Living Will

In Islamic law

This is where end-of-life and burial instructions belong, not in the will. A will is frequently not opened until after burial, while Islamic practice buries within a day — so anything about ghusl, kafan, janazah or burial recorded only in the will arrives too late to be acted on. On withholding or withdrawing treatment, scholars distinguish declining futile intervention, which many permit, from actively ending life, which is prohibited across the four schools. Positions on the detail differ, and it is a contemporary ijtihad question rather than a settled classical one.

In Canadian law

No Canadian province has an instrument actually called a living will. What people mean by it is done through two documents: a power of attorney for personal care, which names the person who decides for you, and an advance directive setting out your wishes. British Columbia uses a representation agreement. Because the instruments are provincial, a document drafted in one province may not operate cleanly in another. Critically, a living will has no effect whatever on property — it stops working the moment you die, which is exactly when your will starts.

Making an Islamic will in Canada — province by province, and what makes one valid where you live →

Across the madhahib

The four Sunni schools do not differ on the prohibition against actively ending life. Where they and contemporary scholars diverge is on withdrawing treatment that is futile or unduly burdensome — a question to settle with a scholar in advance, because the decision is made in hours.

Canadian legal detail

Treadstone Law, an Ontario firm with a wills and estates practice, covers the Canadian side of this in more depth:

• Out of province power of attorney ontario validity
• What is personal care power of attorney ontario
• Personal care poa vs living will ontario