Identify who survives you, apply the fixed fractions, then distribute any residue to the residuary heirs. The complication is exclusion — a nearer heir can block a more distant one.
The Canadian position
The calculation is not a Canadian legal question at all. Once the shares are known, a lawyer expresses them as fractions of the residue in the will.
The Islamic position
Work in order: funeral expenses, debts including unpaid mahr and zakat, the wasiyyah up to one third, then the fixed shares, then the residue to the asabah.
Getting exclusion wrong is the most common amateur error. A surviving son changes almost every other share in the calculation.
All four schools work through the estate in the same order: the cost of preparing and burying the body, then debts, then bequests up to one third, and only what is left is divided by the fixed shares. The disputes are not about the sequence but about two rankings inside it.
All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-08-19. Full positions, evidence and sources — The order of payment out of an estate.
Related madhhab issue: Hajb — when does one heir shut another out?.
Related madhhab issue: The one-third cap on a bequest.
Related madhhab issue: Unpaid mahr when the husband dies.
Making an Islamic will in Canada — province by province, and what makes one valid where you live →
Do not calculate it once and file it away. The shares change as family members are born and die, so the will should express fractions conditionally rather than fixed dollar amounts.
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 an-Nisa 4:11 — shares of children and parents — Quran.com
- Surah an-Nisa 4:12 — shares of spouses and uterine siblings — Quran.com
- Surah an-Nisa 4:176 — the kalalah verse — Quran.com
- Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 85: Laws of Inheritance (Faraid) — Sunnah.com
- Sahih Muslim, Book of Inheritance — Sunnah.com
- Encyclopaedia of Islam — Brill
- Academics — Islamic law and theology curriculum — Zaytuna College
- Estate freeze family trust shares ontario — Treadstone Law
- Family trust shares professional corporation — Treadstone Law
- Business held in a family trust not direct shares — Treadstone Law
- Family trust holding shares still qualify for cge ontario — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law