Legally you can in most provinces, but the failure rate is high and the errors only surface once you cannot fix them.
The Canadian position
A holograph will — entirely handwritten and signed — is valid in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Quebec and the territories. It is not valid in British Columbia or Prince Edward Island.
The common failures are a missing residue clause, witnessing by a beneficiary, and wording so vague that the estate needs a court application to interpret it.
The Islamic position
Islamic law prescribes no particular form for a wasiyyah, so a handwritten document is religiously sufficient.
The practical problem is that faraid shares are conditional on who survives, and expressing that correctly in plain prose is harder than it looks.
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 →
A handwritten will is also the kind most likely to be lost — and a will that cannot be found may be presumed revoked.
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.
- Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 55: Wills and Testaments (Wasaya) — Sunnah.com
- Sahih Muslim, Book of Wills — Sunnah.com
- Succession Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26 — Government of Ontario
- Administering estates — Government of Ontario
- Locating wills and documents — Law Society of Ontario
- Holograph handwritten will ontario — Treadstone Law
- Residue clause ontario will explained — Treadstone Law
- Is ontario will valid if signed by one witness — Treadstone Law
- Ontario power of attorney valid other provinces — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law