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If he says that the amount which must be remitted from the final portion of the manumission payment is the smallest amount that can be called anything at all, he might allow it to be one-sixth of a dirham in silver out of ten thousand dirhams, or a single grain. Interpreting Allah’s command in this way is far-fetched and unacceptable to any rational person. Had the proponent of this view considered it carefully, he would not have expressed it. Allah knows best.
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Al-Shāfi‘ī’s position is that a slave under a manumission contract does not become free upon paying the entire amount unless he has stipulated all of this for himself in the contract. According to Mālik, Abū Hanīfah, their followers, and the majority of scholars, however, he becomes free upon paying the entire amount, even without such a stipulation. In their view, it does not matter if his master does not tell him when concluding the contract, “When you have paid me the entire amount due under your manumission contract, you are free,” because this is understood from their actions and intentions, even if they do not state it.
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The jurists of the major centres agree that a slave under a manumission contract remains a slave so long as any part of the stipulated payment remains outstanding, as established in the authentic Sunnah of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Many differing views on this matter have, however, been reported from the earlier generations who preceded them. One such view is that once a manumission contract has been concluded for him, he becomes a debtor like any other and never returns to slavery, since he has purchased himself from his master for a specified price payable at a specified time. This is an anomalous view, refuted by the authentic Sunnah of the Prophet, peace be upon him, concerning the account of Barīrah, as related in the hadith of ‘Ā’ishah and others. Mālik narrated it from Hishām ibn ‘Urwah, from his father, “from ‘Ā’ishah, who said: Barīrah came to me and said, ‘I have contracted with my owners to purchase my freedom for nine ounces, one ounce each year, so help me.’ ‘Ā’ishah said, ‘If your owners would like [me to count it out for them, with the right of patronage belonging to me, I would do so.’ In the report of Yahyā ibn Sa‘īd