a similar report from Abū Hurayrah appears in the two Sahīh collections. Thus, he required the slave’s emancipation to be completed, even though he was partly owned by someone else. The person freeing him was obliged to pay his co-owners their shares of the price so that the slave’s emancipation would be complete and Allah would have no partner. The four imams and the rest of the Muslim community hold that emancipation must be completed. The majority, however, say that if the person freeing the slave has sufficient means, he must pay compensation, as stated in the hadiths of Ibn Umar and Abū Hurayrah.

If he lacks the means, some hold that the slave must work to pay for his freedom. This is the position of Abū Hanīfah and of Ahmad according to one of the two reports from him, the report preferred by Abū al-Khattāb. Others do not require this. This is the position of Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Ahmad according to the other report, which most of his followers preferred.

The point is that, of all endowed properties, mosques are most fully released from private ownership and most closely resemble emancipation. No one may receive compensation for their use, as is permissible with other endowments, just as someone who frees a slave no longer owns his services. Nevertheless, Ahmad followed the Companions in permitting a mosque to be replaced with another mosque and the original mosque to be converted into a marketplace.

He also permitted pilgrimage offerings and Eid sacrifices to be replaced with better ones, even though these too are dedicated to Allah, Exalted is He, and must be slaughtered for Him. It is therefore all the more appropriate to permit substitution in other endowments, which more closely resemble transfers of ownership. For human rights admit forms of exchange and substitution that the rights of Allah, Exalted is He, do not. An exchange involving a human right is prohibited only if it wrongs someone else, involves a right of Allah, or concerns one of Allah’s rights. Thus, the prayers and Hajj may not be replaced by another act, nor may the direction of prayer