Review the will immediately. Divorce commonly revokes gifts to a former spouse, but separation without divorce often changes nothing.
The Canadian position
Review the will immediately. Divorce commonly revokes gifts to a former spouse, but separation without divorce often changes nothing.
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.
The four Sunni schools are not recorded as differing materially on this point in the sources reviewed. Where your own case turns on it, put it to a scholar of your school.
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.
General information, not legal or religious advice. Inheritance depends entirely on the exact family circumstances. Confirm the Canadian position with a lawyer in your province and any religious ruling with a qualified scholar.
Citations & sources
Every factual claim on this page traces to one of the references below. Legislation and dollar thresholds change — verify against the primary source before relying on any figure.
- Research Papers — Cambridge Muslim College
- Research — Cambridge Muslim College
- Academics — Islamic law and theology curriculum — Zaytuna College
- Encyclopaedia of Islam — Brill
- 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
- Naming an alternate executor ontario will — Treadstone Law
- Who can contest a will in ontario standing — Treadstone Law
- Ontario will marriage divorce effect revocation — Treadstone Law
- Translating a will for ontario probate — Treadstone Law
- Who can be named executor ontario will — Treadstone Law
- Foreign marriage validity spousal sponsorship canada — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law