There are several opinions concerning whether apostasy immediately strips a person of ownership of his property. The stronger view is that, if he dies while still an apostate, it becomes clear that ownership lapsed from the moment of apostasy, whereas if he returns to Islam it is deemed never to have lapsed.

Whichever view is taken, any debt that bound him before his apostasy is settled from that property and his own maintenance is provided from it. The soundest opinion also obliges him to pay compensation for any destruction he causes during that period and to provide maintenance for any wife whose marriage has been placed on hold, as well as for his close relatives.

If his ownership is suspended, then any disposition that can itself be left in suspense—such as manumission, tadbīr (a promise to free a slave at death), or a bequest—remains in abeyance: should he embrace Islam, it takes effect; otherwise, it is annulled. His sale, gift, pledge and kitābah (contract for a slave’s self-purchase) are void under Shāfiʿī’s earlier position, but merely suspended under the later one.

On all these views, his property is entrusted to a trustworthy administrator, his female slave is placed with a reliable woman, the property is leased out, and any mukātib slave continues to pay the instalments to the judge.