MISCONCEPTION 8: Islam Supports Slavery

Slavery

Points:

• The Qur'an and Ahadith talk about handling of slaves. 
• Muslims are allowed to capture enemies as slaves during war.

REFUTATION

It is true that there are verses of the Qur’an (over 20) where ALLAH talks about how Muslims should handle slaves, even the Prophet (SAW) made notable comments about slaves as we shall see. Were there slaves in the early Islamic community? The answer is an emphatic 'Yes'. Did Islam glorify slavery or encourage Muslims to join the slave trade? Well, let us investigate.

Slavery was an integral part of Arabian life before and after the Prophethood of Muhammad (SAW). Getting the practice to stop over-night wouldn't have been possible hence, it was a gradual process. Let me explain this with a contemporary scenario.

Countries across the globe have been designing laws to eradicate smoking; UK, France, Russia, etc to mention just a few. They have brought policies that have made being a smoker something like a prison, this has made the smoking habit repugnant to many more people and has brought about a great number of smokers quitting or at least cutting down. If these policies continue to be enforced; we might just see the end of the smoking habit in the nearest future. With these policies being introduced by the aforementioned countries, would it be wise to say that these countries support or encourage smoking because they still have smokers domicile in them? Definitely not.

This strategy is similar to that employed by Islam in eradicating slavery and the slave trade in the Islamic State. The Prophet (SAW) was gifted a slave (Zaid bin Harith) by his wife Khadija (ra). The Prophet himself never liked the idea of keeping a fellow human being as a slave and as a result, he freed Zaid bin Harith. After successes at battles, the Muslims were in possession of many slaves and at this period, ALLAH (SWT) and Muhammad (SAW) began to make statements that made it difficult for Muslims to keep slaves. The major pronouncements are highlighted as follows. 

1. Muhammad (SAW) said, “Your slaves are brothers of yours. Allah has placed them in your hand, and he who has his brother under him, he should feed him with what he eats, and dress him with what he dresses himself, and do not burden them beyond their capacities, and if you burden them, (beyond their capacities), then help them”. 

From the above hadith we should ask, 'What about someone who has 20 slaves?' Definitely, he will have to free most of them if not for anything; to safe cost. This pronouncement reduced the work load of slaves such that slaves became mere house helps apart from eliminating any form of arrogance that the master might feel beside his slave. The Prophet (SAW) declared the master and the slave-brothers. 

2. Muhammad (SAW) stipulated that the

A 19th century American slave

punishment for beating a slave is to set him/her free. 

Abu Mas'ud al-Ansari reported: "When I was beating my servant, I heard a voice behind me (saying): "Abu Mas'ud, bear in mind Allah has more dominance over you than you have upon him". I turned and (found him) to be Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him). I said: Allah's Messenger, I set him free for the sake of Allah. Thereupon he said: "Had you not done that, (the gates of) Hell would have opened for you, or the fire would have burnt you.” 

In addition to this, it was reported that Abdullah Ibn Umar (the son of Umar bin Khattab) called his slave and he found the marks (of beating) upon his back. He said to him, ‘I have caused you pain’. The slave said no. But Ibn Umar said, ‘You are free’. He then took hold of something from the earth and said, ‘There is no reward for me even to the weight equal to it. I heard Allah's Messenger (SAW) saying: “He who beats a slave without cognizable offence of his or slaps him, then expiation for it is that he should set him free.” 

By these remarks of Muhammad (SAW), so many slaves again gained freedom.

3. ALLAH (SWT) and Muhammad (SAW) made freeing of slaves a prerequisite to having some sins forgiven. 

“But for those who divorce their wives . . . then wish to go back on the words they uttered, - (it is ordained that such a one) should free a slave before they touch each other: this you are admonished to perform . . . And if any has not (the wherewithal), he should fast for two months consecutively before they touch each other. But if any is unable to do so, he should feed sixty indigent ones.” Suratul Mujadilah (58:3-4) 

ALLAH also says in Suratul Nisa (4:92):

“And never is it for a believer to kill a believer except by mistake. And whoever kills a believer by mistake - then the freeing of a believing slave and a compensation payment presented to the deceased's family [is required] unless they give [up their right as] charity. But if the deceased was from a people at war with you and he was a believer - then [only] the freeing of a believing slave; and if he was from a people with whom you have a treaty - then a compensation payment presented to his family and the freeing of a believing slave. And whoever does not find [one or cannot afford to buy one] - then [instead], a fast for two months consecutively, [seeking] acceptance of repentance from Allah . And Allah is ever Knowing and Wise.” 

There are other verses in the Qur’an that order the freeing of slaves for the expiation of other sins. Deliberately breaking a fast is also atoned for by freeing slaves. The declarations further reduced the number of slaves in the Islamic state.

