The ruling on servants whose emancipation is unknown
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner says: We have had servants since the time of our ancestors, and they say, “We are your servants,” but we do not know whether they were emancipated or not. Their women do not observe hijab in front of us, and we do not support them financially; they receive a salary from the government.
Answer:
This is not permissible, unless they are your freed slaves. It is correct that they are your freed slaves, but as long as you do not know, no. The default is freedom; the default is that they are free. It is fine for them to serve you, but the women must observe hijab in front of you. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
The questioner says: We have had servants since the time of our ancestors, and they say, “We are your servants,” but we do not know whether they were emancipated or not. Their women do not observe hijab in front of us, and we do not support them financially; they receive a salary from the government.
Answer:
This is not permissible, unless they are your freed slaves. It is correct that they are your freed slaves, but as long as you do not know, no. The default is freedom; the default is that they are free. It is fine for them to serve you, but the women must observe hijab in front of you. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
Source
بلوغ المرام 29-07-1433هـ — alfawzan.live (38:09)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.