because the intent is to ascertain her freedom from the seller's seed, and that is not achieved while she is in his hand. If his slave, who is a merchant, buys a slave girl and performs istibra' on her, then she comes to the master, she becomes lawful for him without [further] istibra' because his ownership is established over what is in his slave's possession, thus her istibra' has been achieved while in his ownership. If his mukatab (contracted slave) buys a slave girl and performs istibra' on her, then she comes to his master, then he must perform istibra' on her because his ownership has been renewed over her, since the master has no ownership over what is in his mukatab's hand, unless the slave girl is one of the mukatab's mahram (unmarriageable) relatives. Our companions said: She is permissible for the master without istibra' because her ruling becomes the ruling of the mukatab; if he remains a slave, she remains a slave, and if he becomes free, she becomes free, and the mukatab is a slave as long as a dirham remains owed by him. The required istibra' here is with the delivery of the fetus for a pregnant woman, without disagreement, and with one menstrual cycle for those who menstruate, according to the view of the majority of scholars. Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib and 'Ata' said: With two menstrual cycles. This contradicts the Hadith we have narrated, and [it contradicts] the meaning; for the purpose is to ascertain her freedom from pregnancy, which is achieved with one menstrual cycle. Regarding the woman who has reached menopause, the one who has not yet menstruated, and the one whose menstruation has ceased, [the ruling is] as we mentioned regarding the umm walad, according to the disagreement that has already passed regarding it.

Section: Whoever owns a Magian or polytheist woman, and she embraces Islam before his istibra' of her, she is not lawful for him until he performs istibra' on her, or she completes what remains of her istibra'; for the reasons already mentioned. If he performs istibra' on her and then she embraces Islam, she becomes lawful for him without [further] istibra'. Al-Shafi'i said: She is not lawful for him until he renews her istibra' after her Islam because his ownership has been renewed regarding his enjoyment of her, so she is analogous to one whose ownership over her person has been renewed. Our argument is the statement of the Prophet, peace be upon him: "A woman who is not pregnant shall not have intercourse until she is cleared with one menstrual cycle." This was revealed regarding the captives of Awtas, and they were polytheists, yet he did not command more than one menstrual cycle for them. Also, because his ownership over her was not renewed, nor did she receive intercourse from someone else, so he is not required to perform istibra' on her, just as if a forbidden woman becomes lawful. Moreover, the istibra' was only made obligatory so that it does not lead to the mixing of fluids and the confusion of lineages, and the context for that