Inheritance of One who is Lost

6. A number of our people have narrated from Sahl ibn Ziyad from Ali ibn Mahziyar from who has narrated the following: “I once asked abu Ja’far عليه السلام, about the case of a house that belongs to a woman who had a son and a daughter. Her son disappeared in the ocean, the woman died and the daughter claimed that her mother had given the house to her and she sold certain parts of it. One portion was left next to the house of a man of our people, he did not like to buy it because of the disappearance of the son, and for fear that, it may not be lawful for him to buy it with no news from the son. He (the Imam) asked me, ‘For how long has he disappeared?’ I replied, ‘It is many years.’ He (the Imam) said, ‘One must wait for ten years, then buy it.’ I then asked, ‘Is it lawful to buy it after ten years?’ He (the Imam) said, ‘Yes, it is lawful.’”