Muwatta 2341

Malik said of a man who contracted his slave at the time of his death: the slave is valued as a slave, and if the third has room for the price of the slave, it is lawful, being a bequest made in his third. If he bequeathed to people several bequests, and there is no excess in the third over the value of the contract slave, the contract slave is given priority, because contract is manumission and manumission takes precedence over bequests, and then those bequests are placed on the contract slave, and they pursue him for them. The heirs of the testator have a choice: if they wish to give the bequest-holders their full bequests, and the contract of the contract slave to them, that is theirs; and if they refuse and hand over the contract slave and what is owed on him to the bequest-holders, that is theirs. ¹

Belongs to the Muwatta, Book of the Contract of Manumission (mukatab). Source: the Muwatta. Mentions Malik ibn Anas. Built on in the chapters on contract of manumission (mukatab) and bequest (wasiyya).