1234 – Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “I asked the Prophet ﷺ, ‘Which deed is best?’ He replied, ‘Faith in Allah and striving in His cause.’ I asked, ‘Which slave is best to set free?’ He said, ‘The one with the highest price and the most precious to his people.’” Agreed upon (1).

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• “The one with the highest price”: in most versions it is worded as aʿlَāhā (“the most valuable”) with a plain ʿayn.
• “The most precious”: that is, the most honored and the one most desired by its owners because of their affection for it.

Points derived from the two ḥadīths
1 – In Islamic law the slave is treated as though he does not exist; he has no authority over himself, and people dispose of him just as they do with a beast of burden. Emancipating him is therefore like bringing him from non-existence into existence. For that reason the Lawgiver granted the emancipator the right to inherit from him when no closer blood relative exists. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Al-walāʾ is a bond like the bond of blood-kinship.” [Related by al-Ḥākim 4/231]. Hence the jurists of inheritance state: walāʾ is an agnatic tie whose cause is the benefaction of the emancipator toward his freedman.
2 – Because of this, manumission is a mighty act with an immense reward. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Any Muslim who frees a Muslim—Allah will save, for every limb of the freedman, a corresponding limb of his from the Fire.” [Al-Bukhārī 6715; Muslim 21509].
3 – The Lawgiver has also made manumission the first among the expiations that erase sins and atone for the consequences of accidental killing, intercourse during the daytime of Ramadan, ẓihār (the injurious comparison), and broken oaths. All of this manifests the compassionate and wise Legislator’s intense desire to liberate human beings from bondage and grant them freedom.