Fatwa ID: 02939

Answered by: Maulana Imran Mughal​

Question:

Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah

My father Dr Khalid Yousuf was born on September 11, 1957. He was working in Fuvamullah, the Maldives since January 2015. He was very athletic and was a professional swimmer. On May 10, 2015, there was a terrible storm in the sea along with a lot of rain, he went swimming as per his routine. My mother went to the beach with him that day and was taking a walk on the shore and saw him enter the water to swim, and when half an hour was over, she got worried as she could not see him swimming, so she contacted the Police and Maldives search operation team came.

They started the search with the help of helicopters and also sent divers to look for him. The search operation lasted 15 days. It will be 4 years this year, and there has been no news since. We are his three sons and no daughters. We contacted Maldives search authority a couple of times in these 4 years but they have no updates regarding this case. What is the ruling in this case?

Do we perform janazah of absentia?
Do we make our mother observe iddah?
Do we wait for him further?
 

Answer:

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

A marriage can only seize to be by either the husband issuing his wife divorce or by an Islamic Judge terminating the marriage.

In the case of a missing husband, the matter should be raised to an Islamic Judge, if there is no Judge then a committee of religious scholars can issue the termination of the marriage. However, it should be noted that this period of four years will commence from the time of the court’s judgment, even if she was without her husband for a long time before actually reporting her case to the court.

After the expiry of the 4 years, the committee can terminate the marriage presuming the husband is dead, after which the woman will observe iddah for 4 months and 10 days and she may marry again.[1]

Only Allah SWT alone knows best.

Written by Maulana Imran Mughal

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham