Muwatta Imam Malik (Riwayat Yahya)

Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said that if someone makes a bequest for the emancipation of a slave woman but does not make her a mudabbara, then her children will not be freed along with their mother, because the master had the right to change this bequest, and freedom was not established for their mother. Rather, it is like someone saying: If such-and-such slave woman remains with me until my death, then she is free. If she remains until his death, then she will be freed, but the master has the right to sell her or her children before death. Thus, according to the ancient Sunnah, there is a great difference between a bequest of emancipation and a bequest of tadbeer. If a bequest were like tadbeer, then no person would have the right to change or alter his bequest.