If a man is a freedman, his bond of emancipation belongs to the patron who emancipated him, then to those entitled to it through that patron: his male residuary relatives, in order of proximity. The person with the strongest claim to inherit through the bond of emancipation of anyone, male or female, emancipated by a man or woman is the emancipator’s son, then the son’s son and his male-line descendants, however far down the line, with the nearer taking precedence. Next comes the emancipator’s father, then his father’s sons—that is, his brothers—then their male-line descendants, however far down the line, with the nearer taking precedence. If they are equally related, the estate is divided equally among them, unless one is a full brother, in which case he takes precedence over paternal half-brothers. Next comes the grandfather, then his sons—that is, the paternal uncles—then their male-line descendants, however far down the line, again with the nearer taking precedence. If they are equally related and some are full brothers, the full brothers take precedence over paternal half-brothers. Next comes the grandfather’s father, then his sons, in the order already described; then the grandfather’s grandfather and his sons in that same order; then the father of the grandfather’s grandfather and his sons, and so on, as far as the line can be known and traced.

If the man is freeborn and his father is a freedman, his bond of emancipation belongs to his father’s patron, then to those entitled to it through that patron, in the order described for his own patron. If his father is also freeborn, his bond belongs to his grandfather’s patron, if his grandfather was a freedman, then to those entitled to it through that patron, as already explained. If he was born of an illicit sexual union, was disowned through the spouses’ mutual oaths of imprecation, or his father was a slave or an unbeliever, his bond belongs to his mother’s patron, if she is a freedwoman, then to those entitled to it through that patron, as already explained. If she is freeborn, his bond belongs to her father’s patrons. If she herself was born of an illicit sexual union, was disowned through mutual oaths of imprecation, or is a slave woman or an unbeliever, his bond belongs to her mother’s patrons.

Whenever the father who disowned his son through mutual oaths of imprecation acknowledges him as his son, the unbelieving father embraces Islam, or the enslaved father is emancipated, the bond is transferred from the mother’s patrons to the father’s own patrons or his father’s patrons. This is because the mother’s patrons have no claim to the bond of emancipation of any child born to a free Muslim man and a free woman. His bond belongs to his own patron if he is a freedman, or to the patron of whichever of his forefathers was a freedman. If none of them was emancipated, his estate belongs to the Muslim community.

If any of the three patrons has no male residuary relatives, or had such relatives but they have all died out, the bond passes to his patron’s patron, if his patron was himself a freedman, then to those entitled to it through that patron, in the order already described.

Women inherit through the bond of emancipation only from those whom they themselves emancipated, those emancipated by someone they emancipated, or the freeborn children of men they emancipated; or from the children of women they emancipated, if the child has no established paternal lineage or his father died a slave or an unbeliever.