the same property having two owners, which is impossible: one and the same property cannot have two owners in the same respect. However, in the words, “whoever sells a slave who possesses property,” the preposition “for” does not denote ownership; rather, it denotes special assignment, as one says, “A horse has a bridle,” or “a riding animal has a rein,” and the like. Thus, here it denotes special assignment.

What, then, is the property possessed by the slave? It is the property that his master has assigned to him, saying, “O slave, take this property and trade with it”—whether it is sugar, rice, cars, or anything else. He gives it to him and says, “This is in your possession; sell it and trade with it.” We say: this property belongs to the master by ownership, while the slave has special assignment over it.

Thus, in the words, “a slave who possesses property,” the attribution of the property to the slave is one of special assignment.

As for the words, “then his property belongs to his seller,” the preposition “to” in “his seller” denotes ownership—that is, the property belongs to the seller. The evidence is the saying of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: “Whoever sells a slave who possesses property, his property belongs to the one who sold him, unless the buyer stipulates otherwise.” (1)

Here we may ask: does a slave acquire ownership when ownership is conferred upon him, or not? For example, if a person sees a slave wearing tattered clothes and in need of clothing to protect him from the cold, and gives him ownership of his garment, saying, “Take this garment; it is yours,” does the slave own that garment? The answer is that the general import of the Prophet’s words, “his property belongs to the one who sold him,” includes whatever is in his possession by special assignment or by ownership, and indicates that he does not own it.

Some scholars held that he does acquire ownership when ownership is conferred upon him. Others made a distinction, saying that he acquires ownership when his master confers it upon him, but not when someone else does so, because his master’s conferral of ownership upon him means that the master relinquishes his ownership of what he gives him, and the right belongs to the master. Accordingly, whatever his master grants him becomes the slave’s property, rather than his master’s, though his master may subsequently reclaim it.