“Allah has not placed two hearts within any man’s breast. Nor has He made the wives you repudiate by likening them to your mothers into your actual mothers, nor has He made your adopted sons your true sons. Those are merely words you utter, whereas Allah speaks the truth and guides to the path. Call them by their fathers’ names; that is more equitable in Allah’s sight. If you do not know their fathers, then they are your brothers in faith and your clients” [al-Ahzāb: 4–5] [al-Ahzāb: 4–5]. He thus obligated us to call a person after the father who begot him, rather than the man who adopted him, and He prohibited adoption. Then, when the father is unknown, He commanded that the person be called a brother in faith and a client. Thus the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said to Zayd ibn Hāritha, “You are our brother and our client.” He—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—also said, “Your servants are your brothers; Allah has placed them under your authority. Whoever has his brother under his authority must feed him from what he himself eats and clothe him from what he himself wears.”

Allah—Glorified is He—thus made clientage analogous to lineage, and He explained the basis of clientage in His words: “And when you said to the one upon whom Allah had bestowed favor and upon whom you had bestowed favor” [al-Ahzāb: 37]. He thereby explained that the basis of clientage is the favor conferred through manumission, just as the basis of lineage is the favor conferred through procreation. Since it is forbidden to transfer one’s lineage away from the person who conferred the favor of procreation, it is likewise forbidden to transfer one’s clientage away from the person who conferred the favor of manumission, for the latter has the same underlying basis. Thus, anyone who stipulates that a purchaser must manumit a slave while the clientage belongs to someone else is like one who stipulates to a man entering marriage that, if he fathers a child, the child’s lineage will belong to someone else.

It is this meaning that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—indicated in his words: “Clientage belongs only to the one who manumits.”

Since Allah’s Book indicates that this stipulated arrangement is forbidden, both specifically and generally, it does not fall within the covenants that Allah has commanded to be fulfilled, for He—Glorified is He—does not command what He has forbidden. Nevertheless, what seems most likely is