Muwatta Imam Malik (Riwayat Yahya)

Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said that as for all bequests of emancipation, whether made in good health or illness, they can be revoked or changed. However, in the case of tadbir, once someone has been made a mudabbar, there is no longer the option to revoke it.

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.

Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said that if a person, while in good health, declares several of his slaves as mudabbar and possesses no wealth other than them, and if he declared them mudabbar one after the other, then the one who was declared mudabbar first will be freed from one third of the wealth, then the second, then the third, and so on as long as there is room within one third of the wealth. If he declared all of them mudabbar at the same time in a single statement, then one third of each will be freed when all are declared mudabbar during illness.

Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said that if a person declared his slave as Mudabbar and had no other wealth except that, then the master died and the Mudabbar has wealth, one third of the Mudabbar will be set free and the wealth will remain with him.

Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said that if a mudabbar is made a mukatab by his master, then the master dies and leaves nothing except him, then one third of him will be freed, and one third will be deducted from the price of the kitabah, and two thirds will have to be paid by the mudabbar.

Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said that if a person, during his terminal illness, frees half or all of his slave, and he had previously made his slave a mudabbar, then from one-third of the wealth, the mudabbar will be freed first. Then, if the remaining wealth suffices to free the slave, he will be freed; otherwise, he will be freed to the extent of the wealth that remains.