The client by contract of alliance (mawla al-muwala)

The term is made of mawla and muwala. Muwala is a contract in which a person of unknown descent forms a bond of alliance with a person of known descent. He says: you are my client, you inherit from me if I die and you pay my blood-money if I commit an offence; the other accepts. The contract is called muwala, and the person of known descent is called the mawla al-muwala. ¹

The freed client (mawla al-'itaqa) is one who holds the right of patronage over a freed slave. The two are alike in that each is a cause of inheritance for those who hold that the mawla al-muwala still inherits. ¹

The majority of Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali scholars hold that the contract is not a cause of inheritance. The Hanafis hold it is one, ranked after the freed client. He inherits as an agnate, taking the whole estate when no other heir remains, and he comes after the agnates, the freed client's patron and the kin. ^{1 2 3}

The contract must state inheritance and blood-money. The party must be of unknown descent in the view of some Hanafis, must not already hold a client's bond, must be free, adult and sane, must not be an Arab or a client of an Arab, and must not have blood-money paid by the public treasury. Islam is not a condition. ^{2 4}

Either party may move from the other's alliance to another, in the other's presence, as long as he has not yet paid blood-money on his behalf. The absence of the other party does not allow dissolution. If the lower party contracts with another without the first knowing, the new alliance is valid and the first ends. Once blood-money has been paid, transfer is not allowed. ^{4 3}

If a woman makes the contract and bears a child, the child follows her in the alliance. If she acknowledges being the client of a man while with a young child whose father is unknown, the child follows her. This is Abu Hanifa's view; his two companions disagree. ³