that she should inherit from him due to his acknowledgement of her marriage, or her acknowledgement of that. If she dies, he does not inherit from her because she is not deemed truthful in nullifying the inheritance of the second husband, just as she is not deemed truthful in nullifying his marriage, and the second husband inherits from her for that reason. If the second husband dies, she does not inherit from him, because she denies the validity of his marriage and therefore denies her inheritance from him.

1297- Issue: He said: "If he divorces her three times, and her waiting period (iddah) from him concludes, then she comes to him and mentions that she married someone who had intercourse with her, then he divorced her or died and left her, and her waiting period from him concluded, and that was possible, then he may marry her if he knows her to be truthful and righteous. If she is not in this state according to him, he may not marry her until her statement is verified for him."

The sum of this is that the irrevocably divorced woman (al-mabtutah), if time has passed after her divorce such that it is possible for two waiting periods to have elapsed during which a marriage and intercourse took place, and she informs him of that, and it is the dominant belief (ghalabat zann) that she is truthful—either through his knowledge of her trustworthiness or through the report of someone else who knows her situation—then he is permitted to marry her, according to the statement of the general body of scholars. Among them are al-Hasan, Qatadah, al-Awza'i, al-Thawri, al-Shafi'i, Abu 'Ubayd, and the jurists of the school of opinion (Ashab al-Ra'y). This is because the woman is trusted regarding herself and what she reports about herself, and there is no way to know this condition in reality except through her, so it is necessary to rely upon her statement, just as if she reported the conclusion of her waiting period. As for if he does not know [anything] that makes it the dominant belief that she is truthful, it is not permissible for him to marry her. Al-Shafi'i said: It is permissible for him to marry her, based on what we mentioned earlier, though piety (wara') dictates that he should not marry her. Our argument is that the original state is prohibition, and no dominant belief has been established to shift [the status] away from that; therefore, it remains necessary to maintain it, just as if a dissolute person (fasiq) informed him about her.

Section: If she informs him that the [second] husband had intercourse with her, but he denies it, her statement is accepted regarding her lawfulness to the first [husband], while the husband's statement is accepted regarding the dowry, and he is not liable for more than half of it if he did not acknowledge having been in seclusion (khalwah) with her. If the husband says...