or for one who is liable for a painful blood-compensation.” The person indicated in this last ḥadith is the debtor who incurred the liability himself; he is therefore given enough to clear what he owes.
Third: helping the contracted slave (mukātab) to ransom his neck from bondage.
A slave is someone deprived of freedom, limited in disposal, confined to the service of his master. Once he is emancipated he possesses his own person, his freedom is restored after the prison of slavery, and the fetters of servitude are undone.
Freeing a contracted slave is among the most exalted acts of worship, the finest of devotions, and the greatest of good deeds. The Exalted says, “and for freeing slaves” (2:177), and He says, “to free a slave” (90:13). In the Sunan of al-Tirmidhī (1655), Abū Hurayrah narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Three people have a right upon Allah to aid them: the combatant in the path of Allah, the contracted slave who seeks to pay off his agreement, and the chaste suitor who wishes to marry.”
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These three deeds are of tremendous virtue and immense reward; whoever assists in any of them has entered a large gate of beneficence.
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The specific point of relevance to the present chapter is the last of these qualities.
And Allah is the One who grants success.
End of the Book of Emancipation.
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