Take advice before excluding them. Ontario protects testamentary freedom strongly; British Columbia does not.
The Canadian position
Take advice before excluding them. Ontario protects testamentary freedom strongly; British Columbia does not.
Provincial law governs validity, administration and the grounds on which a will can be challenged — so the answer can change if you move.
The Islamic position
Have the faraid shares recalculated whenever the family configuration changes; they are conditional on who survives.
Record the reasoning and the scholar consulted in a memorandum kept with the will.
Not by the testator: a bequest in favour of someone who is already an heir does not take effect, so a will cannot be used to enlarge one heir’s share or cut another’s. It can be varied by the heirs, once the estate has vested in them — but that is their gift to make, not the testator’s.
All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-08-19. Full positions, evidence and sources — Can the fixed shares be varied by agreement?.
Making an Islamic will in Canada — province by province, and what makes one valid where you live →
What to do about it
- Recalculate the shares for the new circumstances.
- Update the will with a lawyer in your province.
- Review every beneficiary designation.
- Confirm where the original is kept.
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.
- Grewal v. Litt, 2019 BCSC 1154 — CanLII
- Wills, Estates and Succession Act, SBC 2009, c 13 — BC Laws
- Canadian Legal Information Institute — CanLII
- Spence v. BMO Trust Company, 2016 ONCA 196 — CanLII
- Reconciling with estranged child update will ontario — Treadstone Law
- Estranged child disinheritance ontario will — Treadstone Law
- Beneficiary designation vs will which controls — Treadstone Law
- Will vs beneficiary designation which controls — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law