his action is valid. The well-known position of the madhhab, however, is that his action is invalid, except in this particular case, in which it is valid. Thus, if you appoint someone to sell a car for you, then, after he has left, you dismiss him—or you sell the car yourself to someone else, since your own sale constitutes an effective dismissal of the agent—and the agent then sells the car before learning of his dismissal, the madhhab holds that the agent’s action in this case is invalid, that his sale is void, and that the item must be returned to its owner. Yet there is no real difference between the two cases. This person appointed to carry out retaliation was effectively dismissed. The correct view, therefore, is that if an agent acts before learning of his dismissal, his action is valid, because it rests upon a legally valid basis: the appointment itself. What difference is there between this case and other cases? If, in this case—despite the grave seriousness of bloodshed—his dismissal is not treated as a dismissal and his action is valid, then it is even more appropriate that his actions in selling, pledging, leasing, and similar transactions should be valid, since they involve less danger.
His statement: “If an enslaved person is entitled to retaliation, or to the discretionary punishment for slander, then demanding it and waiving it belong to him.” If one enslaved person deliberately and wrongfully cuts off the hand of another enslaved person, retaliation is due to the enslaved person whose hand was cut off. The right to demand retaliation and to waive it belongs to him, not to his master. If he wishes, he may demand that retaliation be carried out against the offender, and the hand of the one who cut it off is severed. Or, if he wishes, he may say, “I pardon him.” But may he pardon unconditionally, or may he pardon only in exchange for financial compensation? If he pardons unconditionally, that harms the master. Thus, if retaliation becomes due to him and he says, “I want retaliation,” the master will say, “What good is it to me for you to exact retaliation”