Provide for them deliberately. Faraid gives each parent one sixth where you leave children; provincial intestacy gives them nothing.
The Canadian position
Provide for them deliberately. Faraid gives each parent one sixth where you leave children; provincial intestacy gives them 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.
Each parent takes one sixth where the deceased left children. With no child, the mother takes one third and the father takes the rest. Two or more brothers or sisters cut the mother back to one sixth. The four schools are not recorded as differing on any of this.
All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-08-19. Full positions, evidence and sources — What a father and a mother inherit.
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.
- 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
- Conflicting wills which one governs ontario — Treadstone Law
- Beneficiary designation vs will which controls — Treadstone Law
- Will vs beneficiary designation which controls — Treadstone Law
- Ontario intestacy no spouse no children — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law