the usurper, for it is not accepted from him except under a condition we have mentioned. The slave woman must be returned to her master, and the owner has the right to demand her return from whichever of the two he wishes, because the usurper took her without right, and the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: "Upon the possessor is [the obligation to return] what he took until he returns it." The buyer also took the property of another without right, so he enters into the general scope of the report, and because the property of another is in his possession. There is no disagreement regarding this, praise be to Allah the Exalted. The buyer is also liable for the mahr (dowry), because he had intercourse with the slave woman of another without a marriage contract, and he is liable for the indemnity for the loss of virginity and the decrease [in value] due to childbirth. If she bears a child from him, the child is free, because of his belief that he was having intercourse with his own slave, which prevented the child from being born into slavery, and its lineage is established with him; he is [further] liable for their ransom, because he caused the loss of their slave status to their master by his belief in the permissibility of the intercourse. This is the correct position in the madhhab, and it is what the companions hold. Ibn Mansur reported from Ahmad that the buyer is not liable for the ransom of his children, and the master has no substitute for them, because they were free at the time of conception, and they had no value at that time. Al-Khallal said: I think this was an earlier opinion of Abu Abdullah, but that which I adopt is that he must pay their ransom. It was also reported by Ibn Mansur and Ja'far ibn Muhammad, and it is the opinion of Abu Hanifa and al-Shafi'i. He pays their ransom at their value on the day of delivery. Al-Shafi'i held this view. Abu Hanifa said: It becomes due on the day of demand, because in his view, the child of a usurped [slave] is not guaranteed except by withholding, and before the demand, there was no withholding, so it is not due. We have mentioned in what passed that it comes into existence as a guaranteed item, so it is evaluated on the day of its birth, as that is the first moment it was possible to evaluate it. Our companions differed regarding what he ransoms them with. Al-Khiraqi reported here that he ransoms them with their equivalent. The apparent meaning is that he intended their equivalent in age, attributes, type, and gender (masculine or feminine), and Ahmad has explicitly stated this. Abu Bakr Abd al-Aziz said: He ransoms them with their equivalent in value. There is a third report from Ahmad that he ransoms them with their value.