al-Qawl al-Sawab fi Tazwij Ummahat Awlad al-Ghiyab
- Author died
- 795 AH
- Editions
- al-Fārūq al-Ḥadīthah lil-Ṭibā‘ah wal-Nashr
al-Qawl al-Sawab fi Tazwij Ummahat Awlad al-Ghiyab (The Correct View on Marrying the Mothers of Children of the Absent) is a legal treatise by the Hanbali jurist Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali (d. 795 AH / 1393 CE) examining the marriage rights and legal status of ummahat al-awlad (enslaved women who bore their masters' children) and female slaves whose owners are missing or absent .
Occasion of Composition and Scope
The treatise was composed in response to a fatwa query regarding an umm walad whose master had been missing for approximately eight years or more without any news . He had departed from al-Sham toward Iraq in a travel caravan that was ambushed and plundered, leaving many of its members killed and most of their wealth seized . The question asked whether it was legally permissible for his umm walad to marry under such circumstances .
Structure and Legal Arguments
Ibn Rajab built his legal assessment upon two core juristic foundations (aslan):
- The marriage of a missing person's wife (imra'at al-mafqud): whether she waits four years—the maximum duration of pregnancy—and then completes the waiting period for a deceased spouse ('iddat al-wafah) before remarrying, or must wait indefinitely until certain news of him emerges .
- The division of a missing person's estate (qismat mal al-mafqud): whether his wealth is distributed among his heirs once his wife is permitted to remarry, or held in suspension .
Ibn Rajab established that according to Ahmad ibn Hanbal, when the specified waiting period elapses for a person missing in circumstances suggesting peril, he is treated outwardly as deceased: his estate is divided and his wives are permitted to remarry . Drawing an analogy to his estate, Ibn Rajab argued that an umm walad obtains freedom upon the presumption of the master's death, as her emancipation takes precedence from the gross estate (ra's al-mal) before debts and bequests, thereby allowing her to marry .
He further addressed the general obligation of masters to safeguard the chastity (i'faf) of their female slaves, arguing that if an owner's absence causes harm (darar) to a female slave or an umm walad through deprivation of marital relations, a judge (hakim) is authorized to contract her marriage to remove that harm . In supporting these conclusions, Ibn Rajab synthesized transmissions from the Companions—such as 'Uthman ibn 'Affan and 'Ali ibn Abi Talib—along with the rulings of early authorities such as al-Hasan al-Basri and later Hanbali jurists including al-Qadi Abu Ya'la and Ibn 'Aqil .
Reception and Transmission
The Hanbali jurist Al-Mardawi relied on the treatise in his legal reference al-Insaf, noting that Ibn Rajab favored the validity of marrying off the umm walad of an absent master, addressed the rulings governing female slaves and missing persons' wives, and substantiated his position with texts from Ahmad ibn Hanbal and early authorities .
A manuscript copy of the treatise is preserved at King Saud University within a collection under shelfmark 1817/4m . It was edited by Abdullah al-Turayqi and published in Riyadh in 1410 AH (1990 CE), and subsequently printed within collections of Ibn Rajab's treatises .
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