What is the ruling regarding a master who tells his slave, 'If I sell you, you are free,' and then sells him?
Chapter on the Option of the Two Parties in Sale
Al-Mughni
Book of Sales
Primary text
If a master states to his slave, 'If I sell you, you are free,' and subsequently sells him, the slave becomes free. This ruling is affirmed by Ahmad, al-Hasan, Ibn Abi Layla, Malik, and al-Shafi'i. This is the case whether the option for rescission (khiyar) was stipulated or not. The evidence supporting this is that the time of the transfer of ownership is the time of freedom, because the sale is the cause for transferring ownership and a condition for freedom. Therefore, freedom must prevail, similar to when one says to his slave, 'If I die, you are free.' Furthermore, the master conditioned the freedom upon his action of selling. Since the utterance in the sale is the offer ('I sell you'), the condition for freedom is met when this is said to the buyer, and the slave becomes free even before the buyer accepts. Al-Qadi justified this by stating that the option for rescission is established in every sale, meaning the seller's disposition over the slave is not terminated.
Supporting text
Abu Hanifa and al-Thawri hold that the slave does not become free because upon the completion of the sale, the master's ownership is extinguished, thus his manumission cannot take effect. Furthermore, based on the established view that if the seller frees the slave during the option period, the manumission is invalid, the ruling that the slave does not become free if the option was stipulated and exercised, as mentioned by the jurists, is not applicable according to our school's reasoning regarding the validity of the condition during the option period.