Yes. A single gift can fail — for uncertainty, or because a witness benefited — while the rest of the will stands.
The Canadian position
A failed gift usually falls into residue. Without a residue clause it passes on a partial intestacy.
This is why a residue clause is not optional.
The Islamic position
The fixed shares apply to the net estate after funeral expenses, debts and any bequest capped at one third.
Where a Canadian mechanism has no classical counterpart, treat it as a contemporary question for a scholar rather than assuming an answer.
No school requires a lawyer, a notary or any set form: a wasiyyah is made by words, and the four are agreed that a written one operates exactly as a spoken one does. Where they part company is on who may make one — the Hanafi and Shafi’i schools require adulthood, the Maliki and Hanbali schools only discernment — and on what a document found in the deceased’s handwriting proves. Sound mind, freedom and a free will are conditions in all four, and all four let a testator revoke at any time.
All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — Making a wasiyyah — form, capacity and revocation.
Making an Islamic will in Canada — province by province, and what makes one valid where you live →
This is legal information only. For advice on your own circumstances, speak to a lawyer.
Citations & sources
Every factual claim on this page traces to a source below. Details change — check the original source before relying on any figure, fee or legal position. Anything under “further reading” is related material, not a source for what is stated here.
- Succession Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26 — Government of Ontario
- Administering estates — Government of Ontario
- Grewal v. Litt, 2019 BCSC 1154 — CanLII
- Wills, Estates and Succession Act, SBC 2009, c 13 — BC Laws
- Canadian Legal Information Institute — CanLII
- Residue clause ontario will explained — Treadstone Law
- Severance partly valid will costs ontario — Treadstone Law
- Is ontario will valid if signed by one witness — Treadstone Law
- Dying without a will intestacy ontario — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law