Section
A bequest is valid when it concerns the usufruct of a slave, a house, or the rent of a shop. The legatee becomes owner of the slave’s usufruct and of her customary earnings; on the sounder view he likewise owns her dowry, but not her child. The child is treated exactly like the mother: its benefit belongs to the legatee, while its very person reverts to the heir. The legatee may set the slave free, and he must maintain her if the usufruct was willed for a fixed term—and, on the stronger opinion, even when it was granted in perpetuity. If the grant is not perpetual, the legatee’s position resembles that of a lessee and he may not sell the usufruct; if it is perpetual, the preferred opinion allows only the legatee himself to sell it. When the usufruct is given forever, the whole value of the slave is charged to the estate’s one-third; if it is for a limited period, the slave is appraised according to the value of the usufruct for that period alone, and only that reduced amount is counted against the one-third.

A bequest for a supererogatory Hajj is valid on the preponderant view. The pilgrimage is performed from the testator’s home town or from the miqāt as he may have specified; when he leaves the matter open, it is performed from the miqāt, according to the sounder opinion. The obligatory Hajj is met from the principal estate. If the testator expressly directs that its cost be taken from the principal or from the one-third, his instruction is followed. If he simply says, “Perform my Hajj,” it comes out of the principal, though one view assigns it to the one-third and stipulates that the pilgrim start from the miqāt.

On the stronger opinion, a non-heir may perform Hajj on behalf of the deceased without any prior authorization from him. The heir may pay, on the deceased’s behalf, every monetary part of a sequential expiation (kafārah murattabah), and may feed or clothe the poor where the expiation offers a choice; the sounder view adds that he may also manumit a slave. He may do so from his own wealth if the estate is lacking, and the act will count for the deceased. If a stranger volunteers food or clothing, manumission is not accepted, on the sounder view. Charity and supplication offered for the deceased—whether by heir or outsider—benefit him.

Section
The testator may revoke all or part of his bequest by saying, “I have annulled the bequest,” “I have voided it,” “I retract it,” “I revoke it,” or, “This is for my heir.” Revocation likewise occurs through selling the property, manumitting the slave, giving it as a dowry, or by gifting or pledging it with delivery—and, on the sounder view, even without delivery. A fresh bequest ordering any of those acts, as well as authorizing someone to sell the property or putting it up for sale, also constitutes revocation on the stronger opinion.

Mixing specified wheat with other wheat is a revocation. Thus, if he has bequeathed one sāʿ of grain from a particular heap and then mixes that heap with better grain, the bequest is revoked; if he mixes it with grain of the same quality, it is not revoked, and the same ruling applies when he mixes it with inferior grain.