Does a man appointed by the mistress have the authority to contract marriage for her freed female slave (*'atiqah*)?
General Chapter
Al-Mughni
Book of Marriage
Primary text
Regarding the one who marries off the freed female slave of her mistress, there are two narrations. One is that the mistress has the right to appoint a man to marry her off because she is the freedwoman's next of kin through affiliation (*'asaba*) and inherits from her through that affiliation, thus resembling the emancipator. The second, which is the sounder view, is that the guardian of her mistress is her guardian. This is because this is guardianship for the marriage of a free woman, a matter the mistress is not qualified for; therefore, it falls to her paternal relations (*'asabat*) because they represent her and inherit from her by affiliation in the absence of her emancipator, making them her guardians, just as if the emancipator cannot contract her marriage due to death or insanity. The principle is that when the close paternal relatives of lineage are extinct, the emancipator (*Mawla*) is the guardian, followed by his paternal relatives in order of proximity, and similarly here. However, the apparent meaning of the statement of Al-Kharqi here is to prioritize the father of the freedwoman over her son as the one to marry her off, though this is subject to prior disagreement.
Supporting text
Two conditions are required for the authority of the emancipator's next of kin: First, the absence of paternal relatives by lineage, because the lineage relative is closer and preferable to the emancipator. Second, the permission of the woman being married, because she is a free woman, and he does not have the authority of compulsion (*ijbar*). He, being the furthest of the paternal relatives, is not required to seek the permission of her mistress, as the mistress has neither guardianship nor ownership in this context, resembling the distant relative of a minor child marrying off the minor.