to be certain that it is a child even if it is not a lump of flesh, provided it is a clot. The reasoning behind Ibn al-Qāsim’s position and his report from Mālik is that it may be known with certainty to be a child when it is blood, even before it becomes a clot or a lump of flesh.
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Mālik expressed differing opinions concerning a slave woman whose master dies while she is pregnant. On one occasion, he said that she becomes free once the pregnancy is evident through the child’s movements: anyone who kills her is executed, she may inherit, and her property may be inherited. This is Ibn al-Qāsim’s position and what he relates from Mālik. On another occasion, Mālik said that she does not become free until she gives birth, since the apparent pregnancy might subside, leaving it unconfirmed that she had actually been pregnant. This is the position of Ibn al-Mājishūn and Sahnūn. On this same basis, they differed concerning mutual oaths of imprecation over a pregnancy, the obligation to provide maintenance for an irrevocably divorced woman, and many similar questions.
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According to the opinion that she does not become free until she gives birth, she is entitled to maintenance. According to the opinion that she becomes free once the pregnancy is evident, her entitlement to maintenance is disputed, reflecting the disagreement over whether a pregnant slave woman who has borne her master’s child is entitled to maintenance from his estate. Mālik expressed differing opinions on this. He did not, however, differ in holding that a free pregnant woman is not entitled to maintenance from her husband’s estate, even if her inheritance keeps her waiting.
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Mālik expressed two opinions concerning a man who marries a slave woman and then purchases her while she is pregnant: does that pregnancy give her the status of a slave woman who has borne her master’s child?
On one occasion, he said that she acquires that status because the child becomes free upon coming into his ownership while still in her womb. This is the position of Ibn al-Qāsim and most of Mālik’s followers.
On another occasion, he said that she does not acquire that status through this child, because the child had been subject to slavery in its mother’s womb. This is Ashhab’s position and Ibn Abd al-Hakam’s report from Mālik, unless the slave woman belongs to his father or to someone whose ownership would entail the child’s emancipation