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The free person (hurr)

الحُرّ

The free man is the opposite of the slave; in the jurists' usage he is one whose person is free of any trace of bondage or ownership, and freedom is either firmly established or judged by appearance, as with a found child. 1 A partly freed person, half free and half owned, is treated under the rules of partial manumission. 1 The principle is freedom: bondage is accidental, and the law is addressed chiefly to free persons, slaves sharing most of its rules. 2 A maxim holds that a free person cannot be taken as property, so he is not sold or bought, and that the free person's clothing is not within a usurper's liability. 2

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Global / Diaspora
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Slavery and freedom

Summary

The free man is the opposite of the slave; in the jurists' usage he is one whose person is free of any trace of bondage or ownership, and freedom is either firmly established or judged by appearance, as with a found child. 1 A partly freed person, half free and half owned, is treated under the rules of partial manumission. 1 The principle is freedom: bondage is accidental, and the law is addressed chiefly to free persons, slaves sharing most of its rules. 2 A maxim holds that a free person cannot be taken as property, so he is not sold or bought, and that the free person's clothing is not within a usurper's liability. 2

People and things also explored

Captives in a religious war and married women (Q. 4:24)· Emancipation of enemy slaves upon fleeing to Muslim lines· Hujna (hybridness, in the fiqh sense: spoils shares and speech)· Running away (ibaq) of a slave· Contract of manumission by instalments (mukataba)· Ta'jiz (declaring a party unable: a slave under a writing, or a party who fails to produce proof)· Tadbir (manumission effective after death)· Tarsim (restriction of a person's movement)

Sources

  1. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.6984
  2. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.6985
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The free person (hurr)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/hurr-free-person/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

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Wing

People

Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story. Related

Captives in a religious war and married women (Q. 4:24)

The commentary on the Qur'anic verse about married women and those whom the right hand possesses, a point of disagreement on whether capture ends a marriage and on the conditions for lawful captivity. Rashid Rida reports the majority reading as an exception, and the Hanafi and some Hanbali view on women captured with their husbands. With Muhammad Abduh he holds that captivity is lawful only in a religious war and not in a war for worldly gain.