and ṭawl refers to wealth. It is related from Malik that a man who has the financial ability to marry a free woman may nevertheless marry a slave woman even though he can afford a free wife; this, however, is a weak opinion ascribed to him. On another occasion he said, “It is not an explicit prohibition,” and so he allowed it. Malik was asked about a man who marries a slave woman while possessing ṭawl, and he replied, “I think the two should be separated.” When he was told, “He fears falling into sexual sin,” he responded, “Let the whip be applied to him,” but he later softened that stance.

If a free man who already has a slave wife marries a free woman, and the free woman is unaware of the slave wife, there are two reports from Malik. One says she has no right of choice because she failed to inquire; the other says she does have the option. If a man has two slave wives, then marries a free woman and she knows of one slave wife but not the other, the same divergence exists: one narration grants her a choice, the other does not.

Malik permitted a man who is married to a free woman to take an additional slave wife, saying, “The marriage stands, and the free woman has the option either to remain with her husband or to leave him.” His earlier view, however, was that such a marriage is invalid and that the couple should be separated—and that is the more cautious, preferable position. ʿAbd al-Malik said the free woman may choose either to annul the slave woman’s marriage or to let it stand. Malik also said that if a male slave marries a slave woman in addition to a free wife, the free wife has no such option, for the slave woman is simply one of his wives.