Update the will. Your existing document almost certainly divides equally among children and leaves everything to a spouse first.
The Canadian position
Update the will. Your existing document almost certainly divides equally among children and leaves everything to a spouse first.
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.
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 one of the references below. Legislation and dollar thresholds change — verify against the primary source before relying on any figure.
- 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
- 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
- Who can contest a will in ontario standing — Treadstone Law
- What is a pour over will ontario — Treadstone Law
- Undue influence will challenge ontario — Treadstone Law
- Beneficiary designation vs will which controls — Treadstone Law
- Revoke data room access if i stop trusting a buyer — Treadstone Law
- Does spouse inherit if no will ontario — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law