he had been heard to say this before incurring debts, or the matter had become known and widespread among the women and neighbours, in which case his statement is accepted.

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There is no disagreement that a slave woman’s child by her free master is free. As for the children of a slave woman who has borne her master’s child, if fathered by someone other than her master, Mālik, all his followers, and all the jurists of the various regions hold that they share their mother’s status: they are emancipated upon the master’s death from the estate as a whole. They differ from her, however, regarding service, hiring out, and intercourse. He may put them to work and hire them out, but if the child is female, he may not have intercourse with her, since she is forbidden to him, like a stepdaughter, whom the explicit text of the Quran forbids. When a man has intercourse with a woman whom he owns, her daughters become forbidden to him, just as they would if he had intercourse with her through marriage. There is no disagreement about this.

He may hire them out and put them to work because their protected status is weaker than their mother’s; thus, he is permitted to do with them what he is not permitted to do with her. Moreover, he may have intercourse with the mother but not with the daughter. If we also prohibited him from putting the daughter to work and hiring her out, none of his rights of ownership over her would remain, and her emancipation would become obligatory. Rabīʿah adopted this position, saying that the children of such a woman by someone other than her master must be emancipated immediately. There is a third opinion on the matter: that they remain slaves. This is reported from al-Zuhrī, among others, and is said to be his well-known position. Success comes through Allah.

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Anything a slave woman miscarries that is known to be a child gives her the status of a slave woman who has borne her master’s child, whether it is a lump of flesh, a clot, or blood. This is Ibn al-Qāsim’s position and what he relates from Mālik. Ashhab said that a mass of accumulated blood does not give her this status. Hammād ibn Abī Sulaymān and al-Awzāʿī said that if it is a lump of flesh, she is emancipated on that account.

Al-Shāfiʿī held that she does not acquire this status until some feature of its form has developed, such as an eye, a nail, or the like. This is also Abū Hanīfah’s position: she is not emancipated except on the basis of something about which there is no doubt—namely, that she miscarries a formed fetus, or one with a discernible feature such as a hand or the like.

The reasoning behind this opinion is that he considered it impossible to be certain that it was a child unless some feature of its form had developed. The reasoning behind the position of Hammād ibn Abī Sulaymān and al-Awzāʿī is that it may be known with certainty to be a child, even if none of its features has developed, provided it is a lump of flesh. Ashhab’s reasoning is that it is possible