Code of Muslim Personal Laws

Article 8

Juridical capacity, which is the fitness to be the subject of legal relations, is inherent in every natural person and is lost only through death. Capacity to act, which is the power to do acts with legal effect, is acquired and may be lost.

Article 9

The following circumstances, among others, modify or limit capacity to act: age, insanity, imbecility, the state of being deaf-mute, the condition of death-illness (marad-ul-maut), penalty, prodigality, absence, family relations, alienage, insolvency, and trusteeship. The consequences of these circumstances are governed by this Code and other Islamic laws and, in a suppletory manner, by other laws.

Article 10

Birth determines personality; but the conceived child shall be considered born for all purposes that are favorable to it, provided it be born alive, however, briefly, at the time it is completely delivered from the mother's womb.

Article 11

(1) Civil personality is extinguished by death. The effect of death upon the rights and obligations of a deceased person is determined by this Code, by contract, and by will. (2) After an absence of seven years, it being unknown whether or not the absentee still lives, he shall be presumed dead.

Article 12

If, as between two or more persons who are called to succeed each other, there is a doubt as to which of them died first, whoever alleges the death of one prior to the other shall prove the same; in the absence of such proof, it is presumed that they died at the same time and there shall be no transmission of rights from one to the other. However, the successional rights of their respective heirs shall not be affected.