Nikah is the Islamic marriage contract.
The Canadian position
A nikah alone may not create a legally married spouse in Canada, leaving a widow with no intestate entitlement.
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
A valid nikah establishes mutual inheritance rights and creates the mahr obligation.
Confirm the position for your own family and school with a qualified scholar rather than relying on a general summary.
A valid nikah is one of the three causes of inheritance the four imams agree on, and all four schools agree the contract is formed by offer and acceptance — though they differ over the wali and the witnesses. On the two questions that actually decide estates the split is three-to-one, and it runs opposite ways. The Hanafi, Shafi’i and Hanbali schools hold that an irregular (fasid) marriage creates no inheritance at all, and that a marriage contracted in a death-illness is perfectly valid and does let the new spouse inherit. The Maliki school reverses both.
All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — Which marriages let a spouse inherit.
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 →
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
- Succession Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26 — Government of Ontario
- Administering estates — Government of Ontario
- Family Law Act, RSO 1990, c F.3 — Government of Ontario
- Marriage contract and will alignment ontario — Treadstone Law
- Predatory marriage effect on existing will ontario — Treadstone Law
- Ontario will marriage divorce effect revocation — Treadstone Law
- Marriage contract matrimonial home — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law