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236chapter fiveand has, therefore, father, mother, son, daughter, husband, orwife.The first injunction after the introduction in 4:11 states: ‘to themale, a portion equal to that of two females’. This is the first law ofinheritance. It indicates that the portion a male heir inherits is calculatedon the basis of the portion that the female heirs inherit, asif Allah has urged us to define the portion of the female inheritorsfirst and only then to deduce from it an equal amount for maleinheritors. Mathematically, it is only logical that the equivalent numberto sum A cannot be accurately established if sum A is not properlydefined in the first place. Thus, only if sum A (female shares) isproperly described can one work out an equivalent sum B (maleshares).The second injunction in 4:11 states: a) ‘if only daughters, morethan two, their share is two-thirds of the inheritance’; and b) ‘if onlyone, her share is a half’. These are the second and third laws ofinheritance. The two injunctions of verse 4:11 contain the essenceof inheritance laws in the Book; other injunctions, given later in theverse, are just variations on these and are calculated on the basis ofthe three laws. They constitute Allah’s limits as testified by the conclusionin 4:13, which says, ‘those are limits set by God…’. Withinthese limits (the first two injunctions) we hear about the distributionof inheritance to several other inheritors, for example, children,grandchildren, husband, wife, brother, and sister, but we hear nothingabout uncles and aunts as potential inheritors. This implies thatwithin the limits of Allah uncles and aunts do not receive any shareof the inheritance.As it is our aim to give inheritance law a sound mathematicalfoundation we apply the following formula: the value of the ordinate( y) equals the value of the variable (x) by a multiplying factor t(parameter), thus, y=t(x). If (x) represents the value of variable t and( y) the value of the ordinate, then the value of ( y) changes by anincrease or decrease of variable (x). Applied to inheritance law wedefine ( y) as the value of male shares and (x) as the value of femaleshares because the female shares (x) are the basis of the calculation,and if (x) changes so does the value of ( y), the male shares. Thisreverses the traditional understanding of the first injunction entirely:‘to the male, a portion equal to that of two females’, which used tobe interpreted as ‘to the male twice the portion of that of females’.Even if this looks like playing with words, the traditional interpretation