That Al-Miqdad bin `Amr Al-Kindi, who was an ally of Bani Zuhra and one of those who fought the
battle of Badr together with Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) told him that he said to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ), "Suppose I met
one of the infidels and we fought, and he struck one of my hands with his sword and cut it off and
then took refuge in a tree and said, "I surrender to Allah (i.e. I have become a Muslim),' could I kill
him, O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ), after he had said this?" Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "You should not kill him." Al-
Miqdad said, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! But he had cut off one of my two hands, and then he had uttered
those words?" Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) replied, "You should not kill him, for if you kill him, he would be in
your position where you had been before killing him, and you would be in his position where he had
been before uttering those words."
Sahih al-Bukhari Book 64, Hadith 68
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) employed an employee (to collect Zakat). The employee returned after completing his
job and said, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! This (amount of Zakat) is for you, and this (other amount) was given
to me as a present." The Prophet (ﷺ) said to him, "Why didn't you stay at your father's or mother's house
and see if you would be given presents or not?" Then Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) got up in the evening after the
prayer, and having testified that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and praised and
glorified Allah as He deserved, he said, "Now then ! What about an employee whom we employ and
then he comes and says, 'This amount (of Zakat) is for you, and this (amount) was given to me as a
present'? Why didn't he stay at the house of his father and mother to see if he would be given presents
or not? By Him in Whose Hand Muhammad's soul is, none of you will steal anything of it (i.e. Zakat)
but will bring it by carrying it over his neck on the Day of Resurrection. If it has been a camel, he will
bring it (over his neck) while it will be grunting, and if it has been a cow, he will bring it (over his
neck), while it will be mooing; and if it has been a sheep, he will bring it (over his neck) while it will
be bleeding." The Prophet (ﷺ) added, "I have preached you (Allah's Message)." Abu Humaid said, "Then
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) raised his hands so high that we saw the whiteness of his armpits."
Sahih al-Bukhari Book 83, Hadith 15
Malik said, "The generally agreed-on way of doing things in our
community is that any setting-free which a man makes in a bequest that
he wills in health or illness can be rescinded by him when he likes
and changed when he likes as long as it is not a tadbir. There is no
way to rescind a tadbir once he has made it.
"As for every
child born to him by a slave-girl who he wills to be set free but he
does not make mudabbara, her children are not freed with her when she
is freed. That is because her master can change his will when he likes
and rescind it when he likes, and being set free is not confirmed for
her. She is in the position of a slave-girl whose master says, 'If so-
and-so remains with me until I die, she is free.' " (i.e. he does not
make a definite contract.)
Malik said, "If she fulfils that,
that is hers. If he wishes, before that, he can sell her and her child
because he has not entered her child into any condition he has made
for her.
"The bequest in setting free is different from the
tadbir. The precedent of the sunna makes a distinction between them.
Had a bequest been in the position of a tadbir, no testator would be
able to change his will and what he mentioned in it of setting free.
His property would be tied up and he would not be able to use it."
Malik said about a man who made all his slaves mudabbar while
he was well and they were his only property, "If he made some of them
mudabbar before the others, one begins with the first until the third
of his property is reached. (i.e. their value is matched against the
third, and those whose value is covered are free.) If he makes the
mall mudabbar in his illness, and says in one statement, 'So-and-so is
free. So-and-so is free. So-and-so is free if my death occurs in this
illness,' or he makes them all mudabbar in one statement, they are
matched against the third and one does not begin with any of them
before the others. It is a bequest and they have a third of his
property divided between them in shares. Then the third of his
property frees each of them according to the extent of his share.
"No single one of them is given preference when that all occurs in
his illness."
Malik spoke about a master who made his slave a
mudabbar and then he died and the only property he had was the
mudabbar slave and the slave had property. He said, "A third of the
mudabbar is freed and his property remains in his possession."
Malik said about a mudabbar whose master gave him a kitaba and
then the master died and did not leave any property other than him, "A
third of him is freed and a third of his kitaba is reduced, and he
owes two-thirds."
Malik spoke about a man who freed half of
his slave while he was ill and made irrevocable his freeing half of
him or all of him, and he had made another slave of his mudabbar
before that. He said, "One begins with the slave he made mudabbar
before the one he freed while he was ill. That is because the man
cannot revoke what he has made mudabbar and cannot follow it with a
matter which will rescind it. When this mudabbar is freed, then what
remains of the third goes to the one who had half of him freed so as
to complete his setting-free entirely in the third of the property of
the deceased. If what is left of the third does not cover that,
whatever is covered by what is left of the third is freed after the
first mudabbar is freed . "
Muwatta Malik Book 40, Hadith 3