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: [ar](أَيِ الْمَفْقُودُ) غَائِبٌ لَمْ يُدْرَ أَحَيٌّ هُوَ أَمْ مَيِّتٌ أُودِعَ اللَّحْدَ. اهـ[/ar] “(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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