Under faraid: Wife one quarter; the remainder depends on the school — radd to her, or to the treasury classically.
The Canadian position
Ontario gives the spouse the entire estate.
Provincial intestacy applies only where there is no valid will. A will can direct the faraid distribution instead, and Canadian testamentary freedom makes that enforceable.
The Islamic position
Wife one quarter; the remainder depends on the school — radd to her, or to the treasury classically.
Shares are calculated on the net estate after funeral expenses, debts including unpaid mahr, and any bequest capped at one third.
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: Radd — the return of a surplus to the fixed-share heirs.
Related madhhab issue: Dhawu al-arham — do distant kin inherit?.
Related madhhab issue: The order of payment out of an estate.
What to do about it
- Have the shares calculated for your actual family by someone trained in faraid.
- Have a lawyer draft them into a provincially valid will.
- Review after any birth, death, marriage or divorce.
Configurations change as family members are born and die. Draft the will in conditional fractions rather than fixed dollar amounts so it stays correct.
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
- Encyclopaedia of Islam — Brill
- Succession Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26 — Government of Ontario
- Administering estates — Government of Ontario
- Intestacy ontario no will distribution — Treadstone Law
- Intestacy spouse one child ontario — Treadstone Law
- Matrimonial home one spouse never lived there — Treadstone Law
- Business held in a family trust not direct shares — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law