Malik said: Each person must be given clothing in which his prayer is valid: a man is given one garment, while a woman is given two garments—a shift and a head-covering.

Saʿid ibn al-Musayyib said: Each needy person is to be given two garments.

His saying, Exalted is He: “or freeing a slave.” If he chooses manumission, he must free a believing slave. The same applies to every expiation, such as the expiation for unlawful killing, ẓihār—a form of marital repudiation—and sexual intercourse during the daytime in Ramadan: in each case, a believing slave must be freed. Abu Hanifah and al-Thawri, may Allah have mercy on them, permitted the freeing of an unbelieving slave in all of these cases except the expiation for killing, because Allah Most High specifically qualified the slave in that case as a believer. We say: What is stated without qualification is to be understood in light of what is qualified [just as Allah Most High stipulated uprightness for witnesses in one place, saying: “And bring to witness two just men from among you” (al-Talaq, 2), while He stated it without qualification elsewhere, saying: “And bring to witness two witnesses from among your men” (al-Baqarah, 282). Thus, uprightness is a condition in all such cases, by interpreting the unrestricted in light of the restricted] (1). The same applies here. By agreement, freeing an apostate does not suffice as an expiation.

It is stipulated that the slave be wholly owned. Thus, if one frees, as expiation, a slave under a contract of manumission, a slave-woman who has borne her master a child, a slave purchased on the condition that he be freed, or a relative whose purchase automatically emancipates him, intending it as expiation, the person is freed, but it does not suffice for the expiation. The adherents of legal opinion permitted freeing a slave under a contract of manumission if he had not paid any of his instalments, and they also permitted freeing such a relative as expiation. It is further stipulated that the slave be free of every defect that clearly impairs the ability to work. Thus, one whose hand or foot has been severed does not suffice, nor does a blind person, one who is severely disabled, or one who is continuously insane. A one-eyed person, a deaf person, and one whose ears or nose have been severed do suffice, because these defects do not clearly impair the ability to work.

According to Abu Hanifah, may Allah have mercy on him, every defect that entirely eliminates a category of benefit [in its full measure] (2) prevents validity. Accordingly, he permitted one whose hand had been severed, but did not permit one whose ears had been severed.

His saying, Exalted is He: “Whoever cannot find the means, then he must fast for three days.” If the person liable for expiation of an oath is unable to feed, clothe, or free a slave, he must fast for three days. Inability means that nothing remains of his wealth beyond his own sustenance, that of his dependents, and his necessary needs, with which he could feed, clothe, or free a slave; in that case, he fasts for three days.

Some said: If he possesses enough with which he can provide the food, even if it does not exceed what is sufficient for his own needs, then fasting is not available to him. This was the view of al-Hasan and Saʿid ibn Jubayr.