No. They witness your signature, not the contents. They should not be beneficiaries or married to beneficiaries.
The Canadian position
A gift to a witness or their spouse can be void even though the will stands.
An affidavit of execution sworn at signing saves considerable trouble later.
The Islamic position
The fixed shares apply to the net estate after funeral expenses, debts and any bequest capped at one third.
Where a Canadian mechanism has no classical counterpart, treat it as a contemporary question for a scholar rather than assuming an answer.
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 →
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.
- 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
- Affidavit of execution ontario probate application — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law