Disappearance of the Husband

When a woman's husband disappears or goes missing and it is not known whether he is alive or dead, then such a woman cannot enter into a second marriage. Instead, she should remain waiting in the hope that her husband will return. When she remains waiting until such a time that her husband must have reached 90 years of age, we will give the ruling that he must have passed away by now. Based on this, if a woman is still young and she wishes to remarry, she must wait until her husband's age must have reached 90, thereafter she must complete her ‘iddah , and then she can enter into a second marriage. However, the condition for this is that the ruling that her first husband must have passed away by now will have to be passed by a Shar'î judge.