the Fara’id (the shares of the inheritance that are prescribed in the Qur’an) to those who are entitled to receive it. Then whatever remains, should be given to the closest male relative of the deceased.”

According to this law, a man who dies and is survived by only his daughter with no other close male relative except a second cousin, his daughter will receive half of his inheritance and the other half will go to the man’s second cousin. This seems quite unfair to the daughter, but it would be especially unfair if the man had a needy aunt or a female first cousin who would receive nothing because they are of the wrong gender.

Now, suppose a man has no other heir except his wife and a distant male relative. The wife will receive 1/4 and the distant male relative gets the rest. He gets three times the inheritance than the wife. The wife who has sacrificed her need to save that money now will get ¼ of what should be all hers. Is this justice?

What if the deceased has no male relative? What will happen to the rest of his inheritance? What will happen if the deceased is the wife with no relatives? The husband will receive half of her inheritance; who will get the other half?

Note that in the Quran there is no priority for the distribution of the inheritance. What the Shiites do is bid’a – an innovation, which makes them heretics. In nowhere the Quran says “first give to these and from what is left, give to those”. Even if we had to reinterpret these laws and prioritize them in the order that they are mentioned, it still does not work because in that case, each subsequent inheritor will have his or her share shrunk. Also in most cases the total inheritance will never be used up.

These errors are clear and cannot be denied. However believers are blind. In an attempt to refute this article Sami Zaatari says: “If A [ the deceased] left a widow or widower, the widow’s or widower’s share would first be calculated as in the first half of verse 4:1″

Mr. Zaatari must show us this instruction in the Quran. There is no provision in the Quran to pay certain inheritors first and divide the rest among other heirs. This is the heresy that Shiites are committing and Zaatari is not even a Shiite. The fact remains that the Quran, in matters of the division of the inheritance is wrong, mathematically.

The obtuseness of the law of inheritance is further emphasized in the following example. Consider the case of a man with only one daughter and 10 sons.

According to the Quran, the daughter receives half while all the sons must share among themselves the other half. So each will receive 1/20 of the inheritance. But this contradicts the other ruling that says a male is to receive twice the share of the female. Something must give in because the two laws don’t mix.

Of course, for 1400 years Muslims have practiced Islam and somehow they managed to make these confusing laws work. How they did it? They reinterpreted, compromised and adjusted the laws to make them work. The Sunnis put all the inheritance in a pool and give to each male child twice the share of their female siblings. This solution, though satisfies one of the rulings, it contradicts the other.

Despite all these incongruencies and errors the real problem with these laws is not the fact that they do not add up. The problem is in the inherent injustice that they embody. A fair minded person cannot fail to question, why daughters should receive half of what the sons receive. Why sisters should receive less than brothers? And why a widower is entitled to double the share of a widow? Why “to the male, a portion equal to that of two females”? (4:11). Think of a man with four wives. All the wives have to share the ¼ of his wealth, if they have no children and 1/8 if they have. In the first case each wife will receive 1/16 of the inheritance and in the second case 1/32. On the other hand a man who loses all his four wives will inherit half of every wife’s wealth. Isn’t this the formula to enrich the men and impoverish the women? It is easier to forget the mathematical errors of the Quran than forgive its injustice.

The verse (4:175) claims that “Thus doth Allah make clear to you (His law), lest ye err. And Allah hath knowledge of all things.” As we saw, the above laws are anything but clear. They don’t add up, the portions are not clearly defined and the shares are distributed unfairly. It is up to Muslims to decide whether Allah cannot add simple fractions, is confused and unfair or that the Quran is dictated by an ignoramus. It is one or the other. You decide.

Ali Sina

02.12.2010

www.faithfreedom.org