“I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of a free woman who has married a slave who has given birth to several children. She is then divorced and then does not stay with her children but marries another man. The slave then finds out about her marriage. He wants to take his children from her saying that he has more right than the mother has since she has married. He (the Imam) said, ‘The slave has no right to take the children from her even if she has married until the slave becomes free; she has more right about her children than the slave as long as he is owned and when he becomes free then he has more right.’”