eZine · Nigerian exams

Family matters

JAMB Islamic Studies topic guide with 2 practice questions.

What to revise

  • marriage: importance (Q.16:72; Q.24:32; Q.30:20-21); prohibited categories (Q.2:221; Q.4:22-24); conditions for validity (Q.4:4; Q.4:24-25); rights and duties of husbands and wives (Q.4:34-35; Q.20:132; Q.65:6-7); polygamy (Q.4:3, 129)
  • Idrār: ill-treatment of wife (Q.65:1-3)
  • divorce: attitude of Islam (Q.2:228; Q.4:34-35; Hadīth, Abu Daud); kinds (Talāq, Khul', Faskh, Mubāra'ah and Liʿān) (Q.2:229-230; Q.24:6-9); ʿIddah, kinds, duration and importance (Q.2:228, 234); prohibited forms of dissolution (Īlā' and Zihār) (Q.2:226-227; Q.58:2-4); custody of children (Hadānah)
  • inheritance: importance; heirs and their shares (Q.4:7-8, 11-12, 176)

You should be able to

  • analyse the importance of marriage
  • list the categories of women prohibited to a man to marry
  • examine the conditions for validity of marriage
  • explain the rights and duties of the spouses
  • evaluate polygamy and its significance
  • examine the ill-treatment of wife in marriage
  • analyse the attitude of Islam to divorce
  • examine the different kinds of divorce
  • differentiate between the various kinds of ʿiddah and analyse its duration and significance
  • explain the prohibited forms of ending marriage
  • examine who has the right to custody of children
  • evaluate the significance of inheritance
  • identify the categories of the Qur'ānic heirs
  • explain the share of each heir

From JAMB's Islamic Studies syllabus official. Full syllabus →

eZine's published bank has 17 questions on this topic (counted 29 October 2026).

Practice questions

Question 1 · Family matters

A man's estate is ₦3,300,000. Funeral costs are ₦150,000 and his debts are ₦150,000. What is the maximum he could validly have bequeathed (wasiyyah) to a non-heir?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B. ₦1,000,000

Funeral costs and debts come first (Q.4:11: "after any bequest or debt"; debts are settled before bequests). Net = ₦3,000,000. The Prophet limited wasiyyah to one-third (hadith of Saʿd, al-Bukhari): ₦1,000,000. ₦1,100,000 is a third of the gross; ₦1,650,000 is half; ₦3,000,000 is the whole net estate.

eZine practice question (original, teacher-reviewed)

Question 2 · Family matters

A husband accuses his wife of adultery but has no four witnesses. Q.24:6-9 prescribes that

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D. both swear four oaths, then a fifth invoking curse or wrath

This is liʿan. After the oaths, the marriage is dissolved permanently. She is not punished on his word alone, nor does the marriage simply continue; 80 lashes is the penalty for qadhf (Q.24:4) when liʿan is not undertaken.

eZine practice question (original, teacher-reviewed)

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