What is meant by the end of slavery is that the slave is manumitted. Thus, if his master frees him while he is at Arafah during Hajj, it counts as his obligatory Hajj, even though, when he entered ihram for Hajj, his pilgrimage was voluntary in his case, since Hajj is not obligatory upon a slave according to the previously mentioned difference of opinion.
His statement, “it counts as obligatory,” if taken according to its apparent wording, means that it is deemed obligatory from the very beginning of the ihram. This may therefore be posed as a riddle: an act of worship that begins as voluntary and then becomes obligatory, without the person having intended it as obligatory from the outset. The answer is: the Hajj of a slave who is freed at Arafah or before it.
It has also been said that it does not become obligatory except from the time of his manumission. Thus, this act of worship begins as voluntary and ends as obligatory. This too may be posed as a riddle. Nor is this unusual, for Hajj differs from other acts of worship in several matters relating to intention. As will come, if a person arrives in Mecca performing Hajj alone or combining Hajj with Umrah, and then performs tawaf and sa‘i, his tawaf will be the tawaf of arrival, which is sunnah, while his sa‘i will be for Hajj. Thereafter, he may change this intention to Umrah so that he becomes one performing tamattu‘. The tawaf was initially the tawaf of arrival and thus a sunnah, but it now becomes an essential pillar of Umrah; likewise, the sa‘i that was initially for Hajj now becomes for Umrah. Thus, Hajj has features in which it differs from other acts of worship.
Similarly, if an insane person regains sanity at Arafah, his Hajj becomes obligatory. But one may ask: How can it be imagined that an insane person enters ihram and then regains sanity at Arafah? Is the intention to enter ihram valid from an insane person?
The answer is that some scholars hold that his guardian may enter ihram on his behalf, just as he enters ihram on behalf of a child, for a child has no