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Concept
Mukataba
Summary
In Islamic law, a mukataba (مكاتبة) is a contract of manumission between a master and a slave according to which the slave is required to pay a certain sum of money during a specific time period in exchange for freedom. In the legal literature, slaves who enter this contract are known as mukatab. The Ẓāhirī school of Islamic jurisprudence view it to be compulsory,
while the Shafa'is, Malikis and Hanafis perceive it to be merely recommended, and mustahabb (praiseworthy) to do so. Mukataba is one of the four procedures provided in Islam for manumission of slaves.
The institution of mukataba is based on Qur'an:
And let those who do not have the means to marry keep themselves chaste until Allah enriches them out of His bounty. And if any of those ˹bondspeople˺ in your possession desires a deed of emancipation, make it possible for them, if you find goodness in them. And give them some of Allah’s wealth which He has granted you. Do not force your ˹slave˺ girls into prostitution for your own worldly gains while they wish to remain chaste. And if someone coerces them, then after such a coercion Allah is certainly All-Forgiving, Most Merciful ˹to them˺.
A slave identified as Subay referred to his master, Sayyidina Huwaytib bin Abdul Izza, for Kitaba, or a letter of manumission, and was promptly refused. The verse in question was thus revealed, and Huwaytib agreed to grant him emancipation if the slave offered him hundred dinars, twenty of which the former later remitted.
Muhammad al-Bukhari, a major hadith collector, has two books concerning the manumission of a slave; Kitab al-'itq (the book on emancipation), and Kitab al-Mukataba (the book on contracts of manumission) with the latter narrating a single hadith six times with variance in the matn. The hadith concerns Barira - a slave girl inherited by the sons of Utba bin Abu Lahab - consulting Ayesha in need for payment of the kitaba. Ayesha argued that she could instead buy Barira and set her free herself in return for the latter's wala, but the men refused, stating the wala be for themselves.
Official source
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