both male and female. The Siddiq (Abu Bakr), may Allah be pleased with him, was of the view that the grandfather excludes all brothers and sisters from all directions, just as the father excludes them. This was also the position of Abdullah ibn Abbas, Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, and it was narrated from Uthman, Aisha, Ubayy ibn Ka'b, Abu al-Darda', Mu'adh ibn Jabal, Abu Musa, and Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with them. It was also narrated from Imran ibn al-Husayn, Jabir ibn Abdullah, Abu al-Tufayl, Ubadah ibn al-Samit, Ata', Tawus, and Jabir ibn Zayd. This was the view of Qatadah, Ishaq, Abu Thawr, Nu'aym ibn Hammad, Abu Hanifah, al-Muzani, Ibn Surayj, Ibn al-Labban, Dawud, and Ibn al-Mundhir. Ali ibn Abi Talib, Ibn Mas'ud, and Zayd ibn Thabit, may Allah be pleased with them, used to grant them inheritance alongside him and would not exclude them by him. This was the view of Malik, al-Awza'i, al-Shafi'i, Abu Yusuf, and Muhammad, because the brother is a male who provides agnatic support ('asabah) to his sister, so the grandfather does not exclude him, like the son. Furthermore, their inheritance was established by the Book [of Allah], so they are not excluded except by a text (nass), consensus (ijma'), or analogy (qiyas), and none of that is found; therefore, they are not excluded. Also, they are equal in the cause of entitlement, so they are equal in it; for the brother and the grandfather both relate through the father—the grandfather is his father and the brother is his son—and the kinship of sonship is no less than the kinship of fatherhood; rather, it is sometimes stronger, as the son excludes the agnatic support of the father. For this reason, Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, likened it to a tree that grew a branch, from which two branches split off, each of them closer to the other than to the trunk of the tree; and Zayd likened it to a valley from which a river emerged, from which two streams split off, each of them closer to the other than to the valley. Those who adopted the position of Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, argued based on the saying of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace): "Assign the fixed shares to their rightful people, and whatever remains is for the nearest male agnate." The grandfather is closer than the brother, based on both the meaning and the legal ruling. As for the meaning, he has the kinship of procreation and being part of him, like the father. As for the legal ruling, when the fixed shares compete, the brother is excluded while he (the grandfather) is not, and no one excludes him except the father, and the brothers and sisters