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What is faraid and how does it work in Canada?

Faraid is the system of fixed inheritance shares set out in the Qur'an.

This is legal information only. For advice on your own circumstances, speak to a lawyer.

Faraid is the system of fixed inheritance shares set out in the Qur'an.

The Canadian position

Canada has no compulsory heirship, so faraid works here only because testamentary freedom permits it.

Canadian law gives effect to whatever a valid will says, so an Islamic concept takes effect here through the drafting rather than automatically.

The Islamic position

Shares are paid after funeral costs, debts and the bequest, with any residue passing to the asabah.

Confirm the position for your own family and school with a qualified scholar rather than relying on a general summary.

Where the four schools stand

Researched — the four schools agree

Agreed. The estate is worked through in four steps, in this order: (1) the cost of preparing, shrouding and burying the body; (2) the deceased’s debts; (3) any bequest, capped at one third of what is left after (1) and (2); and (4) the fixed shares of the heirs, out of the remainder. The Kuwaiti Encyclopaedia of Islamic Jurisprudence records the sequence itself as a point on which there is no disagreement among the jurists, and records debt-before-bequest as agreed by all of them — even though Surah an-Nisa names the bequest before the debt, the jurists read the order as debt first, because a debt is owed from the outset while a bequest is a voluntary gift. Two rankings inside this sequence are genuinely disputed and are researched separately: whether a debt secured on a particular asset outranks the funeral itself, and whether unpaid religious dues such as zakat or an unperformed hajj come out of the estate at all where the deceased left no instruction. Neither dispute disturbs the four-step order. We checked this point; the schools do not differ on it.

Shared evidence: Surah an-Nisa 4:11 — “after the fulfilment of bequests and debts” · Surah an-Nisa 4:12 — the same clause, twice more · Sahih Muslim 1206a — the pilgrim who died at ‘Arafah was washed and shrouded with no inquiry into his debts.

Researched finding from our madhhab register — issue debt-priority-order, reviewed 2026-08-19.

Full evidence and history: The order of payment out of an estate — the issue page.

Related madhhab issue: The residuary heirs (asabah) and their order.

Related madhhab issue: The one-third cap on a bequest.

Note

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.

Islamic primary sources
  1. Surah an-Nisa 4:11 — shares of children and parents — Quran.com
  2. Surah an-Nisa 4:12 — shares of spouses and uterine siblings — Quran.com
  3. Surah an-Nisa 4:176 — the kalalah verse — Quran.com
  4. Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 85: Laws of Inheritance (Faraid) — Sunnah.com
  5. Sahih Muslim, Book of Inheritance — Sunnah.com
Further reading — Treadstone Law
  1. Minority shares diluted to force them out before sale ontario — Treadstone Law
  2. Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law