Hadith 27986

Malik said, "The best of what is said about a man who buys themukatab of a man is that if the man wrote the slave's kitaba fordinars or dirhams, he does not sell him unless it is for merchandisewhich is paid immediately and not deferred, because if it is deferred,it would be a debt for a debt. A debt for a debt is forbidden."He said, "If the master gives a mukatab his kitaba for certainmerchandise of camels, cattle, sheep, or slaves, it is more correctthat the buyer buy him for gold, silver, or different goods than theones his master wrote the kitaba for, and that must be paidimmediately, not deferred."Malik said, "The best of what Ihave heard about a mukatab when he is sold is that he is more entitledto buy his kitaba than the one who buys him if he can pay his masterthe price for which he was sold in cash. That is because his buyinghimself is his freedom, and freedom has priority over what bequestsaccompany it. If one of those who have written the kitaba for themukatab sells his portion of him, so that a half, a third, a fourth,or whatever share of the mukatab is sold, the mukatab does not havethe right of pre-emption in what is sold of him. That is because it islike the severance of a partner, and a partner can only make asettlement for a partner of the one who is mukatab with the permissionof his partners because what is sold of him does not give him completerights as a free man and his property is barred from him, and bybuying part of himself, it is feared that he will become incapable ofcompleting payment because of what he had to spend. That is not likethe mukatab buying himself completely unless whoever has some of thekitaba remaining due to him gives him permission. If they give himpermission, he is more entitled to what is sold of him."Malik said, "Selling one of the instalments of a mukatab is not halal.That is because it Is an uncertain transaction. If the mukatab cannotpay it, what he owes is nullified. If he dies or goes bankrupt and heowes debts to people, then the person who bought his instalment doesnot take any of his portion with the creditors. The person who buysone of the instalments of the mukatab is in the position of the masterof the mukatab. The master of the mukatab does not have a share withthe creditors of the mukatab for what he is owed of the kitaba of hisslave. It is also like that with the kharaj, (a set amount deducteddaily from the slave against his earnings), which accumulates for amaster from the earnings of his slave. The creditors of his slave donot allow him a share for what has accumulated for him from thosedeductions."Malik said, "There is no harm in a mukatabpaying off his kitaba with coin or merchandise other than themerchandise for which he wrote his kitaba if it is identical with it,on time (for the instalment) or delayed. "Malik said that ifa mukatab died and left an umm walad and small children by her or bysomeone else and they could not work and it was feared that they wouldbe unable to fulfil their kitaba, the umm walad of the father was soldif her price would pay all the kitaba for them, whether or not she wastheir mother. They were paid for and set free because their father didnot forbid her sale if he feared that he would be unable to completehis kitaba. If her price would not pay for them and neither she northey could work, they all reverted to being slaves of the master.Malik said, "What is done among us in the case of a person whobuys the kitaba of a mukatab, and then the mukatab dies before he haspaid his kitaba, is that the person who bought the kitaba inheritsfrom him. If, rather than dying, the mukatab cannot pay, the buyer hashis person. If the mukatab pays his kitaba to the person who boughthim and he is freed, his wala' goes to the person who wrote the kitabaand the person who bought his kitaba does not have any of it."