Selling a Slave Who Owns Property

1. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father from Ibn Abi ‘Umayr from Jamil ibn Darraj from Zurarah who has said the following: “This is concerning my question before abu ‘ Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of a man who buys a slave who owns assets; to whom such assets belong? He (the Imam) said, Tf the seller knows that the slave owns assets then such assets belong to the buyer but if he does not know then they belong to the seller.’”

Translation: Muhammad Sarwar — attributed by Thaqalayn·The Arabic above is the original.

2. A number of our people have narrated from Sahl ibn Ziyad and Ahmad ibn Muhammad all from ibn Mahbub from al-‘Ala’ from Muhammad ibn Muslim who has said the following: “I once asked one of the two Imam, (abu Ja’far or abu ‘Abd Allah), ‘Alayhim al-Salam, about the case of a man who sells a slave and finds out that the slave owns assets. He (the Imam) said, ‘Such assets belong to the seller; he has sold the slave’s person unless it is a condition in the contract of sale that says that whatever assets are there, they belong to him.’”

Translation: Muhammad Sarwar — attributed by Thaqalayn·The Arabic above is the original.

3. Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from Ali ibn Hadid from Jamil ibn Darraj from Zurarah who has said the following: “This is concerning my question before abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of a man who buys a slave and his assets. He (the Imam) said, ‘It is not unlawful.’ I then asked, ‘What happens if the assets of the slave are more than what is paid to buy the slave?’ He (the Imam) said, ‘It is not unlawful.’”

Translation: Muhammad Sarwar — attributed by Thaqalayn·The Arabic above is the original.