INFIDEL. There are several words used for those in a state of infidelity: 1, kāfir (كافر), one who hides or denies the truth; 2, mushrik (مشرك), one who gives companions to God; 3, mulḥid (ملحد), one who has deviated from the truth; 4, zandīq (زنديق), an infidel or a zend-worshipper; 5, munāfiq (منافق), one who secretly disbelieves in the mission of Muḥammad; 6, murtadd (مرتد), an apostate from Islām; 7, dahrī (دهرى), an atheist; 8, was̤anīy (وثنى), a pagan or idolater.
AL-INFIT̤ĀR (الانـفـطـار). “The cleaving asunder.” The title of the LXXXIInd Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in which the word occurs. Zamak͟hsharī, according to Savary, says that “the Muslims who shall recite this chapter shall receive a divine favour for every drop of water that drops from the clouds, and another for each grave on the face of the earth.”
INHERITANCE. Arabic Farāʾiẓ (فرائض), Mīrās̤ (ميراث). The law of inheritance is called ʿilmu ʾl-farāʾiẓ, or ʿilm-i-mīrās̤. The verses in the Qurʾān upon which the law of inheritance is founded are called Ayātu ʾl-Mawārīs̤, the Verses of Inheritance; they begin at the 12th verse of Sūratu ʾn-Nisāʾ, or the IVth chapter of the Qurʾān, and are as follows:—
“With regard to your children, God commandeth you to give the male the portion of two females; and if they be females more than two, then they shall have two-thirds of that which their father hath left: but if she be an only daughter, she shall have the half; and the father and mother of the deceased shall each of them have a sixth part of what he hath left, if he have a child; but if he have no child, and his parents be his heirs, then his mother shall have the third; and if he have brethren, his mother shall have the sixth, after paying the bequests he shall have bequeathed, and his debts. As to your fathers, or your children, ye know not which of them is the most advantageous to you. This is the law of God. Verily, God is Knowing, Wise!
“Half of what your wives leave shall be yours, if they have no issue; but if they have issue, then a fourth of what they leave shall be yours, after paying the bequests they shall bequeath, and debts.
“And your wives shall have a fourth part of what ye leave, if ye have no issue; but if ye have issue, then they shall have an eighth part of what ye leave, after paying the bequests ye shall bequeath, and debts.
“If a man or woman make a distant relation their heir, and he or she have a brother or a sister, each of these two shall have a sixth; but if there are more than this, then shall they be sharers in a third, after payment of the bequests he shall have bequeathed, and debts,
“Without loss to any one. This is the ordinance of God, and God is Knowing, Gracious!”
The earliest authority in the Traditions on the subject of inheritance is Zaid ibn S̤ābit, and the present law is chiefly collected from his sayings, as recorded in the Ḥadīs̤. There are no very important differences between the Sunnī and Shīʿah law with reference to this question. The highest authority amongst the former is the book as-Sirājīyah, by Sirāju ʾd-dīn Muḥammad, A.H. 600, which has been published with a commentary entitled Mamzūj, by Sir W. Jones, Calcutta, 1792.
The Shīʿah law of inheritance will be found in the Mafātīḥ and the Jāmiʿu ʾsh-Shatāt.