What do you mean by the doctrines of 'Aul and Radd'?

Question: What do you mean by the doctrines of 'Aul and Radd'? [HJS 2001]

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Answer

Doctrine of Aul

The principle of Aul is not recognized in the Shia law of inheritance and Shia scholars have expounded rules to avoid its application. In Sunni law, whenever the calculated shares of heirs of a deceased are increased from the supposed shares of that estate, the supposed shares are increased to match the number of the calculated shares. In this manner, each sharer gets what is prescribed for him/her in the Quran in terms of numbers, though the actual amount/quantity of his/her share is reduced.

As it is not possible to avoid situations that attract the application of the principle of Aul, Shia jurists have devised an innovative manner to resolve such situations. They have divided the sharers of a deceased into those whose share is susceptible to reduction and those whose share is not liable to reduction. They have placed daughters and sisters into the first category taking into account the fact that their prescribed shares (one-half and two-thirds) could be reduced in those situations where there is a male counterpart who converts them into residuary. On the other hand, there are other sharers, e.g. parents, spouse, and uterine sister, whose share is minimally prescribed in the Quran which could not be reduced from that minimal amount in any case.

So, if there are heirs from both these categories and their calculated shares are increased from the supposed shares, the heirs of the second category will have their prescribed shares, while the heirs of the first category will bear the burden of avoidance of the application of the principle of Aul.

Let us explain this in an illustration. A female dies leaving behind her husband and two sisters. The husband's prescribed share in such a situation is 1/2, while the two sisters' 2/3. If we solve this proposition, the husband will be entitled to 3/6 and the sisters 4/6. So, according to Sunni law, the Aul will be applied to make the husband's share 3/7 and the sisters 4/7. But Shia law resolves it differently by proposing that the husband should be given 3/6 as his prescribed share is not susceptible to reduction, while the sisters will jointly inherit 3/6 instead of 4/6 as their share can be reduced to circumvent the application of Aul.

Doctrine of Radd

When an entire estate of a Shia Muslim is not consumed by his/her heirs and something is left out of it, the rule of Radd/return is applied as is done in Sunni law. The application of Radd is more frequent in Shia law because it accords less significance to Ausbaat/residuary as compared to Sunni law. In Sunni law, an exhaustive list of the residuary reduces the occurrences of the application of Radd.

Whenever there is the residue of an estate of a deceased Sunni Muslim that will be given to any eligible residuary irrespective of the fact how remotely he is related to the deceased. While such an exhaustive list is not available in Shia law and even those who are regarded as the residuary they cannot operate beyond the sphere of their own basic class.

For example, the deceased's paternal uncle is a residuary in Sunni law and he will be entitled to inheritance after the distribution of prescribed shares to the sharers. Suppose a person dies leaving behind a daughter and his paternal uncle. As per Sunni law, the daughter will have one half, while the rest will be inherited by his uncle. But if the deceased is a Shia Muslim, his daughter will take the entire estate the first half as a sharer and another half after applying the Radd. The reason for this sort of distribution is that the daughter belongs to class 1 and the uncle is an heir located in class 3. The uncle is only entitled to inheritance if there is no heir from classes 1 & 2.

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