suffice in most cases. As for their saying that the majority and what is most commonly the case is that a person does not live beyond this age, we say: yet there are people who live to one hundred or more.

“But if the circumstances of his disappearance most likely indicate death—such as one who was aboard a ship that sank, where some people survived while others did not; or one who disappeared from among his family; or in a perilous wilderness—then one waits four complete years from the time he disappeared.”

His statement, “But if the circumstances of his disappearance most likely indicate death,” means: if death is the most likely outcome of his journey.

His statement, “such as one who was aboard a ship that sank, where some people survived while others did not”: the ship sank at sea, and some people reached the shore safely, while others disappeared and nothing is known of them, including this missing man. Thus, death is the likely outcome of his disappearance. The same applies if the ship burned, or the like; death is then the likely outcome.

His statement, “or one who disappeared from among his family”: he went out to attend to some need in the market and did not return. The apparent circumstances of his disappearance indicate death. Or he and his family were sleeping out in the open, and when they awoke in the morning, they could not find him. Here too, the apparent circumstances of his disappearance indicate death.

His statement, “or in a perilous wilderness”: that is, in a barren land with no water, trees, or inhabitants nearby. The Arabs call this a mafāzah (wilderness), derived from fawz (success or salvation). This is an instance of naming something by what one hopes for as a good omen: since it is actually a place of destruction, they called it a mafāzah out of optimism. Similarly, they call the splint placed on a fracture a jabīrah (a setting), hoping for the bone to be mended. Thus, if someone disappears in a wilderness where there is no water, no inhabitant, and nothing at all, the apparent circumstances of his disappearance indicate death.

His statement, “then one waits four complete years from the time he disappeared”: some manuscripts read, “from the time he perished,” but the correct wording is, “from the time he disappeared,” because once he has perished, we do not wait even an hour. Rather, this was a slip of the author’s pen—may Allah have mercy on him. One therefore waits four complete years.