وَمَنِ اشْتَرَى عَبْدًا فَأَعْتَقَهُ أَوْ مَاتَ ثُمَّ اطَّلَعَ عَلَى عَيْبٍ رَجَعَ بِنُقْصَانِهِ
Translation: The historical text grants compensation if an enslaved person was emancipated or died and an earlier defect subsequently came to light.
This clause concerns slavery as a historical institution and is not a model for contemporary human transactions.
Its technical point is that return has become impossible through emancipation or natural death, but a claim for a pre-existing defect is still recognized in those described circumstances.
Impossibility of return does not always mean the defect claim also disappears.