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Who arranges the ghusl?

Usually a mosque-affiliated team or a funeral home experienced with Muslim families. Most Canadian cities have both.

This is legal information only. For advice on your own circumstances, speak to a lawyer.

Usually a mosque-affiliated team or a funeral home experienced with Muslim families. Most Canadian cities have both.

The Canadian position

Usually a mosque-affiliated team or a funeral home experienced with Muslim families. Most Canadian cities have both.

Provincial law governs the detail, so confirm the position where the estate will be administered.

The Islamic position

The fixed shares apply to the net estate after funeral expenses, debts and any bequest capped at one third.

Where a Canadian instrument has no classical counterpart, treat it as a contemporary question for a qualified scholar.

Researched — the schools differ

Washing, shrouding, praying over and burying a Muslim are communal obligations — fard kifayah — discharged for everyone once some carry them out. What the schools differ on is who. The order of entitlement to perform the ghusl runs four different ways; the Hanafi school alone bars a husband from washing his wife; and on whether a woman may follow the bier the schools run from open permission to near-prohibition. The Hanbali and Maliki schools give the deceased’s appointed wasi the first right; the Hanafi and Shafi’i schools do not give effect to a direction in the will at all.

All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — Ghusl, kafan and salat al-janazah — who performs them?.

Note

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.

Canadian legislation & government
  1. What to do when someone dies — Government of Ontario