Probably yes — unless your existing Canadian will already sets out the faraid shares explicitly. A standard Canadian will usually divides equally among children and leaves everything to a spouse first, which is not the Islamic distribution.
The Canadian position
A Canadian will is a single document. There is no separate category called an 'Islamic will' in provincial law — what people mean by that phrase is a Canadian will whose distribution clauses follow Islamic shares.
So the question is not whether you need two documents. It is whether the one document you have says what you want it to say.
The Islamic position
The obligation is to have your wishes recorded and available. A will drafted years ago on a template, leaving everything to a spouse and then equally to children, does not discharge that.
Review it clause by clause. If the shares are not set out, the will needs replacing rather than supplementing.
The four Sunni schools are not recorded as differing materially on this point in the sources reviewed. Where your own case turns on it, put it to a scholar of your school.
What to do about it
- Read the distribution clauses in your existing will.
- If they divide equally among children or give everything to a spouse first, they do not follow faraid.
- Have a lawyer draft a replacement that states the shares explicitly.
- Revoke the old will properly — do not simply keep both.
Keeping an old will alongside a new one. Two wills that are not clearly sequenced is a recipe for litigation over which governs.
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 one of the references below. Legislation and dollar thresholds change — verify against the primary source before relying on any figure.
- Surah al-Baqarah 2:180 — the bequest verse — Quran.com
- Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 55: Wills and Testaments (Wasaya) — Sunnah.com
- Sahih Muslim, Book of Wills — Sunnah.com
- Research Papers — Cambridge Muslim College
- Research — Cambridge Muslim College
- Academics — Islamic law and theology curriculum — Zaytuna College
- Encyclopaedia of Islam — Brill
- Succession Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26 — Government of Ontario
- Administering estates — Government of Ontario
- Expert witness civil litigation ontario — Treadstone Law
- Pgt involvement will validity dispute ontario — Treadstone Law
- Naming step parent guardian in will ontario — Treadstone Law
- Proving a will in solemn form ontario — Treadstone Law
- Storing and safekeeping a will ontario — Treadstone Law
- Consolidating multiple will challenge applications ontario — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law