Chapter: Tadbir
Introduction
Tadbir is the verbal noun of dabbara al-ʿabda waʾl-amata tadbīran: to suspend a slave’s emancipation until the owner’s death, for the slave is set free at the rear (dubar) of his life, and death comes at the end of life.
Technically it means attaching the act of manumission to the death of the owner.
The textual basis is the report that a man from the Anṣār set a young slave free by way of tadbir when he owned no other servant. When the matter reached the Prophet ﷺ, he said, “Who will buy him from me?” Naʿīm b. ʿAbd Allāh bought him for eight hundred dirhams, paid the price to the owner, and the Prophet said, “You are in greater need of it.” Reported by al-Bukhārī (6716) and Muslim (997).
For a slave emancipated by tadbir actually to be freed, the value involved must fall within one-third of the estate after debts and the costs of burial have been met, whether the tadbir was declared while the owner was healthy or on his deathbed. It is a post-mortem donation and therefore resembles a bequest. This differs from an emancipation executed outright during good health, for that entails no rights for the heirs and thus takes effect over the whole estate, just like an immediate gift.