The Second Nikah of a Missing Person’s Wife and the Child

Question

Zayd, the husband of Hinda, set off on a voyage by ship in search of a livelihood. Three years have now passed and nothing is known of Zayd — whether he is alive or dead — but the predominant assumption is that Zayd is not alive. Out of intense fear of falling into sins and the like, Hinda waited two to two and a half years and then, without a ruling of a government ruler and without a ruling of a community council, married another husband, and within some months a child was born to Hinda.

Answer

Since there is no trace of Zayd, he is a missing person: (أَيِ الْمَفْقُودُ) غَائِبٌ لَمْ يُدْرَ أَحَيٌّ هُوَ أَمْ مَيِّتٌ أُودِعَ اللَّحْدَ. اهـ “(That is, the missing person is) an absent one of whom it is not known whether he is alive or dead and laid in the grave” (Tanwir al-Absar, vol. 3, p. 507).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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