The province's intestacy formula applies, and it will not resemble faraid. Parents typically receive nothing, sons and daughters take equally, and a spouse may take most of a modest estate.
The Canadian position
In Ontario a surviving married spouse takes a preferential share of $350,000, then one third of the residue where two or more children survive. Common-law partners inherit nothing on an Ontario intestacy.
Every province sets its own formula and its own preferential share, so the outcome depends on where the deceased lived.
The Islamic position
Nothing about intention changes the outcome. An intestate estate is distributed by statute regardless of what the deceased wanted or believed.
This is the single most common way a Muslim estate in Canada ends up divided contrary to the fixed shares.
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?.
Making an Islamic will in Canada — province by province, and what makes one valid where you live →
What to do about it
- If you have no will, this is the reason to make one.
- If a relative has died without one, get provincial advice early — the formula is not negotiable.
- Heirs who all agree may be able to redistribute afterwards by family settlement.
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
- Succession Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26 — Government of Ontario
- Administering estates — Government of Ontario
- Preferential share spouse intestacy ontario — Treadstone Law
- What is preferential share ontario intestacy — Treadstone Law
- Does common law spouse inherit without will ontario — Treadstone Law
- Ontario intestacy no spouse no children — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law