Muwatta Imam Malik (Riwayat Yahya)

Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said that if a person makes his slave a mukatab (one who has a contract for freedom) for gold or silver, and sets a condition in the contract such as travel, service, or sacrifice, but specifies this condition, then if the mukatab becomes able to pay his installments before the due time and pays them, but this condition still remains upon him, he will become free, and his sanctity will be complete. Now, regarding this condition, if it is such that the mukatab himself has to fulfill it (like the condition of travel or service), then it will not be obligatory upon the mukatab, nor will the master have the right to demand its fulfillment. And if the condition is such that something has to be given, like the condition of sacrifice or clothing, then it will be like the dirhams and dinars; the value of that thing will be assessed and he will pay it along with his installments. Until he pays it, he will not be free.

Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said that a mukatab is like a slave whom the master sets free after ten years of service. If the master dies and ten years have not passed, then he will complete the ten years of service with the heirs, and the wala’ will go to the one who established his freedom, or to his male offspring or to his asabah (male relatives through the father).

Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said that if a person stipulates with his mukatab (contracted slave) that he should not travel, or not marry, or not leave his land without his permission, and if he does so, then it will be in his (the master’s) power to annul the contract of manumission. In this case, the annulment of the contract will not be in his power, even if the mukatab does any of these things. If the master annuls the contract of the mukatab, then the mukatab should complain to the judge, who will rule that the contract cannot be annulled. However, it is necessary that the mukatab should not marry, travel, or leave the land without the master’s permission, whether this condition was stipulated or not. The reason for this is that a man contracts his slave for one hundred dinars, and the slave has a thousand dinars with him, so he marries and spends those dinars as dowry, then becomes helpless and returns to the master, having neither wealth nor anything else. In this, there is complete loss for the master. Or the mukatab travels, and the time for the installments arrives, but he is not present, so in this there is hardship for the master. For this reason, it is not proper for the mukatab to marry or travel without the master’s permission; rather, the authority over these matters belongs to the master, whether he permits or forbids.