the seller. Sahnūn, however, said that this is not permissible. His reasoning is that the purchaser has relieved the seller of liability in return for obtaining immediate use of the enslaved woman’s services. In Sahnūn’s view, this involves a loan yielding a benefit, since the purchaser advances payment in return for the immediate benefit of her services.
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Custodial placement lasts for whatever period establishes that she is not pregnant, as discussed earlier. If he purchases her at the beginning of her menstrual flow, that menstrual period suffices for custodial placement. If, however, she is near the end of menstruation, it does not suffice, and custodial placement must begin afresh with her next menstrual period. The reasoning is that, at the beginning of menstruation, the womb does not receive semen because of the blood it discharges, whereas near its end it may receive semen because the flow of blood is slight. Hence the distinction between the beginning and end of menstruation. Another view holds that a complete menstrual period is indispensable, just as a woman observing her waiting period counts only periods of purity. Ibn Shaʿbān reported this view in al-Zāhī, preferred it and adopted it. Al-Fadl also related it from Mālik through Ashhab’s transmission from him.
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Custodial placement is obligatory upon an agreed rescission if rescission is requested after her menstrual period has ended, because an agreed rescission constitutes a new sale. There is disagreement over whether custodial placement is obligatory when she is returned because of a defect, corresponding to the disagreement over whether such a return annuls the original sale or constitutes a new one.
Consider also the case of a man who marries a woman, giving her a beautiful enslaved woman as her dowry: is custodial placement obligatory in this case or not? I know of no explicit statement by our scholars on this question, and either view is tenable, since marriage is founded on generosity, and a degree of uncertainty is permitted in it that is not permitted in sales. The more evident view is that custodial placement is obligatory in this case. Allah knows best, and success comes through Him.