No. An attorney can manage your property but cannot make or alter a will on your behalf.
The Canadian position
Will-making is a personal act. An attorney who purports to change testamentary arrangements is acting outside their authority.
An attorney can, however, take actions that indirectly affect what the will distributes — such as selling a specifically gifted asset.
The Islamic position
A wakil acts within delegated authority. Testamentary disposition is not delegable.
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.
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.
- Substitute Decisions Act, 1992 — Government of Ontario
- Succession Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26 — Government of Ontario
- Administering estates — Government of Ontario
- Can i sell property under power of attorney ontario — Treadstone Law
- Purchasing property under power of attorney ontario — Treadstone Law
- Selling estate property no will intestate authority ontario — Treadstone Law
- Personal care poa no attorney willing ontario — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law