Is mediation better than going to court over an estate?

Yes, and the classical name for it is takharuj. All four schools allow it, because after the death the shares already belong to the heirs and what they do next is a fresh transaction between owners — a sale, a partition or a gift — not an amendment of the faraid. Where they part company is on the conditions, and those conditions are not decorative: the Malikis void a payment in cash out of the settling heirs’ own pockets where the estate holds both gold and silver as well as goods, the Hanafis void a settlement on one of two currencies unless it exceeds the withdrawing heir’s share of that same currency, and the Shafi’is only allow the version done over a denial if the payment comes out of the estate itself.

All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — Can the heirs agree to divide differently from the faraid?.