under Mālik’s school, whether payment is due immediately or deferred. If the contract is concluded without specifying this, payment is arranged in instalments, since the customary practice in manumission contracts is for payment to be deferred and divided into instalments. This is the position of the later scholars of our school. Ibn Abī Zayd says in his Risāla: “A manumission contract is permissible for whatever amount the slave and his master agree upon, payable in instalments.” His wording apparently implies that such a contract can only provide for payment in instalments, but this is not correct according to Mālik’s school. It was Abū Hanīfa and his companions who prohibited manumission contracts requiring immediate payment and regarded them as impermissible. Some permitted payment in a single instalment, while others said that there must be at least two instalments. The evidence supporting Mālik’s position is the saying of Allah, Mighty and Majestic:

“Then make a contract with them if you know there is good in them.” [al-Nūr: 33]

The command is unrestricted and does not distinguish one form of manumission contract from another. Its apparent meaning therefore permits contracts with either immediate or deferred payment.

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A manumission contract may not involve contractual uncertainty or an unspecified consideration. Nevertheless, a degree of uncertainty is tolerated in such contracts that is not tolerated in sales. Thus, a manumission contract may stipulate two slaves whose characteristics have not been specified, or a slave belonging to so-and-so, and similar considerations, even though these would not be permissible in sales.

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This requires further distinction. Consider a manumission contract with an unspecified term, or one involving uncertainty or an unspecified consideration, apart from the slight uncertainty already mentioned as tolerable. If the uncertainty affects both parties, or the master alone, the contract is impermissible without disagreement. Examples include the master saying, “I contract with you for your freedom by the time so-and-so dies, in return for such-and-such,” specifying a known consideration; or setting a known term in return for a runaway slave, a stray camel, or a foetus still in its mother’s womb belonging to so-and-so, “if you are able to acquire any of these by the deadline through a gift or inheritance”; or stipulating pearls whose characteristics have not been specified, and similar considerations.

If, however, the uncertainty affects the slave under the manumission contract—for example, if the master contracts with him for a specified term in return for a slave belonging to so-and-so, or on condition that he retrieve the master’s runaway slave, or says to him, “I contract with you for your freedom on condition that you tend these cows for me; if they reach such-and-such by such-and-such a date, you are free”—then all these cases may be analysed according to