Unknown parentage and the presumption against enslavement

Argument Without New Proof: Absence of a Cause and Presumption of Continuity

مجهول النسب لو ادعى عليه أحد رقًّا ثم جنى عليه جناية لا يجب عليه أرش الحر
If someone claims ownership of a person of unknown parentage and the person later suffers an injury, the specific compensation owed for an established free person does not follow from mere presumption of the earlier state.

This historical example separates two claims: rejecting an unproved assertion of enslavement, and affirmatively imposing the specified compensation for injury to a free person upon another party. Rejecting the first does not automatically prove the second.

The example serves to explain a classical legal distinction and is not modern practical guidance or an endorsement of slavery.