4. Muhammad (SAW) made a declaration that made being a slave merchant a great sin. The Prophet (SAW) said, "Allah said, 'There are three categories of people against whom I shall myself be a plaintiff on the Day of Judgement. Of these three, one is he who enslaves a free man, then sells him and eats this money"'. 

With this declaration, the only new slaves around were those captured in war. The number of new slaves fell drastically.

5. ALLAH (SWT) and the Prophet (SAW) began to make statements that made freeing of slaves synonymous with righteousness. Examples of these are given below.

“Zakah expenditures are only for the poor and for the needy and for those employed to collect [zakah] and for bringing hearts together [for Islam] and for freeing captives [or slaves] and for those in debt and for the cause of Allah and for the [stranded] traveler - an obligation [imposed] by Allah . And Allah is Knowing and Wise.”  

Suratul Tawba (9:60)

In Suratul Balad (90:12-18) ALLAH says: 

“And what can make you know what is [breaking through] the difficult pass?
It is the freeing of a slave. 

Or feeding on a day of severe hunger. 

An orphan of near relationship. 

Or a needy person in misery. 

And then being among those who believed and advised one another to patience and advised one another to compassion. Those are the companions of the right.”

In Suratul Baqarah (2:177) ALLAH says: 

“Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but [true] righteousness is [in] one who believes in Allah , the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask [for help], and for freeing slaves; [and who] establishes prayer and gives zakah; [those who] fulfill their promise when they promise; and [those who] are patient in poverty and hardship and during battle. Those are the ones who have been true, and it is those who are the righteous.”

We can go on and on quoting verses in which ALLAH (SWT) linked freeing of slaves to righteousness. 

As for Muhammad (SAW), he said, “Visit the ill, feed the hungry and free the captives”. 

The Prophet (SAW) also said, “Whoever says-La ilah ill` Allah, wahdahu la sharika lahu Lahul mulk wa lahul hamd, wahua `ala kulli shayin qadeer’. Which means 

{There is no true god except Allah. He is One and He has no partner with Him; His is the sovereignty and His is the praise, and He is powerful over everything }

one hundred times will get the same reward as given for manumitting ten slaves; and one hundred good deeds will be written in his accounts, and one hundred sins will be deducted from his accounts, and it will be a shield for him from Satan on that day till night, and nobody will be able to do a better deed except the one who does more than he.”

These statements by ALLAH and HIS Messenger (SAW) made owning slaves feel like turning a deaf ear to ALLAH and the Prophet (SAW) as a result, more Muslims were inspired to free their remaining slaves. 

Those who didn’t have slaves went to slave markets elsewhere just to purchase slaves they could free to earn the pleasure of ALLAH and the approval of the Prophet (SAW). 

The Prophet alone liberated as many as 63 slaves. The number of slaves freed by Aishah was 67, Abbas liberated 70, Hakim bin Hazm liberated no fewer than 100 slaves, Abd Allah bin Umar liberated one thousand, and Abd al-Rahman bin Awf purchased 30,000 slaves and set them free (Muadudi). 

As historians have it recorded; within 40 years or less slavery and the slave trade were abolished in the Arabian Peninsula under Muslims. 

If as time passed, some Muslims went back to the practice of slavery after the passing of the golden generation of Muslims; then it is they who should be held to account and not Islam.

Views Of Non-Muslims On Islam & Slavery

• Annemarie Schimmel (scholar on Islamic civilization) asserts that because the status of slaves under Islam could only be obtained through either being a prisoner of war or born from slave parents, slavery would be theoretically abolished with the expansion of Islam.
• Murray Gordon notes: "Muhammad took pains in urging the faithful to free their slaves as a way of expiating their sins. Some Muslim scholars have taken this to mean that his true motive was to bring about a gradual elimination of slavery.
• Patrick Manning states that Islamic legislations against the abuse of the slaves convincingly limited the extent of enslavement in Arabian Peninsula and to a lesser degree for the whole area of the whole Umayyad Caliphate where slavery had existed since the most ancient times.
• Bernard Lewis states that the Qur'anic legislation brought two major changes to ancient slavery which were to have far-reaching effects: presumption of freedom, and the ban on the enslavement of free persons except in strictly defined circumstances.
• Jonathan Brockopp writes: "Other cultures limit a master's right to harm a slave but few exhort masters to treat their slaves kindly, and the placement of slaves in the same category as other weak members of society who deserve protection is unknown outside the Qur'an. The unique contribution of the Qur'an, then, is to be found in its emphasis on the place of slaves in society and society's responsibility toward the slave, perhaps the most progressive legislation on slavery in its time."