Chapter on Manumission

He was asked about freeing a child born of unlawful intercourse.

He replied:

It is permissible to free a child born of unlawful intercourse, and one is rewarded for freeing him. And Allah knows best.

The shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

“A man from Quraysh married a slave woman, and she bore him a child. Is the child free, or is he a slave?”

He replied:

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. If a man marries a woman knowing that she is a slave, then, by agreement of the imams, his child by her belongs to her master. A child follows his father in lineage and patronage, and his mother in freedom and slavery.

If the child belongs to a people whom all agree may be enslaved, then all agree that he is a slave. If he belongs to a people whose enslavement the jurists dispute, such as the Arabs, then his status as a slave is likewise disputed. The correct view is that “enslaving Arabs and non-Arabs” is permissible, as established in the two Sahīh collections, where Abū Hurayra—may Allah be pleased with him—said:

“I have continued to love Banū Tamīm ever since three things