Book of Manumission

1. Only a person who enjoys full legal right of disposal over the slave may effect manumission. It may be made conditional or attached to part of the slave, and in either case the entire person becomes free.

2. The explicit formulas are tahrir and iʿtiq (both meaning “to set free”); the expression fakk raqaba (“to liberate a neck”) is likewise explicit according to the sounder opinion. An explicit formula requires no inward intention, whereas an implicit one does. Among the implicit expressions are: “I no longer own you,” “I have no authority over you,” “I have no claim over you,” “I have no service from you,” “You are sāʾiba (unattached),” and “You are my patron,” as well as any word that—if addressed to a wife—would constitute explicit or implicit divorce. Saying to a male slave, “You (feminine) are free,” or to a female slave, “You (masculine) are free,” still counts as an explicit act of emancipation.

3. If the master says, “Your emancipation is in your hand,” or “I give you the choice,” intending thereby to delegate the decision, and the slave frees himself during that same sitting, the emancipation is effective. The same ruling applies when the master says, “I have freed you for one thousand,” or, “You are free in return for one thousand,” and the slave accepts; or when the slave says, “Free me for one thousand,” and the master agrees: freedom is immediate and the slave becomes liable for the thousand.

4. Should the master say, “I have sold you your own person for one thousand,” and the slave replies, “I have bought,” the authoritative view is that the sale is valid; the slave is freed on the spot, owes the thousand, and the walāʾ (patronage) remains with the former owner.

5. If the master says to a pregnant slave, “I have freed you,” or, “I free you but not the child in your womb,” both mother and child are freed. If he emancipates the fetus alone, only the child is freed. Where the mother is owned by one man and the fetus by another, freeing one does not free the other.

6. When two partners own a slave and one of them frees all or only his own share, that share is freed. If the emancipating partner is insolvent, the rest remains the property of the other partner and the extension of freedom (sarāyah) is suspended until the emancipator becomes solvent. At that point he must pay the value of the remaining share as assessed on the day he first emancipated.

There are three opinions as to when the sarāyah takes effect:
(a) immediately with the act of emancipation;
(b) only upon payment of the value; or
(c) it is deemed retroactive to the time of emancipation if the value is eventually paid.

7. If a solvent co-owner impregnates the shared female slave and acknowledges her as an umm walad (istilād), the freedom likewise extends. According to the basic ruling he must pay his partner the value of that partner’s share together with the partner’s portion of an equivalent bridal gift (mahr al-mithl). The same three opinions govern the timing of the sarāyah; under the first and third positions no value payment is required.