before the deadline expires, he incurs no penalty. There is, however, considerable divergence among them in the subsidiary rulings connected with this chapter.

If a man says to his slave-girl, “You are free if you hate me,” and she answers, “I do not hate you,” he is advised to take full possession of her, yet he is neither compelled to do so nor is any judgment entered against him.

Should he say to his male slave, “If I sell you, you are free,” and then actually sells him, Mālik rules that the slave is freed the instant the sale is concluded and that the purchase price must be returned to the buyer.

If the seller states, “If I sell him, he is free,” while the buyer declares, “If I purchase him, he is free,” and the sale is completed, the emancipation is ascribed to the seller according to Mālik.

And if a man says to another person’s slave, “You are free at my expense,” nothing at all becomes binding on him, whether he subsequently buys that slave or not—unless he explicitly says, “If I buy you…”