undertaking any transactions recognized by the Sacred Law and strips him of full legal capacity.

Diyah of a slave: The blood money for a male or female slave is his or her market value, even if that equals—or surpasses—the diyah of a free person.

Points derived from the ḥadith

1. When a mukātab (contracted slave) pays part of the instalments of his emancipation contract, he becomes a mubaʿʿaḍ, that is, partly free and partly enslaved; the extent of his freedom corresponds to the proportion he has already paid. Complete freedom is only attained once he has discharged the entire debt. The earlier report, “The mukātab remains a slave so long as one dirham of his contract is still outstanding,” means that if he fails to pay all the instalments he reverts to full slavery.

2. Should this partially free person be assaulted, his diyah is paid in two portions:
   a. A full diyah—the diyah of free persons—in proportion to the part of him that is free.
   b. The diyah of a slave, in proportion to the part that remains enslaved.
   Sharḥ al-Iqnāʿ states: “If half of him is free and half a slave, the killer owes half the diyah of a free man and half of his market value.”

3. The same work adds: “As for the mukātab, the mudabbar (a slave whose emancipation is deferred until the owner’s death), the umm walad (a female slave who has borne her master a child), and the slave whose freedom is contingent upon a future condition—each is treated like a pure slave (qinn), based on the ḥadith, ‘The mukātab is a slave so long as even one dirham remains unpaid,’ and the rest follow by analogy.”

4. What the author of al-Iqnāʿ states here conflicts with the ḥadith that gives the mukātab the same diyah ruling as the mudabbar and the umm walad. In reality, the mukātab differs from them, for a portion of him has already been emancipated in proportion to what he has paid, and legal rulings follow their operative cause: they apply when the cause exists and fall away when it does not. By contrast, the mudabbar, the slave whose emancipation is suspended on a condition not yet fulfilled, and the umm walad all remain entirely enslaved until the time comes that will render them free—unlike the mukātab.

Accordingly, the stronger opinion is that, with respect to diyah, the mukātab is to be treated like a partially free slave (mubaʿʿaḍ), exactly as the ḥadith stipulates.