Malik related to me that he heard that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz gavea judgement about the mudabbar who did an injury. He said, "The mastermust surrender what he owns of him to the injured person. He is madeto serve the injured person and recompense (in the form of service) istaken from him as the blood-money of the injury. If he completes thatbefore his master dies, he reverts to his master."Maliksaid, "The generally agreed on way of doing things in our communityabout a mudabbar who does an injury and then his master dies and themaster has no property except him is that the third (allowed to bebequeathed) is freed, and then the blood-money for the in jury isdivided into thirds. A third of the blood-money is against the thirdof him which was set free, and two-thirds are against the two-thirdswhich the heirs have. If they wish, they surrender what they have ofhim to the party with the injury, and if they wish, they give theinjured person two-thirds of the blood-money and keep their portion ofthe slave. That is because that injury is a criminal action by theslave and it is not a debt against the master by which whateversetting free and tadbir the master had done would be abrogated. Ifthere were a debt to people held against the master of the slave, aswell as the criminal action of the slave, part of the mudabbar wouldbe sold in proportion to the blood-money of the injury and accordingto the debt. Then one would begin with the blood-money which was forthe criminal action of the slave and it would be paid from the priceof the slave. Then the debt of his master would be paid, and then onewould look at what remained after that of the slave. His third would bbe set free, and two-thirds of him would belong to the heirs. That isbecause the criminal action of the slave is more important than thedebt of his master. That is because, if the man dies and leaves amudabbar slave whose value is one hundred and fifty dinars, and theslave strikes a free man on the head with a blow that lays open theskull, and the blood-money is fifty dinars, and the master of theslave has a debt of fifty dinars, one begins with the fifty dinarswhich are the blood-money of the head wound, and it is paid from theprice of the slave. Then the debt of the master is paid. Then onelooks at what remains of the slave, and a third of him is set free andtwo-thirds of him remain for the heirs. The blood-money is morepressing against his person than the debt of his master. The debt ofhis master is more pressing than the tadbir which is a bequest fromthe third of the property of the deceased. None of the tadbir ispermitted while the master of the mudabbar has a debt which is notpaid. It is a bequest. That is because Allah, the Blessed, theExalted, said, 'After any bequest that is made or any debt.' " (Sura 4ayat 10)Malik said, "If there is enough in the thirdproperty that the deceased can bequeath to free all the mudabbar, heis freed and the blood-money due from his criminal action is held as adebt against him which follows him after he is set free even if thatblood-money is the full blood-money. It is not a debt on the master."Malik spoke about a mudabbar who injured a man and his mastersurrendered him to the injured party, and then the master died and hada debt and did not leave any property other than the mudabbar, and theheirs said, "We surrender the mudabbar to the party," whilst thecreditor said, "My debt exceeds that." Malik said that if thecreditor's debt did exceed that at all , he was more entitled to itand it was taken from the one who owed the debt, according to what thecreditor was owed in excess of the blood-money of the injury. If hisdebt did not exceed it at all, he did not take the slave.Malik spoke about a mudabbar who did an injury and had property, andhis master refused to ransom him. He said, "The injured party takesthe property of the mudabbar for the blood-money of his injury. Ifthere is enough to pay it, the injured party is paid in full for theblood-money of his injury and the mudabbar is returned to his master.If there is not enough to pay it, he takes it from the blood-money anduses the mudabbar for what remains of the blood-money."
USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 40, Hadith 7
Arabic reference: Book 40, Hadith 1502