Your parents and siblings become the relevant heirs, and the shares differ substantially from the with-children case.
The Canadian position
Your parents and siblings become the relevant heirs, and the shares differ substantially from the with-children case.
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.
Where the four schools stand
Agreed. A parent’s entitlement runs as follows. Where the deceased left a child or a son’s child, each parent takes one sixth; if the surviving children are daughters only, the father takes his sixth and whatever is left over after the fixed shares, because he is also the nearest male residuary. Where there is no child, the mother takes one third and the father takes the remainder. Where two or more brothers or sisters survive — of any kind, and whether they themselves inherit or not — the mother drops from a third to a sixth, and the sixth she loses goes to the father. Ibn Qudama records the mother’s third as a point on which there is no disagreement we know of among the people of knowledge, and the father’s three positions as a matter of consensus. On the number of siblings needed to cut the mother back, the schools hold that two are enough; Ibn Rushd names Malik for that view and the only recorded dissent is Ibn ‘Abbas, who required three — and he is a Companion, not one of the four schools. In Canada the practical point is the contrast: under every provincial intestacy statute a surviving parent normally takes nothing while a spouse or child survives. We checked this point; the schools do not differ on it.
Shared evidence: Surah an-Nisa 4:11 — the sixth for each parent, the mother’s third, and her sixth where there are siblings · Sahih al-Bukhari 6732 — “give the fixed shares to those entitled; what remains goes to the nearest male”, the basis of the father taking the residue.
Not covered by this finding: what happens when a grandfather stands in the father’s place, which is a separate and genuinely disputed question — not yet researched school by school. Treat that as open and ask a scholar of your school.
Researched finding from our madhhab register — issue parents-share, reviewed 2026-08-19.
Full evidence and history: What a father and a mother inherit — the issue page.
Related madhhab issue: Kalalah — who inherits when there is no parent and no child?.
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
- Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 85: Laws of Inheritance (Faraid) — Sunnah.com
- Sahih Muslim, Book of Inheritance — Sunnah.com
- Beneficiary designation vs will which controls — Treadstone Law
- Will vs beneficiary designation which controls — Treadstone Law
- Conflicting wills which one governs ontario — Treadstone Law
- Can i change beneficiary on rrsp ontario — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law