Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said that if someone makes a bequest for the emancipation of a slave woman but does not make her a mudabbara, then her children will not be freed along with their mother, because the master had the right to change this bequest, and freedom was not established for their mother. Rather, it is like someone saying: If such-and-such slave woman remains with me until my death, then she is free. If she remains until his death, then she will be freed, but the master has the right to sell her or her children before death. Thus, according to the ancient Sunnah, there is a great difference between a bequest of emancipation and a bequest of tadbeer. If a bequest were like tadbeer, then no person would have the right to change or alter his bequest.

Malik said: If she attains that, then it is hers. But if he wishes, before that, he may sell her and her child, because he did not include her child in anything that he assigned to her.

He said: And the bequest regarding emancipation is different from tadbir; what has passed from the Sunnah has distinguished between them. He said: And if the bequest were in the same position as tadbir, then every testator would not be able to change his bequest, and what is mentioned in it regarding emancipation, and he would have withheld from his wealth what he could not benefit from.

Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said that if a person, while in good health, declares several of his slaves as mudabbar and possesses no wealth other than them, and if he declared them mudabbar one after the other, then the one who was declared mudabbar first will be freed from one third of the wealth, then the second, then the third, and so on as long as there is room within one third of the wealth. If he declared all of them mudabbar at the same time in a single statement, then one third of each will be freed when all are declared mudabbar during illness.

Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said that if a person declared his slave as Mudabbar and had no other wealth except that, then the master died and the Mudabbar has wealth, one third of the Mudabbar will be set free and the wealth will remain with him.

Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said that if a mudabbar is made a mukatab by his master, then the master dies and leaves nothing except him, then one third of him will be freed, and one third will be deducted from the price of the kitabah, and two thirds will have to be paid by the mudabbar.

Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said that if a person, during his terminal illness, frees half or all of his slave, and he had previously made his slave a mudabbar, then from one-third of the wealth, the mudabbar will be freed first. Then, if the remaining wealth suffices to free the slave, he will be freed; otherwise, he will be freed to the extent of the wealth that remains.

It is narrated from Nafi‘ that Sayyiduna ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) made his slave women mudabbir and also had intercourse with them.

Hazrat Saeed bin Musayyib used to say: When a person declares his slave-girl as Mudabbara, he can have intercourse with her, but he cannot sell or gift her, and her children will be like their mother.

Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, said: In our view, this ruling is agreed upon that a mudabbar (a slave set free after the master's death) should not be sold by the master, nor should his ownership be transferred in any way. And if the master becomes indebted, the creditors cannot sell the mudabbar as long as the master is alive. If the master dies and is not in debt, then the entire mudabbar will be freed from one third of the estate, because if he is freed from the entire estate, then it is entirely to the benefit of the master, as he took service from him all his life and then earned the reward of freeing him at the time of death, and it is a complete loss for the heirs. If the master has no wealth except this mudabbar, then one third of the mudabbar will be freed and two thirds will be the right of the heirs. If the master of the mudabbar dies and is so indebted that the debt equals or exceeds the full value of the mudabbar, then the mudabbar will be sold, because the mudabbar is only freed when there is room in one third of the estate. If the debt equals half the value of the slave, then half of the mudabbar will be sold to pay the debt, and of the remaining half, one third will be freed.