Buying a stolen slave to free her
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. If a person wants to buy a slave woman and knows that she is not owned in a lawful manner, but rather that she is stolen, is it permissible for him to buy her after knowing this?
The Shaykh:
No, it is not permissible, because it confirms them in this and enslaves her. However, if his intention is to free her, which is a good intention, and if he cannot free her from them except by this method, then there is no harm in that. But if he can free her from them through legal means and free her from this usurpation through the court,
The questioner:
then it is not permissible for him to buy her.
The Shaykh:
He only buys her if it becomes impossible [to free her otherwise].
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. If a person wants to buy a slave woman and knows that she is not owned in a lawful manner, but rather that she is stolen, is it permissible for him to buy her after knowing this?
The Shaykh:
No, it is not permissible, because it confirms them in this and enslaves her. However, if his intention is to free her, which is a good intention, and if he cannot free her from them except by this method, then there is no harm in that. But if he can free her from them through legal means and free her from this usurpation through the court,
The questioner:
then it is not permissible for him to buy her.
The Shaykh:
He only buys her if it becomes impossible [to free her otherwise].
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 141/115 شرح زاد المستقنع/ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (57:40)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.