The Legacy of the Drowned and those Buried under the Debris

Document Type : Research Article

Author

• ‘Alī Muḥāmid

Qum University

10.22067/jfiqh.2020.61062.0

Abstract

In human life, such natural accidents as earthquake, flood, and unnatural events such as different types of wars would take the lives of human beings whose date of passing away remains unidentified. For instance, brothers and sisters or fathers and mothers fall prey to unprecedented death in these accidents, and legally there is inheritance relation between them. That is to say, they may inherit from each other but it is not known which one of the two had died prior that the other; whereas, it is known that one person inherits from another on the condition that the legatee would outlive their legator (Najafī, XXXIX, 306). For example, if children are to inherit from their father, it should be proved that they had outlived (i.e., been alive after) their father; otherwise, if they die before their father, they would no longer inherit from him; and it is supposed in these types of accidents that it is not known which one of the two who inherit from each other had died prior to the other.
Imāmī jurists have explained this issue in “Kitāb al-’Irth” under
the title “ ’Irth-i Gharqī wa Mahdūm ‘Alayhim” (the legacy of the drowned and those buried under the debris). Both categories have
also been brought up in traditions, which are made reference to in this article. Accidents, however, are not restricted to the above two cases; rather, people die in various other accidents which make it difficult for the jurist to make judgments about inheritance because of their uncertainty as to who died prior to the other.
The present paper addresses the following two questions:
Do those who die in natural or unnatural accidents and are legally entitled to inheritance but none of them is known to have died prior to the other still inherit from each other?
If two or more people who are entitled to inheritance die simultaneously but their death is not due to drowning or being buried under debris, would they be legally judged as those who are drowned or buried under debris?

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