British Columbia gives you broad freedom to decide who inherits — which is precisely why an Islamic will works here. What British Columbia will not do is apply faraid on your behalf. If you die without a will, the province applies its own formula, and that formula does not resemble the Qur’anic shares.
The British Columbia facts that matter
| Item | British Columbia |
|---|---|
| Governing statute | Wills, Estates and Succession Act (WESA) |
| Court | Supreme Court of British Columbia |
| Handwritten (holograph) wills | Not valid as a category — BC requires wills to be signed and witnessed by two people. Section 58 gives the court a curative discretion to give effect to a non-compliant document, but that is a court application, not a right. |
| Probate cost | Roughly 1.4% on larger estates — charged in bands above a $25,000 threshold. [confirm against the statute] |
| Spouse’s share on intestacy | $300,000 where all children are also the spouse’s; $150,000 where they are not. [confirm against the statute] |
| Will registry | A government Wills Registry operated by the Vital Statistics Agency. Filing a wills notice costs about $17. It records where a will is, not the will itself. |
| Claims against the estate | Section 60 of WESA permits a spouse OR a child — including an independent adult child — to apply to vary a will that fails to make adequate provision. This is the broadest such regime in Canada. |
British Columbia has substantial Muslim communities in Metro Vancouver, particularly Surrey, Burnaby and Richmond.
BC is the single most important province for Muslim families to take advice in, because of section 60.
The fixed shares, and where the madhahib differ
The four Sunni schools agree on the core fractions. They diverge on what happens at the edges — distant relatives, and surplus where the fixed shares do not exhaust the estate.
| Position | Hanafi | Maliki | Shafi’i | Hanbali |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share of a daughter | Half a son’s share | Half a son’s share | Half a son’s share | Half a son’s share |
| Wife, with children | One eighth | One eighth | One eighth | One eighth |
| Wife, no children | One quarter | One quarter | One quarter | One quarter |
| Husband, with children | One quarter | One quarter | One quarter | One quarter |
| Husband, no children | One half | One half | One half | One half |
| Bequest cap (wasiyyah) | One third | One third | One third | One third |
| Bequest to a fixed heir | Needs heirs’ consent | Needs heirs’ consent | Needs heirs’ consent | Needs heirs’ consent |
| Distant kin (dhawu al-arham) | Inherit | Classically to the treasury | Classically to the treasury | Inherit |
| Surplus returned (radd) | Yes | Classically no | Classically no | Yes |
The classical Maliki and Shafi‘i view directs a surplus, and the estate of someone with only distant kin, to the bayt al-mal — the public treasury. No such institution operates in Canada, and later scholars in both schools generally permit radd and inheritance by distant relatives in that situation. Confirm the position with a scholar for your own family.
What to actually do in British Columbia
- Have a will drafted that is valid under Wills, Estates and Succession Act (WESA) and sets out the shares you intend.
- Review every beneficiary designation — RRSP, RRIF, TFSA, pension, life insurance. These pass outside the will and can defeat the whole plan.
- Check how the family home is held. Joint tenancy passes by survivorship, outside the estate.
- Name a guardian for minor children.
- Record where the original will is kept, so it can be found.
A worked example: a $600,000 estate
Take a man who dies leaving a wife, two sons, one daughter and his mother, with a net estate of $600,000 after debts and funeral expenses. Here is what British Columbia does if he left no will, and what faraid does.
Under British Columbia intestacy law
| Heir | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Spouse | Preferential share $300,000 plus one third of the residue | $400,000 |
| Mother | Nothing — parents do not inherit while a spouse and children survive | $0 |
| Each child (three) | Equal shares of the remaining two thirds | $66,666 |
Under faraid
| Heir | Qur’anic share | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Wife | One eighth | $75,000 |
| Mother | One sixth | $100,000 |
| Son (each of two) | Residue, two shares | $170,000 |
| Daughter | Residue, one share | $85,000 |
His mother receives nothing under the provincial formula and $100,000 under faraid. Provincial intestacy schemes are built around the spouse and descendants; they do not recognise a parent’s fixed share at all while a spouse and children survive. No amount of intention changes this — only a valid will does.
Figures are rounded to whole dollars and illustrate the structure only. Real estates involve debts, taxes, designations and jointly held property that change the arithmetic substantially.
Common questions
Does a Canadian will have to follow faraid?
No. Canadian law does not require any particular distribution — it permits you to choose one. That is why the shares have to be written into a valid will rather than assumed.
Is an Islamic will from another country valid here?
Not automatically. A will has to satisfy the formal requirements of the province where the estate is administered, and foreign wills often fail on witnessing. Take advice before relying on one.
What happens to my RRSP and life insurance?
They pass to whoever is named as beneficiary, outside the will and outside the estate. This is the most common way a carefully drafted Islamic will gets defeated in practice.
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.
- What to do when someone has died — Canada Revenue Agency
- Wills, Estates and Succession Act, SBC 2009, c 13 — BC Laws
- Probate fees by province / territory — TaxTips.ca
- Wills Registry — Province of British Columbia
- Grewal v. Litt, 2019 BCSC 1154 — CanLII
- Surah an-Nisa 4:11–12, 4:176 — Quran.com
- Book of Wills (Wasaya) — Sahih al-Bukhari, Sunnah.com
- Rrsp rrif no beneficiary named tax ontario — Treadstone Law
- Family disputes guardianship appointment ontario — Treadstone Law
- Terminating guardianship regained capacity ontario — Treadstone Law
- Beneficiary right to see a copy of the will ontario — Treadstone Law
- Selling estate property no will intestate authority ontario — Treadstone Law
- Life interest beneficiary death trust tax year end — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law
- Religion by census metropolitan area, 2021 Census — Statistics Canada