993 - Al-Husayn ibn al-Hasan informed me, saying: Ibrahim ibn al-Harith narrated to us that he asked Abu ‘Abd Allah [Ahmad ibn Hanbal] about the statement of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): “Emancipate her, for she is a believer.” Abu ‘Abd Allah replied: “Not everyone says [in the report of the hadith]: ‘Emancipate her, for she is a believer.’ They [some narrators] say: ‘Emancipate her.’ As for the one who said: ‘For she is a believer,’ [it is] when she acknowledges that, then her legal status is that of a believing woman.”