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238chapter five66.666 percent divided by five equals 13.333 percent. Hence, onlyin one specific situation, when the number of males is half the numberof females, do male inheritors receive twice the amount of femaleshares. This clearly contradicts the traditional position of the fuqah§"who claim that males always receive twice the amount of femaleshares.If there is only one female in the family who inherits, the secondpart of the second injunction applies: ‘if only one, her share is a half’.In this case, the female share is 50 percent and the male share is50 percent. This last possibility means that the Book has covered allthree possible inheritance constellations (there is not, either mathematicallyor empirically, a fourth one possible):1. ‘if there is one female (heir)’ → the male (heir) receives half ofher share;2. ‘if there are two female (heirs)’ → the male (heir) receives doublethe amount of one female share;3. ‘if there are more than two female (heirs)’ → the male (heir)receives one-third and the female heirs receive two-thirds regardlessof their number (three to infinity).The Book does not deal with situations where only male or only femaleinheritors exist. In this case, if there are either 1–∞ males or 1–∞females, the shares will be equally distributed among all heirs. Thiscan be done by simple arithmetical operations—and without the helpof divine instructions. The Book is only concerned with the morecomplicated situation of male-female inheritance (mother–father);(sister–brother); (widowed wife–widowed husband), and such. Wherethe text mentions only one sex, for example, ‘females’ in verse 4:11,it always presupposes the existence of ‘males’ who live with the family.Likewise, although 4:11 only mentions the deceased’s ‘mother’,it does assume the existence of the deceased’s ‘father’.The Book’s major concern is social justice in society. Equality is notabsolute and does not imply that every individual will get exactly thesame share of the inherited property. Justice is achieved on a morecollective level insofar as inheritance is equally distributed amongthe two sexes, even if, in some instances, one individual female shareis smaller than an individual male share. But on the whole, and onlythis really achieves peace in society, the two sexes receive the sameamount of the disposable inheritance.