In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Gracious

As-Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullaahi wa Barakaatuhu

ISLAMIC

RESEARCH AND INFORMATION CENTRE

The Concept of Slavery

Many people, without knowing the concept of slavery properly, objected to Islam. So it is necessary to elucidate this concept.

Before the advent of Allah’s Messenger Muhammed, Arabs used to make men and women as their slaves in four different ways. They are as follows:

I. Whenever they had found any strange person somewhere, they would catch him/her and keep him/her as a slave or sell him/her to others. Islam forbids this. Allah’s Messenger said:

“Allah says: ‘There are the three people with whom I will quarrel on the Day of Judgment:

1) The person who makes a covenant by my Name and then breaks it.

2) The person who sells a free man (or woman) and takes his (or her) cost.

3) The person who appoints a worker on some work. And when he (the worker) finishes the work, he (the master) does not give him his just reward.’” (Saheeh Bukhari)

II. The second way was that they used to capture men and women during war and used to keep them as their slaves or used to sell them. Islam retained this act with some conditions, such as:

a)      Only those men and women will be captured during war that take part or help in the war against Islam and Muslims. The civilians, who abstain from the war, should not be captured.

b)     All captured men and women will be under the control of the Islamic Government for some days prescribed according to the circumstances. During the period, the Islamic Government will be ready to release the captured men and women if the opponents are ready to release the captured Muslim men and women. If there is no Muslim man or woman in the hands of the opponents, the captured men and women will be released if the opponents are ready to accept the demands or conditions of the Islamic Government, or if the opponents or the captured men and women themselves pay the amount prescribed by the Islamic Government to the Islamic Government.

If all these measures fail to set the captives free, it will be thought that there is no one to care for the captured men and women, nor are they themselves able to look after themselves. Then, after the prescribed period, the Islamic Government either releases them on any expediency or reason, or distributes them among Muslim soldiers as their right with the following advice:

1) Allah says: “And if any of your slaves asks for a deed in writing (for emancipation), write it for them if you know any good in them. Give them something yourselves out of the means which Allah has given to you.” (24: 33)

2) Allah’s messenger said: “Your slaves are your brothers and Allah has put them under your command. So whoever has a brother under his command should feed him of that which he eats, and dress him of that which he wears. Do not ask them (slaves) to do the things beyond their capacity (power) and if you do so, then help them.” (Saheeh Bukhari).

Thus the Islamic state sponsors the relationship between the Muslim freeman and the captives. This can be regarded as the state sponsored relationship.

In the Islamic state, being a slave, the captured man or woman can live a normal life. They can marry and have a sex with their spouses. They are allowed to fulfill their physical and mental needs and demands. They can eat what they want. They can wear what they want. They can make their careers.

 The lives of the captured men and women in the Islamic state under the God’s Guidance is much better than the lives of the captured men and women in the secular states under the severe biased laws of the states. As we all know that in the secular state, the captured men and women are put behind the bars for their whole life, they cannot live a normal life, they cannot marry and have a sex with their spouses, they are not allowed to fulfill their physical and mental needs and demands, they cannot eat what they want, they cannot wear what they want, they cannot make their careers, they have no freedom at all, they are not even allowed to pay something to release themselves. These are the differences. Therefore, no secular state can challenge Islam in any respect.

III. The third way was that having bought others’ slaves, Arabs used to keep them as their slaves or release them. Islam has retained this too. Because, on committing some sins, Islam asked to set a slave free. If someone doesn’t have a slave, he can buy a slave and set him free. The sin, like, if someone calls his wife ‘mother’, he cannot have a sex with her until he sets a slave free (see the Quraan 58: 3). Similarly, if someone breaks an oath, he should set a slave free (see the Quraan 5: 89). Thus Islam helped the captives in becoming free.

IV. The fourth way was that Arabs used to present their slaves to one another. Islam has retained this too to help slaves.

Islam has exhorted Muslims, in various ways, to release their slaves. Prophet Muhammed said:

1) “Whoever sets his slave free, Allah will set every part of his body free from Hell for every part of the slave’s body. (Saheeh Muslim)

2) “A person who has a slave-woman. If he teaches her etiquette, the best etiquette, educates her with right education, then sets her free and marry her, he will be rewarded double.” (Saheeh Bukhari and Saheeh Muslim)

Moreover, it was told that setting a slave free is better than keeping fast consecutively for two months (see the Quraan 58: 3, 4)

Islam has asked Muslims, on their mistakes, to release their slaves or enfranchise others’ slaves by paying money.

