any excess over the clothing appropriate to someone of his standing. Mālik was uncertain whether his wife’s clothing should be left to her, since providing it is an obligation arising only in exchange for a counter-benefit, and its use extends over a long period. It would thus be like providing her maintenance beyond the specified period. Sahnūn said: His wife’s clothing is not left to him. His other clothes and goods are sold, as are his ring, weapons and two garments for Friday prayer, unless those two garments have little value. Ibn Nāfi' related from Mālik that he is left only a garment to cover himself. This is also the position of Ibn Kināna, who said that nothing is left to him.

There are two opinions on whether his scholarly books are sold to repay his debts. Mālik said in Ibn al-Mawwāz’s book that they are not sold for this purpose. This accords with his position in al-Mudawwana, since he disapproved of selling books of jurisprudence. In Ibn al-Qāsim’s transmission in the Book of Pledges, however, pledging them is permitted; according to this report, selling them is likewise permissible. Most of Mālik’s companions held that selling them is permissible, whether to repay debts or otherwise, since there is no distinction between the two. This question rests on their disagreement over whether selling such books is permissible or disliked. Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Hakam said: Ibn Wahb’s books were sold for three hundred dinars while his companions were still present in considerable numbers, and they did not object.

As for a copy of the Quran, it is sold to repay debts, for there is no disagreement within the school over the permissibility of selling it. A slave woman who has borne her master a child is not hired out to repay his debts, whereas a slave woman whose emancipation is stipulated to take effect upon his death may be hired out. The payments due under a slave’s contract of emancipation may be sold to repay his master’s debts.

An insolvent debtor is not compelled to revoke a gift he has made to his child, to exercise a right of pre-emption that would yield him a profit, or to take property belonging to a slave woman who has borne him a child or a slave whose emancipation he has stipulated upon his death. This is Mālik’s position in the Book of the Slave Authorized to Trade. In Ibn al-Qāsim’s transmission in the Book of Endowments, however, there is something that conflicts with this: the case of someone who establishes an endowment and stipulates that its beneficiary may sell it if he wishes.

Nor is the insolvent debtor compelled to accept anything offered to him as a gift, charity, a bequest or a loan, or lent to him for use. If his father gives him a slave who becomes automatically free upon entering his ownership, that slave is freed and is not sold to repay his debts. This is because the donor gave him the slave only so that the slave would become free, not so that the creditors could take him. This is the reason given in the transmitted report. Consider, on this reasoning, what would follow if he gave him the slave without knowing that the slave was one who would become automatically free upon entering his ownership. If, however, he inherits such a slave, there is disagreement: Abū Zayd related from Ibn al-Qāsim that the slave is sold to repay the debts and does not become free upon entering his ownership, whereas Ashhab said that he does become free.