- Book of Manumission
Manumission takes effect when pronounced by a free, adult owner over what he possesses. Thus, if he says to his male or female slave, “You are free,” “Emancipated,” “I have set you free,” or “I manumit you,” the slave becomes free, whether or not the master intended manumission. The same ruling applies if he says, “Your head is free,” “your face,” “your neck,” “your body,” or, to his bondwoman, “Your private part is free.”
If he says, “I have no ownership over you,” intending emancipation, the slave is freed; if he does not intend it, the slave is not freed—this is the rule for all indirect expressions of manumission. However, if he says, “I have no authority over you,” even with the intention of manumission, the slave is not freed.
If he states, “This is my son,” and persists in that claim, or he says, “This is my mawla,” or addresses him with, “O my mawla,” the slave is freed. But if he merely says, “O my son,” or “O my brother,” the slave is not freed.
When he says of a boy whose like could not ordinarily be born to someone like him, “This is my son,” the slave is freed according to Abu Hanifah; according to Abu Yusuf and Muhammad, he is not freed.
If he tells his bondwoman, “You are divorced,” intending emancipation, she is freed. If he says to his male slave, “You are like a free man,” the slave is not freed; but if he says, “You are nothing but free,” the slave is freed.
When a man acquires ownership of a relative with whom marriage is permanently forbidden, that relative is automatically freed.
If a master frees a portion of his slave, that portion becomes free. According to Abu Hanifah, the slave must then work to pay the remainder of his value to his master; Abu Yusuf and Muhammad hold that the entire slave is freed outright.
If a slave is jointly owned by two partners and one of them manumits his share