The first is that he becomes free automatically upon coming into his ownership. This is the position of Abū Hanīfa and the view of al-Qādī Abū Yaʿlā among Ahmad’s followers. Nevertheless, neither inherits from the other.

The second is that he does not become free automatically upon coming into his ownership. This is the position of Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī, and the position explicitly reported from Ahmad. And Allah knows best.

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

“A man gave his wife a slave woman as part of her dowry, and she freed her. Some time later, he had intercourse with the freed woman, who bore a son, while his wife bore a daughter. He then died. Does the son born to the freed woman inherit alongside the daughter born to his wife?”

He replied:

If he had intercourse with the freed woman without marrying her, knowing that intercourse with her was forbidden, then his child is a child born of unlawful intercourse. According to the four imams, the child does not inherit from the man who had intercourse with his mother, nor does that man inherit from the child. And Allah knows best.