Dalīl al-Ṭālib - Marʿi al-Karmi - (223)

Section

It is permissible to suspend emancipation on a condition, as when the master says, “If you do such-and-such, you are free.” He still has the right to dedicate the slave as waqf, to sell him, or to dispose of him in a similar way before the condition is fulfilled; if the slave later returns to his ownership, the suspended emancipation revives. Once the condition occurs, the manumission takes effect, and it is nullified only by the master’s death¹. Therefore, the statement, “If you enter the house after I die, you are free,” is void, whereas, “You are free one month after my death,” is valid, and the heir may not sell him.

It is likewise valid for a man to declare, “Every slave I ever own is free.” Accordingly, anyone he acquires is emancipated. He may also specify, “The first or the last slave² I acquire,” or, “The first³ or the last⁴ of my slaves who appears is free.” If he owns—or there appears—only one, that individual is freed; but if he acquires two at the same time, or two appear simultaneously, one of them is freed by drawing lots. The same rule applies in divorce cases.

Section

If he says to his slave, “You are free, and you owe me one thousand,” the emancipation is immediate and nothing is owed. If he says, “You are free for one thousand,” or, “You are free on payment of one thousand,” the slave is not freed until he accepts, and upon acceptance the thousand becomes due⁵. If he says, “You are free on condition that you serve me for a year,” the emancipation takes effect without the slave’s acceptance, yet the service remains obligatory.

He may also emancipate the slave while reserving the slave’s service for the rest of the master’s life, or for a specified period.

1) The passage on tadbir that follows makes it clear that a slave’s conditional manumission is also nullified if he is later placed in a waqf (pious endowment); hence the restriction stated here is unwarranted. See Labbadi, marginal notes, p. 291. 2) In MS “A” the word reads min (من) instead of qinn (قن, “slave”). 3) MSS “M” and “N” have aw (أو, “or”) in place of the conjunction wa (“and”). 4) The phrase “aw akhar” (or another) is absent from MS “A”. 5) MSS “A,” “M,” and “N” read yalzam (يلزم, “becomes binding”).

فصل ويصح تعليق العتق بالصفة كـ: "إن فعلت كذا فأنت حر" وله وقفه وكذا بيعه ونحوه قبل وجود الصفة فإن عاد لملكه عادت فمتى وجدت عتق ولا يبطل إلا بموته١ فقوله: إن دخلت الدار بعد موتي فأنت حر لغو ويصح: أنت حر بعد موتي بشهر فلا يملك الوارث بيعه. ويصح قوله: كل مملوك أملكه فهو حر فكل من ملكه عتق وأول أو آخر قن٢ أملكه و٣ أول أو آخر٤ من يطلع من رقيقي حر فلم يملك أو يطلع إلا واحد عتق ولو ملك اثنين معا أو طلعا معا عتق واحد بقرعة ومثله الطلاق. فصل وإن قال لرقيقه: أنت حر وعليك ألف عتق في الحال بلا شيء على ألف أو بألف لا يعتق حتى يقبل على ويلزمه٥ الألف وعلى أن تخدمني سنة يعتق بلا قبول وتلزمه الخدمة. ويصح أن يعتقه ويستثني خدمته مدة حياته أو مدة معلومة.

١ مقتضى ما يأتي في التدبير أنه يبطل بوقف المعلق عتقه أيضا فلا وجه للحصر هنا. حاشية اللبدي "ص: ٢٩١". ٢ في "ا" "من" بدل "قن". ٣ في "م" و"ن" "أو" بدل الواو. ٤ "أو آخر" لا توجد في "أ". ٥ في "أ" "يلزم" وكذا في "م" و "ن".