Even so, the child is not deemed to have reached legal puberty, the husband is not obliged to pay the entire bridal dower, and the birth alone does not establish a waiting period (ʿidda) or the husband’s right of return (rujʿa).

If she gives birth in less than six months from the date of the marriage, or it is known that the husband never cohabited with her—such as when he married her in the presence of witnesses and then immediately divorced her in the same sitting, or he died—the child is not traced back to him.¹

Section

If it is proven, or the master himself admits, that he had intercourse—whether full penetration or anything short of it—with his female slave, and she then gives birth six months later, the child is affiliated to him.

If he emancipates or sells a slave woman with whom he acknowledges having slept, and she gives birth in less than six months, the child is traced back to him and the sale is void; but if she gives birth six months or more after the sale, the child is affiliated to the purchaser.

A child follows his father in lineage and his mother in freedom—and likewise in slavery—unless a condition is stipulated or deception occurs. In matters of religion he follows whichever parent has the superior faith, whereas with respect to ritual impurity,² the prohibition of marriage, rulings on slaughter, and permissibility of consumption, he follows the parent with the more objectionable status.