the mukātab remains a slave so long as any portion of his manumission contract is still unpaid, in every respect: capital retaliation (qiṣāṣ) is waived if a free person kills him; his testimony is not accepted; his pronouncements of divorce carry no legal weight; the ḥadd-penalties are applied to him at the slave’s rate; his killer is liable only for his assessed value; in short, all the rules governing slaves apply to him. The sole exception is that he alone owns his earnings, not his master, as we explained earlier.

The early generations expressed several divergent views about the mukātab, but none of these opinions were adopted by the jurists of the major centers.

Mālik and a group of Medinan scholars held that if a mukātab dies while part of his contract is still outstanding and the estate he leaves exceeds what he still owes, then the heirs who were born during the contract, together with those already party to it, inherit whatever is left of his property after the outstanding portions of their own contract have been paid. No one who was not included with him in that very contract inherits from him—neither his freeborn heirs nor slaves who are mukātab under a separate contract.

As for slaves who were not participants in the contract, they never inherit under any circumstances.

If a brother, nephew, paternal uncle, cousin, or any other agnate shared the contract with him while he also leaves freeborn children, the brother who is under the contract settles the remaining debt from the estate and inherits what is left, to the exclusion of the freeborn children, because the obligation of the contract falls on him, not on them.

Should one of those sharing the contract be someone who does not take the whole inheritance—such as a daughter—she receives her prescribed share and the remainder goes to his patrons (mawālī).

Mālik and his disciples agree that if the wife was not included with him in the contract, she does not inherit from him. Concerning a wife who was included, Mālik’s statements differ: at one time he said she does not inherit, because she is not among those who would be automatically freed were he to acquire them; at another time he said she does inherit, because she shares the legal sanctity of the contract with him, and in this regard she is no different from his other heirs who are mukātab along with him, whether his children or other relatives.

If, among those who share the contract with him, there is someone who would automatically become free by mere ownership and that person pays the debt on his behalf, he may not seek reimbursement from him. But if the person is not of that category, he may return to him for the full amount that corresponds to his share in