What is the ruling regarding choice for a slave who converts while married to more than two women?
Chapter on Marriage of Polytheists
Al-Mughni
Book of Marriage
Primary text
The ruling for a slave regarding more than two wives is analogous to the ruling for a free man regarding more than four. If he converts and has two wives, and they convert with him or during their *iddah*, their marriages are binding, regardless of whether they were free or slave women, or one free and one slave, because he is permitted to combine them in his initial contract, so the same applies to his choice. If he has more than two, he chooses two, whichever he wishes, as with a free man. If he had two free wives and two slave wives, he may choose the two free wives, or the two slave wives, or one free and one slave. The free wife who converts with him has no right to demand separation because she consented to marriage while he was a slave, and neither his slavery nor her freedom was renewed by the conversion, so she has no option, similar to a woman who marries someone with a known defect and they both convert.
Supporting text
Al-Qadi suggests there is an option for the free wife because slavery is a defect whose rulings were renewed by Islam, making it seem like a newly occurring defect. However, the first view is stronger because slavery is not considered a defect or deficiency by the judicious, and its deficiency was not newly established by Islam; it is like all other defects.