Ahmad said, in a report by Abu Talib: I used to say that one may emancipate from his Zakat, but today I fear doing so; because it attracts the wala' (right of patronage). In another place, it was said to him: What do you find acceptable in that regard? He said: He may assist from its price, for that is safer. Something similar has been reported from al-Nakha'i and Sa'id ibn Jubayr, for they both said: One should not emancipate a full captive from Zakat, but one may give from it toward a captive, and assist a mukatab. This is the opinion of Abu Hanifah and his two companions; because when he emancipates from his Zakat, he benefits from the wala' of the one he emancipated, as if he had diverted the Zakat to himself. Ibn Aqil inferred from this report that Ahmad retracted the opinion on emancipation from Zakat. This—and Allah knows best—by Ahmad was merely a matter of piety (wara'), and does not necessitate a retraction; because the effective cause (illa) for which he possessed the attraction of wala' is such that his school holds that whatever of the wala' returns is returned into its like, so he does not, therefore, benefit from emancipating him from Zakat.

Section: It is not permissible to purchase with one's Zakat someone who would be emancipated upon being owned by him due to kinship (rahim), which includes every forbidden (mahram) relative. If he were to do so, he would be emancipated upon him, but the Zakat obligation would not be waived from him. Al-Hasan said: There is no harm in emancipating his father from Zakat; because the payment of Zakat did not reach his father, rather he paid the price to his seller. Our position is that the benefit of his Zakat returned to his father, so it is not permissible, just as if he had paid it to him directly. Furthermore, his emancipation occurred by the very act of purchase as a reward and maintaining the ties of kinship (silat al-rahim), so it is not permissible to count it for him as Zakat, similar to the maintenance of his relatives. If he were to emancipate his own slave (7) using his Zakat, it would not suffice; because the payment of Zakat for every property must be from its own genus, and a slave is not from the genus of property upon which Zakat is due. If he were to emancipate a slave [from the slaves of trade], it would not be permissible; because the obligation is upon their value, not upon the individuals themselves.

Section: It is permissible to purchase with one's Zakat a Muslim captive from the hands of the polytheists; because it is the freeing of a captive