Dalīl al-Ṭālib - Marʿi al-Karmi - (225)

Chapter on Kitāba (Contractual Manumission)

Kitāba is the master’s sale of his slave to himself for a lawful, specified sum that becomes a debt upon the slave, a commodity for which salam is permissible, payable in two or more instalments, each instalment’s amount and due date being clearly known. No single final deadline for the whole amount is required, and the sum must lie within the slave’s capacity to earn. If any one of these conditions is absent, the contract is invalid.

Whether concluded while the master is healthy or ill, the liability created by kitāba is charged against the principal estate.

It is effected only through an explicit verbal declaration4 by someone with full legal capacity; nonetheless, if the contract is made with a discerning minor slave, it is valid.

Once the mukatab has paid the entire amount he owes—or the master has waived it—he is emancipated, and whatever surplus remains in his possession belongs to him.

(4) H. F. remarks that by requiring a “spoken declaration” the author evidently wishes to rule out a written statement or a gesture—even when such gesture is intelligible or made by a mute or someone with a speech impediment—as well as pure inward intention; in other words, only an explicit verbal formula counts. Hence al-Muqniʿ states: “It may be that he requires an expressed statement, or at least the intention.” Ḥashiyat al-Lubadi, p. 293.

باب الكتابة وهي: بيع السيد رقيقه نفسه بمال في ذمته مباح معلوم يصح السلم فيه منجم بنجمين فصاعدا يعلم قدر كل نجم ومدته ولا يشترط أجل له وقع في القدرة على الكسب. فإن فقد شيء من هذا ففاسدة. والكتابة في الصحة والمرض من رأس المال. ولا تصح إلا بالقول٤ من جائز التصرف لكن لو كوتب المميز صح. ومتى أدى المكاتب ما عليه لسيده أو أبرأه منه عتق وما فضل بيده فله.

٤ قال "ح ف": ولعله يحترز بالقول عن كتابة والإشارة ولو فهمت أو كانتا من أخرس أو معتقل لسانه أو عن النبيه المجردة أن المراد: الأخير ولهذا قال في المقنع: ويحتمل أن يشترط قوله: "أو نيته". حاشية اللبدي "ص: ٢٩٣".