A man married, and after a short time he traveled for work. After a while, it was rumored that he had died, so his wife observed the waiting period of a widow and then married.

The questioner : A man married a woman, and after a short time he traveled outside his country in search of work. After a while, it was rumored that he had died, and no one knew the truth of the matter, so the people believed the rumor. His wife observed the waiting period of a widow, and after completing it, a man proposed to her, and she actually married him. A year later, her first husband returned to the country in good health and found that she had married another man. How should this case be handled, and what is the ruling on her second marriage?

The Shaykh : The ruling on her second marriage is that it is not permissible for her to marry based on mere rumors. If she does not know about her husband's condition, he is considered a missing person. The scholars have stated that a missing person is not declared dead until four years have passed since his disappearance if the apparent outcome of his absence is death, or until he reaches the age of ninety if the apparent outcome of his absence is safety. This woman’s husband has not been missing for four years; only one year has passed. Therefore, her action is forbidden, and the second marriage is invalid, because we have not declared her husband dead. Even according to the view that determining the period for a missing person is left to the judge’s ruling, it appears that this woman did not take the matter to the court or to those responsible for investigating his whereabouts. In any case, she is the wife of the first husband, and the second man’s contract with her is forbidden and invalid. However, the children she bore from this second husband are legitimate children of her second husband, because this contract is a contract of doubt, meaning the matter was confused for them and they thought it was permissible. Children born from intercourse resulting from doubt are attributed to the man who had intercourse by consensus. In summary: the second man’s contract with her is invalid, and she was not his wife; the first marriage remains in effect. She must return to the first husband, but she must observe a waiting period for the second husband before the first husband has intercourse with her. This is either three menstrual cycles if we say that a woman who had intercourse resulting from doubt observes the waiting period of a divorced woman, or one menstrual cycle for purification if we say that a woman who had intercourse resulting from doubt only needs to purify herself.

The questioner : May Allah reward you.