1)      Abu Mas‘ood Al-Ansaari said: “When I was beating my slave, I heard a voice behind me (saying): ‘Abu Mas‘ood, bear in mind Allah has more dominance over you than you have upon him.’ I turned and found Allah’s Messenger. I said: ‘O Allah’s Messenger! I set him free for the sake of Allah.’ Thereupon he (Allah’s Messenger) said: ‘If you had not done that, (the gates of) hell would have been opened for you, or the fire would have burnt you.’” (Saheeh Muslim)

2)      Prophet Muhammed said: “Whoever punished or slapped his slave without any reason, he should expiate by setting him free.” (Saheeh Muslim)

Has any state, ideology, Law or religion other than Islam shown such mercy regarding the captives and slaves?

Sex with slave women

Islam cares for slaves. So it has not let their sexual urge, which is one of the basic needs of human beings, go astray. For, this would have created a lot of mischief in the state. Therefore, Islam has neither ignored the sexual urge of slaves, nor left it insatiate. As Islam has made an arrangement of their clothes, food and shelter, so it has also made an arrangement to meet this natural demand of slaves.

Since slave woman could not easily get any level of man to get married, Islam has allowed her to have a sex with her master if she could not control her sexual urge. Thus the master has also been allowed to have a sex with his slave woman on the following conditions:

1)      If a slave woman does not want to have a sex with her master, her master cannot force her. Her master can have a sex with her only with her consent. So there is no question of oppression on slave woman

2)      A man cannot have a sex with other’s slave woman. He can have a sex with only his slave woman. Similarly, a slave woman is not allowed to have a sex with other than her own master.

3)      If a slave woman bore her master a child, the master shall not only give his name to the child, but also take the responsibilities of the child on his shoulder.

4)      If the master receives an alliance for his slave woman and he accepts it, and she gets married someone else, then the master and the slave woman cannot have a sex with each other.

Even after this arrangement if any slave woman commits adultery, Islam asked to punish her. The Holy Quraan says:

“If they (slave women) commit indecency their punishment is half that for free women.” (4: 25)

In the days of ignorance, to earn money, masters used to compel their slave-women to practise prostitution. When Islam came, it forbade this. Allah says:

“Don’t force your slave women to prostitution when they desire chastity, in order that you may make a gain in the goods of this life.” (24: 33)

Thus, Islam fulfills the sexual desire of slave women in the wisest way and withholds them from spreading indecency in the state.

One must bear in mind that Islam has not invented the practice of sex with slave women. Sex with slave women had been in the practice through out the world even before the advent of Prophet Muhammed. Islam has, in fact, reduced it to the incredible extent through the ways mentioned above, and also having prescribed certain conditions for practising it. One must know that Islam has neither asked nor encouraged to have sex with slave women. Islam has just allowed it. If a slave woman wants to remain away from having sex with her master, she can do so.

Islam has not allowed slave men to have sex with any women without marriage. There are many reasons for it. The biggest reason is that slave men can easily get slave women, indigent women, poor divorced women or poor widows to get married, and Islam wants slave men to marry such women, so that the lives of both slave men and such women may settle down. Thus, Islam has wished well being and welfare of slaves and deprived women. If slave men had been allowed to have sex with other women, they would not have taken the responsibilities of other women on their shoulder: they would not have got married.

Besides all these facilities, Islam has given exclusive rights and equal opportunities to slaves and their children in all walks of life. By utilizing those rights and opportunities, a slave can grow to any level that he can. There are innumerable examples of such slaves and children of slaves, for example: -

1) Naafi‘, ‘Ikramah etc. were slaves, but they were great scholars of their time and, even to this day, they held great esteem among Muslims.

2) Imaam Hasan Basri, Muhammed ibn Seereen, Abdullah ibn Mubarak, ‘Ataa ibn Rubah, Taa-us ibn Kisaan etc.- were all children of slaves, but they were also great scholars of their time and, even to this day, they held great esteem among Muslims.

These are the some of the reformations brought by Islam. Can anyone show a state, even in this so-called civilized era, that treats such a treatment with the captives?

 It is injustice with Islam if some one, instead of appreciating it, blames it for polygamy, jihaad, slavery, et cetera. For Islam has not invented the systems of polygamy, jihaad, slavery, et cetera. It has, in fact, brought reformations in such systems and removed all the wrong aspects from them.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © NOORUL HUSSAIN K. 2004