Chapter: Women with whom intercourse is permissible through ownership (mulk al-yamin)

Any woman whose marriage to a man is forbidden because of kinship, affinity, or fosterage remains equally forbidden for him to have sexual relations with by virtue of ownership. Conversely, every woman he may lawfully marry he may also engage in intercourse with, provided he owns her.

Combining two sisters for intercourse under ownership is prohibited just as combining them in marriage is. This is the view of the vast majority of scholars and the jurists of the various centers of learning; it is the opinion on which practice and legal verdicts have long rested, and any dissent on the point is considered anomalous.

If a man looks at a slave girl and, for sexual gratification, sees from her anything beyond her face and hands—such as her hair, chest, leg, or any other attractive part—she thereby becomes unlawful to his father and his son. According to Malik, her mother and her daughter likewise become forbidden to him. The same ruling applies if he touches her with desire.

Some maintain that the prohibition arises only from actual intercourse, yet the earlier opinion is the more precautionary, while the latter is closer to analogy and, God willing, sounder upon reflection.

There is no objection to having intercourse, by right of ownership, with slave women who belong to the People of the Book.