He replied:

There are two reports from Ahmad on this matter. According to the first—which is also the view of Abū Hanīfa, Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī—the right of patronage belongs exclusively to males. According to the second, sons and daughters share the right of patronage, with a male receiving the share of two females. And Allah knows best.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

“A man owns a slave woman and has a son. The son had unlawful intercourse with her, and she also had unlawful intercourse with others. She bore a child and attributed him to the man’s son, who acknowledged him as his own, with the master’s consent. Does the child inherit when the man who acknowledged him dies, or not?”

He replied:

If the son acknowledged the child as his own during his lifetime, saying, “This is my son,” the child’s lineage is established through him, and he is counted among his children, provided he has no other known father. The same applies if it is known that the slave woman belonged to the son, for:

“The child belongs to the lawful bed, and the adulterer has no claim.”

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

“A man’s mother owns a slave woman. He had intercourse with her without his mother’s permission, and she became pregnant by him and bore a boy. He then acquired ownership of both of them and wishes to sell his son born of unlawful intercourse.”

He replied:

He should free him, by agreement of the scholars. Indeed, the scholars have differed over whether the boy becomes free automatically upon coming into his ownership, without an act of manumission. There are two views: