16 - Chapter: On the will of a war captive whose heir becomes Muslim—is he obligated to execute it?

2883 - Al-‘Abbās ibn al-Walīd ibn Mazīd narrated to us: my father informed me, al-Awzā‘ī narrated to us, Ḥassān ibn ‘Aṭiyyah narrated to me, from ‘Amr ibn Shu‘ayb, from his father, from his grandfather:

That al-‘Āṣ ibn Wā’il bequeathed that one hundred slaves be freed on his behalf. His son Hishām freed fifty slaves, and his son ‘Amr wanted to free the remaining fifty on his behalf, but he said: "Until I ask the Messenger of Allah ﷺ." So he came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: "O Messenger of Allah, my father bequeathed the freeing of one hundred slaves, and Hishām has freed fifty on his behalf, with fifty slaves remaining upon him. Shall I free them on his behalf?" The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "If he had been a Muslim, and you freed slaves on his behalf, or gave charity on his behalf, or performed pilgrimage on his behalf, it would reach him."(1)

--------------------------------------------

= Also recorded by al-Bukhārī (2756), al-Tirmidhī (675), and al-Nasā’ī (3654) and (3655) via the chain of ‘Ikrimah. In the narration of al-Bukhārī and al-Nasā’ī, it is explicitly stated that the unnamed man here is Sa‘d ibn ‘Ubādah.

It is also in the Musnad of Aḥmad (3080).

There is no contradiction between this ḥadīth and what the compiler will present later under number (3307), which is recorded by al-Bukhārī (2761) and (6698), Muslim (1638), and others, from Ibn ‘Abbās: that Sa‘d ibn ‘Ubādah sought a legal opinion from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, saying: "My mother died and she had a vow upon her," and he said: "Fulfill it on her behalf." This is because it is possible that he asked about the vow and about giving charity on her behalf, as al-Ḥāfiẓ stated in al-Fatḥ 5/389.

And "al-makhraf" is a walled garden of palm trees; it is derived from kharaftu al-thimār akhrufuhā, with a ḍammah, meaning: I gathered them.

(1) Its chain is ḥasan. Al-Awzā‘ī: he is ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn ‘Amr.

Also recorded by al-Bayhaqī 6/279 via the chain of al-‘Abbās ibn al-Walīd ibn Mazīd, with this isnād.

Also recorded by ‘Abd al-Razzāq (16349) from Ma‘mar, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, who said: I think it is from ‘Amr ibn Shu‘ayb, who said: There was upon al-‘Āṣ ibn Wā’il... — narrated thus as mursal.