Make or update the will while capacity is clear, and note that gifts made in a final illness are treated as bequests religiously.
The Canadian position
Make or update the will while capacity is clear, and note that gifts made in a final illness are treated as bequests religiously.
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.
It is treated as a bequest. The Kuwaiti Mawsu’a records the Hanafis, Shafi’is, Malikis and Hanbalis as agreeing, by name, that a gift made by a person in his death-illness takes effect only so far as one third of his estate will carry it; anything beyond the third hangs on the other heirs’ ratification after he dies — if they allow it, it stands; if they refuse, it falls. Where the recipient is himself an heir the same four schools require the other heirs’ consent whether or not the gift is within the third, exactly as for a bequest to an heir. If the donor recovers, it was never a death-illness at all and the transfer is an ordinary gift.
All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — A gift made in the final illness — gift or bequest?.
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.
- Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 55: Wills and Testaments (Wasaya) — Sunnah.com
- Sahih Muslim, Book of Wills — Sunnah.com
- Succession Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26 — Government of Ontario
- Administering estates — Government of Ontario
- Charitable gifts bequests ontario will — Treadstone Law
- Specific gifts bequests ontario will — Treadstone Law
- Beneficiary designation vs will which controls — Treadstone Law
- Conflicting wills which one governs ontario — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law