Once the shares have vested, adult competent heirs may settle among themselves. That is takharuj, and it is a settlement of vested rights rather than a rewriting of the shares.
The Canadian position
Family settlement agreements are used routinely in Canadian estates, often to keep a family home intact. There can be tax consequences to the transfers.
The Islamic position
The sequence matters religiously: establish the shares first, then document the settlement. Agreeing to ignore the shares from the outset is a different thing entirely.
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?.
Making an Islamic will in Canada — province by province, and what makes one valid where you live →
A minor's share generally cannot be settled away. That alone can make full redistribution impossible.
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.
- Surah an-Nisa 4:11 — shares of children and parents — Quran.com
- Surah an-Nisa 4:12 — shares of spouses and uterine siblings — Quran.com
- Surah an-Nisa 4:176 — the kalalah verse — Quran.com
- Egyptian Dar al-Ifta — Dar al-Ifta al-Missriyyah
- Canadian Legal Information Institute — CanLII
- Is the matrimonial home treated differently in equalization — Treadstone Law
- Estate freeze family trust shares ontario — Treadstone Law
- Matrimonial home one spouse never lived there — Treadstone Law
- Matrimonial home rights when separated — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law