670 – On the authority of Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both): “ʿUmar forbade the sale of mothers of children. He declared, ‘They are not to be sold, nor given away as a gift, nor inherited. The owner may benefit from her for as long as he wishes, and when he dies she becomes free.’” Narrated by Mālik and al-Bayhaqī, and the latter said: “Some transmitters raised it to the Prophet, but they were mistaken.” ⦗1⦘

Grade of the report:
A sound mawqūf athar (an authentic statement stopping with ʿUmar).
Al-Dāraqutnī transmitted it and said: “The correct view is that it is mawqūf on ʿUmar,” and the same was affirmed by al-Bayhaqī and ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq. Ibn Daqīq al-ʿId remarked: “What is established is that it is mawqūf, and there are similar reports from other Companions.”
Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī stated in al-Muḥarrar: “Mālik related it in the Muwaṭṭaʾ, and some narrators erred by raising it.”

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth:
– Mothers of children (ummahāt al-awlād, sing. umm walad): A female slave who bore a child for her owner, whether the child was born alive or stillborn—even if only the faintest human form was discernible. She is emancipated upon her master’s death.
– “mā badā lahu”: the verb badā yabdū means “to appear” or “to become evident”; here it conveys “for as long as he wishes.”
– “mā”: a temporal infinitival particle; together with the verb it yields the sense of “the duration for which it seems fitting to him.”