1235 – Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever frees the share he owns in a slave, and possesses enough wealth to cover the slave’s full price, the slave shall be appraised at a just value, he must then pay his partners their portions, and the slave becomes completely free. If he does not have the means, only the portion he has freed is emancipated.” Agreed upon (1).

Al-Bukhari and Muslim also narrate, on the authority of Abū Hurayrah: “Otherwise, the slave is to be appraised and required to work to repay (his remaining value) without being overburdened.” Some scholars maintain that the clause concerning the siʿāyah (working to repay) is interpolated in the report (2).

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
– man aʿtaqa (“whoever emancipates”): The wording is outwardly general, yet by unanimous agreement it is restricted; the act is invalid if done by an insane person, a minor, or one legally interdicted for prodigality.
– shirk-an: with a kasrah on the shīn, meaning a share or portion.
– thaman al-ʿabd (“the price of the slave”): i.e., the price of the remaining share of the slave. Al-Nasāʾī’s version clarifies: “and he owns wealth equal to the value of his partners’ shares; he must guarantee their shares to them.”
– qūwima: passive of qawwama, “to set a price for merchandise,” meaning the slave is assigned a known value.
– ʿadl: “to equalize one thing with another”; here it means that the appraisal is to match the price of a comparable slave.
– fa-aʿṭā shurakāʾahu (“he gives his partners”): narrated in the active voice according to most transmitters, with shurakāʾa in the accusative as the direct object. It is also reported in the passive, in which case shurakāʾuhu is in the nominative as the agent.