The rejection of the criterion of agnatic relationship

Perhaps the most striking and significant divergence between the Sunnī and the Shīʿī legal systems as a whole lies in their respective laws of inheritance. From a comparative standpoint the outstanding characteristic of the Shīʿī law of inheritance is its refusal to afford any special place or privileged position to agnate relatives as such – a fundamental distinction which is somewhat graphically expressed in the alleged dictum of the Shīʿī Imām, Jaʿfar al-Sadīq: “ As for the ʿaṣaba, dust in their teeth.” This basic approach of the Shīʿa to the subject of inheritance has two principal effects. In the first place, all blood relatives are embraced by a single and comprehensive system of priorities, and there is no major division, such as exists in Sunnī law because of the criterion of agnatic relationship, between an inner and an outer family. In the second place, female and non-agnatic relatives stand on an equal footing with male agnates in the Shīʿī scheme of succession in the sense that they exclude any relative who occupies an inferior position in the order of priorities. Exclusion of other relatives is not, as it is in the Sunnī system, the particular prerogative of male agnates. Most of the complexities of Sunnī law stem from the superior status which it grants to male agnates as legal heirs.