‘Ubayda al-Salmānī, who said: “‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib addressed us, saying: ‘Abū Bakr and ‘Umar held their respective views regarding the emancipation of slave women who had borne children to their masters until they passed away. Then ‘Uthmān adopted that view. Later, however, I came to favour selling them to settle debts.’” ‘Ubayda said: “I said to ‘Alī: ‘Your view together with that of ‘Umar and ‘Uthmān, in agreement with the community, is dearer to us than your individual view in disagreement with it.’ He accepted what I said and acknowledged that I was right.”

This constituted ‘Alī’s agreement, may Allah be pleased with him, with the other Companions that these women could not be sold for purposes other than settling debts. Then, by accepting ‘Ubayda’s statement and acknowledging its correctness, he abandoned his individual position permitting their sale to settle debts and returned to the consensus of the Companions.

Abū Dāwūd al-Qiyāsī, the Rāfisa, and the literalists held that they could be sold both to settle debts and for other purposes. Those defending their position cited the words of Allah, Mighty and Majestic:

“Allah has permitted trade and forbidden usury.” [al-Baqarah: 275]

They also cited the report: “Jābir ibn ‘Abd Allāh said: ‘We used to sell slave women who had borne children to their masters during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah, during the time of Abū Bakr, and in the early part of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb’s caliphate. Then ‘Umar forbade us to sell them.’”

None of this provides them with any proof. As for the Quranic verse whose apparent meaning they invoke—the words of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, “Allah has permitted trade and forbidden usury” [al-Baqarah: 275]—its general scope is restricted by the evidence we have mentioned. As for Jābir’s hadith, the scholars of transmission consider it weak. Moreover, a conflicting report has been transmitted from him through his own chain of transmission, in which he said: “We used to sell slave women who had borne children to their masters during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace; then he forbade us to sell them.” Abū al-Faraj mentioned this in al-Hāwī. His prohibition, peace be upon him, abrogated their previous practice of considering such sales permissible and engaging in them. Moreover, acts may take place during a ruler’s tenure without his knowledge, so this provides no proof in any case.

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Such is the basis in transmitted reports for prohibiting the sale of slave women who have borne children to their masters. As for the rational basis for prohibiting it, when a woman conceives her master’s child, who acquires free status through his father, the child is joined to her and mingles with her until he becomes like a part of her body. Freedom thus extends throughout her person, and she becomes, in effect, emancipated through him. This is among the soundest and strongest explanations of the ruling, for it is related from ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb, may Allah be pleased with him, that he said: “Our blood has mingled with theirs, and our flesh with theirs.” An analogy may be sought on this basis by