A Child As Barter For Female Slave Freedom
Also, are you sure that the information about Zainab bint Jahsh is true? Did she still keep this stigma against free slaves whilst married to our Prophet PBUH? If so, it means that she married him for the status of Mothers of Believers, Instead of being a role model. She got rid of this stigma right?
السلام عليكم Sorry for the late response, just had a surgery. What you call “bartering of children,” who made this a criterion? I just wanted to know the source of this criterion. If, for example, scholars inform us of this criterion, what do they present as their evidence? And if, for example, they present very reasonable evidence, then why is it a cause of concern? This would just mean that God paved another way for a slave-girl’s freedom. If she wanted to be in a marital relationship with her “owner,” conceiving a child automatically ended her “owned” status. I think you are looking at it differently. I think, you are thinking that the “owner” would coerce the girl or woman to mother a child for her freedom. No one encouraged coercion. I think if this way of freedom was really there, it was looked at like this: if an “owner” establishes marital relations with the girl or woman and she mothers a child, she can no longer be considered “owned.” Of course, this wasn’t the only way of earning one’s freedom. The person could just use the primary way of مكاتبة. I don’t know whether the slave-girl was entitled to inheritance or not. I talked to Maulana Abdul Mannan Athari and according to him she was entitled to inheritance. But I don’t know anything further. She didn’t have to rely on her fertility. Like I said, she could just use مكاتبة. However, you talk of fertility as if it is something rare. I’m pretty sure it is the other way around. Lastly, of course the man could include these women in his will.