Purchasing a slave owned for service and then freeing her
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Is it permissible for me to bring in a female slave as a servant, and then free her after her period of work ends?
The Shaykh:
If you find a female slave being sold and you buy her for service, that is permissible for you. If you buy her, that is permissible for you, provided she is a valid slave, not one taken by force or enslaved in an un-Islamic manner, but rather a slave under lawful ownership. In that case, you may buy her and use her.
The questioner:
And you may free her whenever you wish.
The Shaykh:
Yes. In her ownership, yes.
Is it permissible for me to bring in a female slave as a servant, and then free her after her period of work ends?
The Shaykh:
If you find a female slave being sold and you buy her for service, that is permissible for you. If you buy her, that is permissible for you, provided she is a valid slave, not one taken by force or enslaved in an un-Islamic manner, but rather a slave under lawful ownership. In that case, you may buy her and use her.
The questioner:
And you may free her whenever you wish.
The Shaykh:
Yes. In her ownership, yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 141/115 شرح زاد المستقنع/ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (37:32)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.