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My father died. He had converted to Islam; my mother and siblings are not Muslim.

A worked example on a $400,000 estate, with the Islamic and Canadian outcomes side by side.

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

A net estate of $400,000 after funeral expenses, debts and any bequest. Here is what Islamic law does with it, and what Canadian law does.

Under faraid

HeirShareAmountBasis
Son2/3$266,667residue as asabah, two shares each
Daughter1/3$133,333residue as asabah, one share each

Shares total 1. Figures rounded to whole dollars.

Under Canadian law

Canadian law imposes no religious bar whatever. A will may leave anything to anyone, and a non-Muslim spouse left nothing may bring a dependant support claim.

What makes the difference

The classical rule is that a Muslim and a non-Muslim do not inherit from one another as fixed heirs. Scholars commonly point to the discretionary one third as the mechanism for providing for non-Muslim family. This is a configuration to take to a scholar directly.

This is an illustration

Real estates involve debts, taxes, beneficiary designations and jointly held property that change the arithmetic substantially. Run your own family through the calculator, then confirm the result with a scholar and a lawyer.

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 one of the references below. Legislation and dollar thresholds change — verify against the primary source before relying on any figure.

Scholarly & institutional references
  1. Research Papers — Cambridge Muslim College
  2. Academics — Islamic law and theology curriculum — Zaytuna College
  3. Renovatio: The Journal of Zaytuna College — Zaytuna College
  4. Oxford Islamic Studies / Oxford Reference — Oxford University Press
  5. Encyclopaedia of Islam — Brill
Islamic primary sources
  1. Surah an-Nisa 4:11 — shares of children and parents — Quran.com
  2. Surah an-Nisa 4:12 — shares of spouses and uterine siblings — Quran.com
  3. Surah an-Nisa 4:176 — the kalalah verse — Quran.com
  4. Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 85: Laws of Inheritance (Faraid) — Sunnah.com
  5. Sahih Muslim, Book of Inheritance — Sunnah.com
Canadian legislation & government
  1. Grewal v. Litt, 2019 BCSC 1154 — CanLII
  2. Wills, Estates and Succession Act, SBC 2009, c 13 — BC Laws
  3. Canadian Legal Information Institute — CanLII
  4. Spence v. BMO Trust Company, 2016 ONCA 196 — CanLII
Canadian legal commentary
  1. Trial record ontario civil litigation — Treadstone Law
  2. What is case conference ontario litigation — Treadstone Law
  3. Mandatory mediation estate litigation ontario — Treadstone Law
  4. Capacity assessor home visit ontario — Treadstone Law
  5. Status certificate disclosure litigation ontario — Treadstone Law
  6. Standard form contracts ontario when challenged — Treadstone Law
  7. What is a consent order ontario litigation — Treadstone Law
  8. Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law