Chapter: A Compendium of Rulings and Judicial Decisions

Mālik (may Allah have mercy on him) said: If witnesses testify that a woman’s husband has died, and on that basis she remarries and his estate is sold, but the husband later returns alive, she remains his wife. She must, however, be separated from the man she married and observe a complete waiting period from him—three menstrual cycles if the marriage had been consummated—after which she goes back to her husband.

With regard to the property that was sold: if the witnesses knowingly bore false testimony, the husband has the right to reclaim his property wherever he finds it, or to recover its sale price. As for his female slaves, if any of them are in the hands of a man who has fathered a child by her, the husband may demand from that man the value of the slave as well as the value of her child. But if the witnesses erred through genuine misidentification, the sale of whatever was sold stands valid.