It is narrated from Usāmah ibn Zayd, from the Prophet (peace be upon him) that he said: "A Muslim does not inherit from a disbeliever, nor does a disbeliever inherit from a Muslim." (1)

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(1) Its chain of transmission is authentic. ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān: he is the son of ʿAffān al-Umawī, and ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn: he is the son of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, and Sufyān: he is Ibn ʿUyaynah, and Musaddad: he is Ibn Musarhad.

It was also narrated by al-Bukhārī (4283) and (6764), Muslim (1614), Ibn Mājah (2729), al-Tirmidhī (2239) and (2240), and al-Nasāʾī in al-Kubrā (6339–6347) and (6349) via multiple paths from Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī, with this chain of transmission.

It is also found in Musnad Aḥmad (21747) and Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān (6033). See the complete listing of its narrations in both works.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ said in al-Fatḥ 12/50: Ibn al-Mundhir said: The majority (of scholars) adopted the view of acting upon what the general import of the ḥadīth of Usāmah indicates, except for what is reported from Muʿādh, who said: A Muslim inherits from a disbeliever but not vice versa, and he argued by the fact that he heard the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) say: "Islam increases and does not decrease." This is a ḥadīth narrated by Abū Dāwūd (2912) and declared authentic by al-Ḥākim 4/345 via the path of Yaḥyā ibn Yaʿmar from Abū al-Aswad al-Duʾalī, from him (Muʿādh). Al-Ḥākim said: Its chain is authentic, (and al-Dhahabī agreed with him). It was criticized for the discontinuity between Abū al-Aswad and Muʿādh, but his hearing from him is possible. Al-Jawraqānī (549) claimed it was false, but that is an exaggeration. Al-Qurṭubī said in al-Mufhim: It is a statement that is merely reported and not narrated (with a sound chain). That is what he said, yet it was narrated by those I mentioned earlier, as if he had not come across that.

Aḥmad ibn Manīʿ narrated with a strong chain that Muʿādh used to allow a Muslim to inherit from a disbeliever but not vice versa. He said: And Ibn Abī Shaybah [11/374] narrated via the path of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maʿqil, who said: I have not seen a ruling better than the ruling given by Muʿāwiyah: We inherit from the People of the Book, and they do not inherit from us, just as marriage with them is permissible for us, while marriage with us is not permissible for them. Then he said: This was also the view of Masrūq, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, and Isḥāq.

We say: Al-Ḥāfiẓ's statement that the chain of Aḥmad ibn Manīʿ is strong is open to scrutiny, for there is a discontinuity in its chain. Its chain, as found in Iṭḥāf al-Khiyarah (4083), comes via Yazīd ibn Hārūn: Akhbaranā Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Khālid al-Ḥadhāʾ, from ʿAmr ibn Kurdī (who is Ibn Abī Ḥakīm), from Yaḥyā ibn Yaʿmar, from Muʿādh ibn Jabal... This is a chain that contains discontinuity in two places, as will be clarified in the following ḥadīth at Abū Dāwūd (2912). =