was effected before they themselves were freed or only after they had settled their instalments and obtained emancipation. This is the position adopted by a group of Mālik’s Medinan companions. Mālik himself, however, held that the walāʾ of the lower mukātab reverts to the children of that mukātab. He further stated that if the lower mukātab completes his payments and is emancipated before his own master, the walāʾ belongs to the upper master.