The Prophet’s words—peace and blessings be upon him—to the man who singled out some of his children, “Have someone other than me witness this,” were a warning to him, for he also said:

“Take it back.”

That man did indeed take it back. If, however, he made a bequest to the daughters to take effect after his death, it is not binding, by scholarly consensus. The correct scholarly view is that a man who singles out his daughters for gifts while excluding his unborn child must revoke those gifts during his lifetime, as the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, commanded. If he dies without revoking them, they must be revoked after his death as well, according to the sounder of the two views, in obedience to Allah and His Messenger, in observance of the justice commanded, and in following the example of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with them both. The favoured recipient may not lawfully take the excess; rather, that recipient must share all the property with their siblings according to the justice Allah has commanded. Allah, glorified and exalted is He, knows best.

He was asked:

“A man owns a slave woman and permits his son to enjoy intimacy and have intercourse with her, without transferring ownership of her to him, giving her to him as a gift, or doing anything else of that kind. The slave woman then bears a child to her owner’s son. Does permission to enjoy intimacy and have intercourse with her constitute a transfer of ownership to the son? Is the child free, and does the slave woman acquire the status of umm walad (a slave woman who has borne her master a child) in relation to her owner’s son, so that her owner—the young man’s father, who permitted his son to enjoy intimacy and have intercourse with her—is forbidden to sell her?”

The answer:

Praise be to Allah. This question rests on two principles. The first concerns the form of contracts. The position of Mālik, of Ahmad according to the well-known view in his school, and of others is that sales, gifts, and leases do not require a prescribed verbal formula; rather, they are concluded