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women and islamic law 243Rule: 50 percent for females (one-fifth each); 50 percent for males(one-third each); absolute equality (in total) between male and femaleshares; the ratio of female to male individual shares (3:5 = 1.666) isin exact inverse proportion to the ratio of female to male numbers(5:3 = 1.666), since an individual female share is only 60 percent ofthe individual male share, while the number of males makes up60 percent of the number of females.Case (F): there is more than one heir; they are male and female (threemales and six females)female male2° 12° 12° 1Total: 6 3Applied limit: ‘to the male, a portion equal to that of two females’(1)°Rule: 50 percent for females (one-sixth each); 50 percent for males(one-third each); absolute equality (in total) between male and femaleshares; but since the number of female heirs is twice the number ofmale heirs, their individual share is only half the amount of theindividual male share or, put differently, since the number of maleheirs is only half the number of female heirs (3:6 = ½), males receiveindividually (and only then!) twice the amount of the individualfemale share (6:3 = 2).The Distribution of InheritanceSo far we have calculated inheritance shares on the basis of thegeneric distinction between male and female heirs. Our next stepwill be to consider other subdivisions. For this purpose we need togo from digital quantities to nondigital quantities which can be foundin analytical geometry. If we take our findings from the last section,where we concluded that the ratio of male to female shares is inexact inverse proportion to the ratio of the male to female numberof heirs, and express this in geometrical terms we get the followingformula: