Abu Huraira reported the Prophet as saying, “If anyone emancipates a share in a slave, he is to be completely emancipated if he has money; but if he has none, the slave will be required to work to pay for his freedom, but must not be overburdened.”
Ibn ‘Umar reported God’s Messenger as saying, “If anyone emancipates his share in a slave and has enough money to pay the full price for him, a fair price for the slave should be fixed, his partners given their shares, and the slave be thus emancipated; otherwise he is emancipated only to the extent of the first man’s share.”
Imran b. Husain said that a man who had no other property emancipated six slaves of his at the time of his death. God’s Messenger called for them, and after dividing them into three sections, casting lots among them, setting two free and keeping four in slavery,* he spoke severely of him. Nasa’i transmitted it on ‘Imran’s authority, but in place of “he spoke severely of him,” he mentioned that the Prophet said, “I was inclined not to pray over him.” In Abu Dawud’s version he said, “Had I been present before his burial, he would not have been buried in a Muslim cemetery.”
Muslim transmitted it.
*The principle is that at least two-thirds of a dead man's property must go to the heirs.
