This is the configuration most likely to end in litigation. Take advice, and consider whether a spousal trust or lifetime gifts fit better than a simple will.
The Canadian position
This is the configuration most likely to end in litigation. Take advice, and consider whether a spousal trust or lifetime gifts fit better than a simple will.
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. The surviving husband takes one half of his wife’s estate if she left no child or son’s child, and one quarter if she did. The surviving wife takes one quarter if her husband left no child or son’s child, and one eighth if he did. Where a man leaves more than one widow, they divide that single quarter or eighth between them — Ibn Qudama puts it as “one or four, it is the same”. He records the whole of this as the consensus of the people of knowledge, and Ibn Rushd likewise opens with “the jurists agreed”; both treat Surah an-Nisa 4:12 as settling it outright. Two features of the spouse’s share follow from the same verse and are worth stating: nothing but a child or a son’s child can reduce it, and nothing can exclude a spouse altogether — a husband or wife is never shut out by another heir. We checked this point; the schools do not differ on it.
Shared evidence: Surah an-Nisa 4:12 — the half, the quarter and the eighth, stated expressly.
Not covered by this finding: how a spouse’s Qur’anic fraction interacts with Canadian matrimonial property law — an equalisation payment or a spousal election is a claim against the estate before the shares are worked out, not a share in it — and whether a surviving spouse takes anything in the surplus where no other heir exists (see radd-spouse) — not yet researched school by school. Treat that as open and ask a scholar of your school.
Researched finding from our madhhab register — issue spouse-share, reviewed 2026-08-19.
Full evidence and history: What a husband and a wife inherit — the issue page.
Related madhhab issue: The two-to-one ratio between a son and a daughter.
Related madhhab issue: When is a lifetime gift complete and beyond recall?.
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.
- Grewal v. Litt, 2019 BCSC 1154 — CanLII
- Wills, Estates and Succession Act, SBC 2009, c 13 — BC Laws
- Canadian Legal Information Institute — CanLII
- T3 Trust Guide — Canada Revenue Agency
- Beneficiary designation vs will which controls — Treadstone Law
- Will vs beneficiary designation which controls — Treadstone Law
- Conflicting wills which one governs ontario — Treadstone Law
- New will surfaces during litigation ontario — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law