Selling or Gifting Walā’ (Right of Inheritance of a Freed Slave) is Prohibited
Written by: Imran Ayub Lahori
❖ Principle
The right of Walā’ (inheritance of a freed slave) cannot be sold or gifted. It is a permanent bond, similar to lineage, established by the act of manumission.
❖ Evidences
① Narration of Ibn ʿUmar (RA):
أن رسول الله نهى عن بيع الولاء و هبته
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade selling or gifting Walā’.”
[Bukhārī: 2535, Kitāb al-ʿItq: Bāb Bayʿ al-Walā’ wa Hibatahu; Muslim: 1506; Muwaṭṭa’: 2/783; Abū Dāwūd: 2919; Nasā’ī: 7/306; Tirmidhī: 1236; Ibn Mājah: 2747; Aḥmad: 2/9, 79; Ṭayālisī: 1775; Ḥumaydī: 2/285; Ibn al-Jārūd: 978; Ibn Ḥibbān: 4927]
② Narration of Ibn ʿUmar (RA):
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
الولاء لحمة كلحمة النسب لا يباع ولا يوهب
“Walā’ is a tie like the tie of kinship; it can neither be sold nor gifted.”
[Bayhaqī: 6/240; Ḥākim: 4/341]
❖ Scholarly Opinions
- Majority of Scholars (Jumhūr): It is not permissible to sell or gift Walā’.
- Imām Mālik (رحمه الله): Permitted its sale.
[Nayl al-Awṭār: 4/137; Fatḥ al-Bārī: 13/353]
❖ Explanation of Walā’
- Walā’ means becoming an ʿAṣabah (residual heir).
- This right is established by the master granting freedom to his slave.
- Therefore, in the absence of fixed-share heirs (Aṣḥāb al-Furūḍ) and ʿAṣabah relatives, the emancipator inherits from his freed slave.
[al-Furūḍ: p. 20]
