– ʿabd: applies to both a male and a female slave.
– Otherwise: that is, if he is not solvent, then only the portion he has freed is emancipated—no more than what he set free.
– istusʿiya: the slave is asked to work and earn in order to secure the partner’s share.
– ghayra mashqūq: meaning he is not to be overburdened; his master may not impose on him service beyond his capacity or beyond his remaining share of bondage.
– ḥiṣaṣihim: plural of ḥiṣṣa (share); the verb taḥāṣṣū means “they divided up their shares.”

• Points derived from the ḥadīth:
  1 – The wise and merciful Lawgiver shows a keen desire for the liberation of human beings from slavery. He has urged it, encouraged it, made it the noblest of expiations and the greatest form of beneficence, and granted it an automatic extension (sarāyah) that in certain cases—among them the one discussed in these two ḥadīths—terminates an owner’s control without his choice. Thus, when a person owns even a small share of a male or female slave and frees that portion, his share is freed immediately by the very act of manumission.
  2 – If the emancipator is solvent—capable of paying the value of his partner’s share—the entire slave is freed, both his portion and his partner’s. The partner’s share is appraised at its fair market value, and that amount is paid to the partner. If the emancipator is insolvent—unable to cover the partner’s share—no harm comes to the partner: only the emancipator’s portion is freed, and the partner’s portion remains in servitude as before. Some scholars, however, hold that the entire slave is freed and then required to work (istisʿāʾ) to pay the value; the divergence of opinion will be mentioned later.
  3 – If the emancipator possesses only part of the value of his partner’s share, the slave is emancipated in proportion to the amount he can pay.
  4 – Joint ownership of a male or female slave is permissible.
  5 – The Lawgiver’s eagerness to free slaves is evident in His granting manumission this far-reaching effect and enforceability.