Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Said from Said ibn
al-Musayyab that Umar ibn al-Khattab said, "The woman who loses her
husband and does not know where he is, waits for four years, then she
does idda for four months, and then she is free to marry."
Malik said, "If she marries after her idda is over, regardless of
whether the new husband has consummated the marriage or not, her first
husband has no means of access to her."
Malik said, "That is
what is done among us and if her husband reaches her before she has
remarried, he is more entitled to her."
Malik said that he
had seen people disapproving of someone who said that one of the
people (of knowledge) attributed to Umar ibn al-Khattab that he said,
"Her first husband chooses when he comes either her bride-price or his
wife."
Malik said, "I have heard that Umar ibn al-Khattab,
speaking about a woman whose husband divorced her while he was absent
from her, and then he took her back and the news of his taking her
back had not reached her, while the news of his divorcing her had, and
so she had married again, said, 'Her first husband who divorced her
has no means of access to her whether or not the new husband has
consummated the marriage.' "
Malik said, "This is what I like
the best of what I heard about the missing man."
Muwatta Malik Book 29, Hadith 58
Malik related to me that he had asked Ibn Shihab about a slave
who was released. He said, "He gives his wala' to whomever he likes.
If he dies and has not given his wala' to anyone, his inheritance goes
to the muslims and his blood-money is paid by them."
Malik
said, "The best of what has been heard about a slave who is released
is that no one gets his wala', and his inheritance goes to the
muslims, and they pay his blood-money."
Malik said that when
the slave of a jew or christian became muslim and he was freed before
being sold, the wala' of the freed slave went to the muslims. If the
jew or christian became muslim afterwards, the wala' did not revert to
him. "
He said, "However, if a jew or christian frees a slave
from their own deen, and then the freed one becomes muslim before the
jew or christian who freed him becomes muslim and then the one who
freed him has become muslim, his wala' reverts to him because the
wala' was confirmed for him on the day he freed him."
Malik
said that the muslim child of a jew or christian inherited the mawali
of his jewish or christian father when the freed mawla became muslim
before the one who freed him became muslim. If the freed one was
already muslim when he was freed, the muslim children of the christian
or jew had nothing of the wala' of a muslim slave because the jew and
the christian did not have the wala'. The wala' of a muslim slave went
to the community of muslims.
Muwatta Malik Book 38, Hadith 28