Chapter: The Inheritance of a Missing Person

If a person’s whereabouts are unknown because of captivity or travel in circumstances where survival is generally likely—such as travel for trade—then one waits until the person would have reached ninety years of age, calculated from his birth.

A missing person is one who has disappeared and concerning whom it is not known whether he is alive or dead. For example, he may have entered a war, and it is unknown whether he survived or was killed; floods may have come and swept people away, leaving his fate unknown; or he may have boarded a ship, and it is unknown where he went. So what should be done in his case? The author says:

“If a person’s whereabouts are unknown because of captivity or travel in circumstances where survival is generally likely—such as travel for trade—one waits until he would have reached ninety years of age, calculated from his birth.”

For instance, a man may travel to Madinah, for example, at a time of safety, and then disappear. Such travel is generally safe. We say: one waits until he would have reached ninety years of age, calculated from his birth. If he disappeared at the age of twenty, we wait seventy years. If he disappeared when he was eighty-nine years and eleven months old, we wait only one month, even though the apparent circumstances of his journey indicate safety. But this raises two questions:

First: why specify ninety years? They said: because this is generally the longest a person lives. The lifespans of this ummah are between sixty and seventy years, though some do reach one hundred.

Second: how can we wait only one month?! That is not enough. For if we say that one waits until he reaches the age of ninety, this means that once he reaches ninety, we rule that he has died: his estate is inherited, his wife observes her waiting period, and thereafter becomes lawful for marriage to other men. A case such as this does not