Chapter on What Allah سبحانه وتعالى, the Almighty, Has Made Permissible and Prohibited in Marriage

Al-Hasan ibn Mahbub narrated from Abu Walad al-Hannat, who said: Abu Abdillah عليه السلام was asked about a man who instructed another man to marry a woman for him in Medina, specifying her by name, while the one giving the instruction was in Iraq. The one instructed went and married her to him. Then he returned to Iraq and found that the one who had given the instruction had died. Imam عليه السلام said: "It should be examined. If the instructed person married her to him before the one who gave the instruction died, and then the one who gave the instruction died afterward, then the dowry in all such cases will be considered part of the inheritance, like a debt. But if he married her to him after the one who gave the instruction had died, then there is no obligation on the one who gave the instruction nor on the one who carried it out, and the marriage is invalid."