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.
No school makes writing a will a duty in itself. The four are recorded as agreed that it is recommended, and obligatory only where a debt, a trust held for someone else, or an outstanding duty would otherwise be lost. That answer assumes the fixed shares apply by themselves — which they do not in Canada, where an estate left without a will is divided by provincial statute instead, and where AMJA has resolved that a Muslim living in the West must make a bequest.
All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — Is a Muslim obliged to write a will?.
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 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 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
- Succession Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26 — Government of Ontario
- Administering estates — Government of Ontario
- Matrimonial home one spouse never lived there — Treadstone Law
- Rrsp vs tfsa which to use first ontario — Treadstone Law
- Revoke existing passport not just block new — Treadstone Law
- Conflicting wills which one governs ontario — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law