and then dies before the money is actually handed over, the liability remains in force; it is not cancelled.
If, however, he places the slave under a kitābah (a written manumission contract payable in instalments) and dies before the slave has settled it, the slave is automatically freed and the obligation created by the kitābah falls away.

When a non-Muslim (dhimmī) master declares one of his slaves mudabbar and the slave subsequently embraces Islam, the authorities separate the two: the slave is hired out, and the wages are turned over to the master. If the master then dies, the slave is emancipated out of one-third of the estate. A second opinion—advanced by Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿaddal and Ismāʿīl—rules that the slave should instead be sold and the proceeds given to the master, by analogy with an umm walad who becomes Muslim before her owner.

A master may also enter into a kitābah with a mudabbar. Should the master die before the kitābah is paid off and two-thirds of the agreed sum is still outstanding, two-thirds of the slave remains under the kitābah: if he is able to pay, he becomes fully free; if he defaults, that two-thirds reverts to the heirs as their property. If he has already paid every instalment (nujūm) save one, then one-third of his person is set free and one-third of the remaining instalment is remitted.