Section

Its expiation¹ is to free a slave; if he cannot find one, he must fast two consecutive months; and if he is unable, he must feed sixty poor persons. As the Almighty says, “Those who pronounce ẓihār concerning their wives and then retract what they have said must free a slave.” Manumission is required only of someone who already owns a slave or can buy one for its market price in surplus of his permanent needs and those of the dependents he supports—together with his dwelling, servant, means of transport, his everyday clothes² and his dress clothes, any capital whose profit meets his living expenses, the books of knowledge he needs, and the repayment of his debts.

No expiation is valid unless the slave is a believer and sound, free of any defect that clearly interferes with work—such as blindness, paralysis of a hand or foot³, the loss of either of them⁴, or the loss of the middle finger, index finger, or thumb (even a single phalanx of the thumb), or the loss of the ring and little fingers of one hand. A terminally ill slave or an umm walad is not acceptable. It is, however, valid to emancipate a mudabbar, a child born out of wedlock, a mentally deficient slave, a mortgaged slave, a slave who has committed an offence, or a pregnant slave-woman—even if her unborn child is excepted from the manumission.

Section

The two-month fast must be consecutive. If it is interrupted by Ramadan, by days on which fasting is forbidden and eating is obligatory—such as the Day of Eid and the days of Tashrīq—or by menstruation, insanity, a life-threatening illness and the like, or if he breaks the fast out of forgetfulness or under compulsion, or for any excuse that lawfully permits breaking the fast, the consecutiveness is not deemed broken.