English
Safinah narrated: I was a slave of Umm Salamah. She said: “I will free you on the condition that you serve the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as long as you live.” I said: “Even if you did not condition it, I would not leave the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as long as I live.” So she freed me and stipulated it.
Possible references (unverified, pending editorial review)
- Candidate: Sunan Abi Dawud 3932 (unverified) 97% confidence
- Candidate: Sunan Ibn Majah 2526 (unverified) 94% confidence
Confidence and text similarity are not editorial verification.
Commentary and footnotes (1)
Note 1
(1) The statement: “She freed me and stipulated”: In detail, if a master frees a slave on condition of his service—e.g., serving the master or another for a year—and he accepts, he is freed immediately, as emancipation on a condition requires acceptance in the session, not the existence of the accepted, like other contracts. He serves from that moment for the specified period, whether a year or less or more. This is our view and Shafi‘i’s. If the master says: “I freed you on condition you serve me forever” or unspecified, and he accepts, he is freed immediately, and owes the master the value of his slavery, per the two Shaykhs and one of Shafi‘i’s views. If he or the master dies before service, the value is still owed, taken from him for the master’s heirs or from the slave’s estate for the master. For Muhammad and Zufar, and another of Shafi‘i’s views, the value of his service is owed, which we adopt, per Hawi. This is gathered from Ad-Durr Al-Mukhtar, Radd Al-Muhtar, Fath Al-Qadir, and Al-Mirqat.