Matn al-Raḥbiyyah

The most widely studied classical poem on the science of Islamic inheritance (faraid), systematically versifying the rules for determining heirs, their shares, cases of blocking (hajb), and complex redistribution scenarios. Its rajaz meter and internal mnemonic structure have made it the standard memorization text for faraid across all four Sunni madhabs, with dozens of commentaries produced over the centuries.

Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Rahbi (c. 1193-1260 CE) was a Syrian jurist and scholar of Islamic inheritance law (faraid) from Rahbah, a town on the Euphrates River. He studied in Mosul and Baghdad and authored several works, though his enduring reputation rests entirely on this single poem. Remarkably, the Rahbiyyah attracted serious scholarly commentary from jurists of all four Sunni legal schools a rare distinction that testifies to both the poem's precision and the cross-madhhab importance of the science of faraid.

• The six Quranic heirs (ashab al-furud) and their fixed fractional shares
• The residual heirs (asabat) who inherit what remains after fixed shares are distributed
• The principle of prioritizing nearer relatives over more distant ones
• Complete blocking (hajb hirmaan): when one heir fully excludes another from inheritance
• Partial blocking (hajb nuqsan): when one heir reduces another's share
• Distribution scenarios for spouses, parents, children, and siblings in various combinations
• The Umariyyatan: special cases where husband or wife share with both parents
• Al-Munasakhaat: redistribution when one heir dies before the estate is divided
• Al-Awl: proportional reduction when fixed shares exceed the total estate
• Al-Radd: return of surplus to heirs when fixed shares are less than the estate