The patron of manumission (mawla al-'itaqa) and the right of ascription (wala')

The patron of manumission is the one who frees a slave and holds the right of patronage over him; the right is inherited, and it is a grace in return for the freedom given. ¹

The term also covers one whose slave is freed by purchase, bargain, a writing of manumission, the promise of freedom after death, a mother's child, or a kinsman he inherits or buys. ^{1 2}

The patron inherits after the sharers are paid and before any return, and before distant kin; if there are blood-kin of the freed man, the patron takes nothing once the shares exhaust the estate, on the saying: 'give the shares to their owners'. ^{2 3}

Most jurists hold that patronage passes to an unbeliever over a Muslim as the reverse, and that they do not inherit from each other, on the saying that a Muslim does not inherit from an unbeliever. The Malikis hold that if a Muslim frees a Muslim, no unbeliever has patronage. ^{3 4}

A man who frees his slave as an unclaimed freed ward has no patronage over him, according to Ahmad in one report; Ibn Mas'ud held that the believers do not leave slaves unclaimed, that this was the custom of the time of ignorance, and that the patron is the community of believers. ^{4 5 6}