they occupy in the laws of inheritance; it is impermissible to sell or to donate the walāʾ.

Section
If someone says to his slave, “When I die you are free,” the slave becomes a mudabbar (designated for post-mortem emancipation). He will be set free after his master’s death out of the one-third of the estate reserved for bequests. During the master’s lifetime the latter may sell him, thereby nullifying the tadbīr, and while the master lives the legal status of a mudabbar is identical to that of an ordinary chattel slave.

Section
Kitāba (a manumission contract) is recommended when the slave requests it and is trustworthy and able to earn. It is valid only for a specified sum, deferred to a known date, the minimum term being two instalments. From the master’s side the contract is binding, whereas from the mukātib’s side it remains optional—he may rescind it whenever he wishes. The mukātib is free to dispose of whatever property he possesses, and the master must remit part of the contract price so as to assist him in meeting the instalments. The slave is not emancipated until the entire amount has been paid.

Section
If a master has intercourse with his female slave and she bears a child in whom any human feature is discernible, it becomes forbidden for him to sell, pledge, or gift her, though he may still use her labor and continue marital relations with her. Upon the master’s death she is freed from the principal of the estate before debts and bequests, and any child she subsequently bears from another man shares her status.

Should someone other than her owner have lawful intercourse with a female slave by marriage, the child is owned by her master. If he has intercourse with her under a mistaken assumption of permissibility (shubha), the child is free and he must pay its value to the master. If he later acquires ownership of that same slave, she does not become an umm walad for him on account of the earlier marital intercourse; according to one opinion, however, she does become an umm walad for him by virtue of the intercourse that occurred under shubha. And Allah knows best.

THE END OF THE BOOK