When the fame of Sheik Mufeed spread, our own people thought that they too would try to test his skills. This test was not with any rancor or enmity but was just to gauge his learning and erudition. Therefore many scholars got together and formulated a question for him after much deliberation. This question too was about the institution of inheritance in Islam.
They posed the question that a woman married four times She married the first husband and became a widow. She married the second time, her spouse expired, and she was widowed again. The second husband too died. She married a third time, and as luck would have it, the third husband too passed away. She married a fourth time and, unfortunately this spouse too died.
When the fourth husband died, she realized that half of the total assets of her four deceased husbands had come into her possession. And the other half was distributed to the kin of the four men. You must be aware that the share of a wife is a fourth of the assets of a deceased husband, if he had died issueless.
Let us assume that one of her late husbands had Rupees 50,000, the second 100,000, the third 200,000, and the fourth husband 1,000,000. When all the assets of the four husbands was added, and distributed according to the prescribed schedule, she was in possession of half of the total holdings of all the four men. This despite the fact that she should have inherited only a fourth of their wealth! What is the solution for this riddle?
Sheik Mufeed gave an instantaneous solution to the problem. He said that all the four husbands must have been blood brothers whom the woman married one after another as they deceased. She went on receiving the inheritance of her husbands as they died and in the end she owned half their wealth. How?
For example, all the four brothers had a total of 18 Dinars. The eldest brother had 8 Dinars, the second brother had 6 Dinars, the third had 3 Dinars and the fourth 1 Dinar. When the fourth brother died, she would have come in possession of half their collective assets, that is, 9 Dinars! How?
She married the first brother who died issueless. Out of his 8 Dinars, she received a fourth, that was, 2 Dinars. Since he had no issues, the remaining 6 Dinars were distributed equally to his three surviving brothers. The one who had 6 Dinars earlier, now had 8 Dinars, the brother who had 3 Dinars, now had 5 Dinars and the last sibling who had 1 Dinar now had 3 Dinars.
The woman married the second brother, he expired issueless, leaving an asset of 8 Dinars, and she got 2 Dinars from it. The remaining 6 Dinars were equally distributed to the surviving two brothers. Now one who had 5 Dinars earlier, possessed 8 Dinars and the last brother who had 3 Dinars now had 6 Dinars.
She now married the brother who was having 8 Dinars. He too died issueless and she inherited 2 Dinars from him. The last of the brothers who had 6 Dinars, now possessed 12 Dinars.
The woman married this last of the brothers. He too died issueless and she inherited a fourth of his assets, that is, 3 Dinars and the remaining 9 Dinars went to the paternal aunt of the deceased. Now the woman had 2 Dinars from the first husband, 2 Dinars from the second husband, 2 Dinars from the third husband 3 Dinars as legacy from the fourth spouse.
When all these four amounts are added, the sum total is 9 Dinars, that is exactly half of the total possessions of the four brothers, 18 Dinars, her late husbands!
The persons who had posed the question were pleasantly surprised that the Sheik solved the problem in such a short time and they had to deliberate a full year to frame the question!
Shi‘ite Authorities in the Age of Major Occultation Part 1: Sheikh Mufid