Slavery - the Teachings of
Islam
by
Sr Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood.
It is important to realize that the revelation
of Islam to the Prophet Muhammad was given by the same One True God, the
Almighty (or Allah) who had given the revelations to all the previous prophets.
Although Old Testament Law allowed criminals
and insolvent debtors to be enslaved, kidnapping and enslaving law-abiding
people incurred the death penalty. The law as given to the prophet Moses
(Musa) was: Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has
him when he is caught must be put to death. ( Exodus 21:16).
Both the slave trade and slavery itself was
expressly forbidden in The New Testament. St Paul pointed out that: The Law
is made not for the righteous but for Law breakers, for those who kill their
fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave
traders and liars and perjurers. (1
Timothy 1:9-10).
In Islam, all people are equal before the law, and
no citizen should be beneath the protection of the law, no matter how humble.
Every citizen should have equal rights, including the right of defence if
accused of something. No citizen should ever be above the law, no matter how
powerful, rich or influential. If any person can buy his or her way out of a
rightly deserved punishment, then that society is corrupt and should be
challenged.
‘O believers, be staunch in justice,
witnesses for God, even though it be against yourselves, your parents or your
kindred, whether the case be of a rich person or a poor person – for God is
nearer to both (than you are); so do not follow passion, lest you lapse (from
truth), and if you lapse or fall away, then lo! God is ever informed of what
you do.’
(Surah 4:135)
It is worth knowing, however, that although slavery obviously existed long before the first revelation of Islam in 610 CE, the coming of Islam brought a fresh look at the morality of it. Slavery was not abolished as such, for it had a long tradition of being a way in which people who were in debt might work their way out of it – but the angel revealed these words of God to the Prophet: ‘Who will tell you what the ascent is? It is to free the slave’ (Surah 90.13).
The act of freeing slaves was regarded in itself as a great act of merit. Freeing a slave, moreover, could be a means of atonement for Muslims who had committed an enormous variety of wrongdoings, ranging from manslaughter (Surah 4.92), to making a futile oath (Surah 5.89), or even instigating an ill-considered divorce (Surah 58.3).
The rules of Islam are briefly given here, although throughout history (to their shame) many who claimed/claim to be Muslims have not lived up to the high standards laid down by Allah’s revelation.
· No Muslim should ever acknowledge any master but God – whether that Muslim be a king or a road-sweeper.
· Slavery as such was not prohibited, for it had traditionally been a way in which persons in dire need had been able to find a home and security when unable to cope without such protection.
· If any person captured and kept any other person against their will (except immediately after a battle) this was the criminal offence of hirabah bil jabr (forcibly taking a person – which includes enforced slavery, kidnapping, holding by force, hijacking etc,) and could carry the death penalty in Shari’ah law.
· It was regarded as one of the most noble acts of charity for a Muslim to grant freedom to a slave, or buy the freedom for slaves in other households if they were able to do so.
· Those in debt could arrange set lengths of servitude in order to pay off those debts, and were free of obligation at the end of the time. (In the Old Testament, the patriarch and prophet Jacob/Yaqub worked 14 years for the hand of his beloved Rachel).
· Slave owners and other people were enjoined to give financial help to slaves to earn their freedom under the law of Mukatabat (contract).
· Persons were not to be regarded as objects that were ‘owned’, and were granted many new rights.
· People were not to be inherited like possessions.
· The castration of slaves was forbidden.
· Slaves had the right to earn money and buy themselves out.
· Slaves had the right to marry and keep their children.
· People-buyers were refused permission to split up families. Children of slaves should not be split from their parents. The Prophet once found one of his own female servants, Umm Dumayrah, weeping in distress. She told him she had been separated from her son before she had come to him, and the child had been sold to a different family. ‘No child should be separated from its mother,’ was the Prophet’s prompt reply. He immediately sent for the man who had the child and bought him off him and returned hin to his mother.[1] ‘Whoever separates a slave from his/her children, Allah will separate him and his beloved ones on the Day of Judgement,’ he said.[2]
· If a slave had been freed, they were not to be turned out of the household if they wished to stay and remain in their former security.
· Cruel men who raped and abused were always despised, and such behaviour was forbidden to Muslims by Allah (Surah 24.33). Morally, any man who became a slave to lust and depravity was despised, and regarded as weak and contemptible.
· Muslims were refused permission to force sexual intimacy upon their slaves and in fact were forbidden sexual relationships outside the marriage contract. A free woman expected a dowry or mahr if she married; if a man took a wife from among his servants (the phrase frequently used was ‘those his right hand possesseed’), she should be granted her freedom in lieu of mahr. This was automatic for those who bore children.[3] (See separate article on ‘Those the Right hand Possesses).
· Muslims were ordered not to abuse their servants, or treat them cruelly, and slaves had the right to appeal to shari’ah law to gain redress for rape or injury.
There were special rules for prisoners of war. The association of slave-status with any particular racial group was not acceptable – the slavery of prisoners of war was for their acts against the community, not inherent in their racial or ethnic origins. There were stringent rules for the treatment of people taken as prisoners-of-war, and guidance towards arranging their ransom. Prisoners of war were to be treated, fed and clothed to the same standard as family members, and if ransom was not forthcoming, could be released for token sums or even a good act, like teaching someone to read. Sometimes they were able to use their abilities to teach or help until the captor was satisfied. Often they were set free for nothing.
[1] Tabari 39 p.100, Ibn Kathir 4.451.
[2] Tirmidhi 979.
[3] Caliph Umar ordered that any Umm Walad (a slave girl who bore a child to her master) would stand emancipated. This had the effect that such women could no longer be treated as concubines and were to be given the status of regular wives or divorced – in which case they would as free women be able to marry other persons. (The Alim Encyclopedia, Biography of Umar). This practice was not regarded as in any way dishonourable or abnormal. There was a long tradition of barren wives ‘employing’ concubines to bear children on their behalf. Indeed, the Arabs claimed that their line commenced with the progeny of the Prophet Ibrahim through Hajar (Hagar), an Egyptian serving-woman belonging to his barren wife Sarah. Sarah herself asked Ibrahim to take Hagar as his wife, to bear offspring ‘for’ her – a practice vouched for by ancient law-texts discovered at Nuzi. So long as all parties involved were informed, willing and content, it was not considered to be abuse or exploitation of the slave or servant-woman, but rather that she was elevated by being chosen, and might expect lasting security as a result. The children thus conceived were certainly not despised or stigmatised with shame, or prevented from becoming heroes through their own talents and courage.