a younger age. If he goes missing at one hundred, according to those who set the age limit for a missing man at one hundred or younger, some say that he is allowed a further ten years, while others say that a further year or two should be allowed. If he goes missing at one hundred and twenty, a further year or thereabouts is allowed; there is no disagreement on this.

There are two opinions as to whether a wife is entitled to maintenance during the four years if her husband goes missing before consummating their marriage. The first is that she is not entitled to maintenance. This is al-Mughīra’s position in his book. He said: “For I do not know what means he has or what his circumstances are during his absence, unless maintenance had previously been fixed for her, in which case she is treated, regarding maintenance, like a wife whose marriage has been consummated.” The correct view is that she is entitled to maintenance, since he is like an absent husband. There is no disagreement that if a husband goes away to a distant place before consummating his marriage, maintenance is to be awarded to his wife from his property if she requests it. The disagreement concerns only absence at a nearby location. The apparent meaning of what is recorded in Ibn al-Qāsim’s transmission in the Book of Divorce in Accordance with the Sunnah is that she is entitled to maintenance, since no distinction is made there between absence nearby and far away.

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There are three opinions as to whether she is to be awarded her dower once the prescribed period has elapsed and she has completed her waiting period. The first is Ibn al-Mājishūn’s view: she is awarded none of it until the point at which, were her husband to return, he would no longer have any claim to her. He means that she is then awarded half her dower, unless it emerges that he died before that point, or he reaches an age beyond which no one lives, in which case she is awarded all of it, even if she has remarried. This was stated by Ibn al-Mājishūn. Ibn Wahb said that if she has remarried, she is awarded only half. There are grounds supporting each of these views.

The second opinion is that she is awarded half her dower. If he then reaches an age beyond which no one lives—whether or not she has remarried, in accordance with Ibn al-Mājishūn’s principle—or it is established that he died before she became irrevocably separated from him through consummation or the marriage contract, according to the familiar disagreement, she is awarded the remainder. Ibn al-Jallāb reported this opinion in his book al-Tafrīʿ, and Ibn Sahnūn also reported it in his book. The third opinion is that she is awarded her entire dower, which is