Islamic Wills in Saskatchewan

Making an Islamic will that works in Saskatchewan

An Islamic will is not a separate legal instrument. It is an ordinary Saskatchewan will whose distribution clauses set out the faraid shares. Two things have to be right at once: the fractions, and Saskatchewan’s formalities.

Handwritten wills: Valid

Probate: About $7 per $1,000 of estate value (roughly 0.7%).

If you die without a will in Saskatchewan

Where all of the intestate’s descendants are also the spouse’s, the spouse takes the entire estate. Where any are not, the spouse takes the greater of $200,000 or one-half of the net estate, and then also takes half the residue if there is one child, or a third of the residue if there is more than one.

That distribution is set by statute and it will not match the faraid shares. How Saskatchewan’s intestacy rules diverge from faraid ›

Can the will be challenged?

Dependants’ relief claims under The Dependants’ Relief Act, 1996. Saskatchewan’s definition of "dependant" is unusually wide: as well as a spouse, a two-year cohabiting partner and minor children, it reaches an adult child who alleges that "by reason of need or other circumstances" they ought to receive a greater share than the will gives them.

Challenging a will in Saskatchewan ›

Finding a will in Saskatchewan

No general government will registry. The only statutory registration system is for international wills, which the minister is required to establish under the Wills Act, 1996. An ordinary Saskatchewan will becomes findable only once the estate is probated in the Court of King’s Bench.

How to search for a will in Saskatchewan ›

Saskatchewan’s cities

What differs between them is not the law — that is the same across Saskatchewan — but the community layer: which mosques can perform a janazah, and where they bury.

• Saskatoon — 3 janazah providers of 5 mosques, 11 organisations listed
• Regina — 3 janazah providers of 7 mosques, 10 organisations listed

The fixed shares

The fractions come from Surah an-Nisa and do not vary by province. Calculate them for your family, or read where the four schools differ.