Is a transaction (sale or purchase) performed by a slave valid?
General Chapter
Al-Mughni
Book of Foundlings
Primary text
The transaction performed by a slave, such as a sale or purchase, is valid. Any liabilities or due payments must be settled from whatever property the slave possesses. Any surplus liability remaining is incumbent upon the slave's personal responsibility (dhimmah), because the counterparty to the transaction does not acknowledge the slave's servitude.
Supporting text
If the opinion is adopted that a slave's admission is accepted in all legal rulings, then all of the slave's contracts are deemed invalid. In such a case, the physical property must be returned to its owners if it still exists. If the property is destroyed, its monetary value becomes due from the slave's responsibility, provided we rule that debt incurred by a slave without the master's permission is the slave's liability. If we rule that the slave's debt is solely in their responsibility, the payment follows after manumission because the master's consent to the debt is established.