Chapter on Walāʾ
Whoever sets free a slave—whether entirely or partially, so that the manumission extends to the remainder—or for whom the slave is automatically freed because of kinship, or through an act, or for compensation, or by a manumission contract (kitābah), or a deferred manumission conditioned on the owner’s death (tadbīr), or through childbirth (īlād), or by bequest, or he frees him in his zakāt, vow, or expiation, then he gains the right of walāʾ over that person and over his children, on condition that those children are born to a wife who is herself a freedwoman or a slave; the same right of walāʾ also applies to anyone over whom that freed person—or his descendants—acquire walāʾ.

If someone says, “Free your slave on my behalf without payment, or on my behalf or on yours, and I will cover his price if you emancipate him,”¹ the manumission is valid, the walāʾ belongs to the one on whose behalf the slave was freed, and the speaker is liable for the price² if he undertook to pay it.

If a non-Muslim says, “Free your Muslim slave on my behalf,” and the owner sets him free, the manumission is valid and the walāʾ belongs to that non-Muslim.

Section
The holder of walāʾ inherits only when there are no agnatic relatives by blood. Thus, after the fixed sharers have received their allotted portions, the emancipator—even if she is a woman—then inherits.³ Then