1404 - Issue; He said: (And the maternal aunt of the father is more entitled than the maternal aunt of the mother).

The general summary of this is that if there are no mothers, fathers, or sisters, custody transfers to the maternal aunts, and they are prioritized over the paternal aunts. Ahmad stated this. Al-Khiraqi’s statement allows for the possibility of prioritizing paternal aunts, because he prioritized the maternal aunt of the father—who is the sister of his mother—over the maternal aunt of the mother—who is the sister of her mother—and this indicates the prioritization of the paternal side over the maternal side, and because they are related through an agnate, so they are prioritized, like the prioritization of the sister through the father over the sister through the mother. The Qadi said: What Al-Khiraqi meant by his statement "the maternal aunt of the father" is that the maternal aunt from the paternal side is prioritized over the maternal aunt from the maternal side, like the prioritization of the sister through the father over the sister through the mother; because maternal aunts are the sisters of the mother, so they follow the same rules of entitlement and prioritization among themselves as the different types of sisters, and the same ruling applies to the different types of paternal aunts. If we say that maternal aunts are prioritized, then when they are finished, the paternal aunts come after them; and if we say that paternal aunts are prioritized, then the maternal aunts come after them. When they are absent, it transfers to the maternal aunts of the father, according to Al-Khiraqi's position, and according to the other position, to the maternal aunts of the mother. Are the maternal aunts of the father prioritized over his paternal aunts? There are two views, based on what we mentioned regarding the maternal and paternal aunts. As for the maternal aunts of the mother, they have no right of custody; because they are related through the mother's father, who is a man from the category of distant kindred (dhawi al-arham), he has no custody, nor does anyone related through him.

Section: Men among the agnates have a role in custody, and the most entitled among them is the father, then the grandfather (the father's father) no matter how far up, then the brother through both parents, then the brother through the father, then their sons no matter how far down, following the order of inheritance, then the paternal uncles, then their sons in the same order, then the paternal uncles of the father, then their sons. This is the position of Al-Shafi'i. Some of his companions said: There is no custody for anyone other than fathers and grandfathers; because they have no knowledge of custody, nor do they have guardianship in their own right, so they have no custody, just like strangers. Our argument is,