Agnatic kin (asaba) in inheritance, guardianship and custody

العَصَبَة

In the lexicon, asaba are a man's sons and his paternal relatives, who inherit from him. As a term they are the heirs who have no fixed share in the inheritance agreed upon, and who take what remains after the sharers take theirs, or the whole estate if there are no sharers ^{1 2}. They are set against the sharers (ashab al-furud), who have a fixed share in the Book of God, and against the distant kin (dhawu al-arham), who are relatives with neither a fixed share nor agnatic standing ². Agnates in inheritance are of three kinds: the agnate in his own right, such as a son; the agnate through another, such as daughters with their brothers; and the agnate with another, such as sisters with daughters. They take what the fixed shares leave, and the whole estate if alone ³. Agnates also have priority in the washing and funeral prayer of the dead, the right to contract a marriage on behalf of a woman, custody of a child when no woman entitled to it is available, and the bearing of blood money for manslaughter, with the Shafi'is excluding the ascendant and descendant from that burden ^{2 3}.