» A comment on slave girls as wives…

A comment on slave girls as wives…

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Question

In one of your answers you have written “Islam was never in favor of the institution of slavery. It never promoted it. The institution of slavery, by the grace of God, no longer exists in the world.”

I disagree with this most strongly, and this is a popular delusion. Insha’Allah I will give a number of examples, which when seen in the singular may strike you as inconsequential but when looked at as a gestalt, a whole, a pattern emerges.

Firstly, slavery exists in Africa and is practiced by many Christians, Pagans, as well as Muslims in countries like Nigeria and Cameroon. Mauritania and Sudan still retain their old slavery systems, though in a covert fashion. As to the rest of the world, human bondage is still legal, believe it or not, in the United States of America, what is outlawed is PRIVATE OWNERSHIP if bonded individuals, the state still can and does own bonded humans.

They are called prisoners. Until quite recently forced labor was widely practiced with bonded prisoners, the so called chain gangs, today in the US this practice is restricted to a couple of States only, like Alabama and I think Mississippi still uses chain gangs. In the rest of the US prison reforms have made this forced labor unpopular though one notes with GREAT INTEREST the RAPID privatization of the Prison industry and the rapidly growing LACK of oversight over privately owned prisons in the USA, it would be fair to speculate that given 4 or 5 years forced labor might be re-introduced into now privatized prisons. As to bondage outside of prison, an outlaw once arrested can actually give up his freedom to a Bonds man, a so-called “bounty hunter” in exchange for Bail. Once this is done the Bounty Hunter, in effect, owns the prisoner. In de facto the prisoner is his property de jure the prisoner is not quite his property but the bondsman does have almost complete control over the prisoner and has the ability to re arrest him, break down his doors, legally break into the Bonded individual’s property, and so on, until the individual’s bond is over.

But “ah, wait, this isn’t slavery, these are prisoners !” My point, un-examined assumptions regarding the role of prisons in our society. People see not things as they are, rather they see them as they have been trained.

Indeed the Western Prison System is not only obscenely expensive but it is an inhumane abomination, far more cruel than chopping off hands, walk amongst prisoners in America, my father is a Doctor and he works for the State in a prison. Trust me the system is thoroughly evil.

This is the accepted way of things and no one questions it, however strictly speaking this is bondage, slavery is private or state bondage.

As for de facto slavery there is a CONSIDERABLE body of critique, sadly mostly from the left, on many aspects of modern neo-liberal capitalism as practiced by Multinational Corporations, practices that in the third world result in conditions similar to or almost identical, in a few abused cases, to slavery. You and understanding Islam’s staff seem like intellectuals, I am surprised that you have never encountered such literature.

Illegal Sexual slavery is a Multi Billion Dollar industry, especially in Israel, Thailand, Russia, and many parts of Eastern Europe. In many places it brings in so much cash that authorities wink upon it.

Up until the 1980’s according to some reports that I’ve read the secular kemalist govt. ran one or two prisons for women debtors. Supposedly the prison officials allowed, or indeed forced, the women prisoners to engage in prostitution in order to pay off their debts. I’ve not been able to follow up on these reports, so I can not assertion the veracity of them.

Indeed I’ve heard that the Taliban allow the taking of captive women as Jaaria from sectarian (Ismaili) populations in Afghanistan.

Slavery is a global phenomena, it has not changed excepting in the FORM and in some cases the specific legalities of it, but it exists, has always existed, and indeed in spite of 2 centuries of so called progressive social change still exists.

Therefore it is incorrect to state that Islam in its wisdom was simply waiting for slavery to naturally end, the only reasons why legalized slavery mostly ended 1300 years after the blessed Nebi (saw) is due to the industrialization of Britain and the Northern United States, and the politics associated with these phenomena.

it is only 3 or so generations (I’m measuring in 40 year blocks) since slavery was legally stamped out by Britannia and the United States, and the Resonance of this throughout the world (then dominated by the former’s empire). 80, 90, or 100 or so years is a sliver in human history and one has no idea as to what the future holds 5, 20, or 50 years from now.

What we can say is that Islam recognizes slavery as a constant in human society (excepting this odd 100 or so year block) and aimed to make the practice as humane and beneficial to society as possible. Indeed I see few social evils in slavery as it was practiced throughout the Islamic world, excepting the few though ugly and tragic abuses (like Zanzibar, the use of the Zanj in the Abbassid days, the massive abuse of the allowance of concubinage) and I would even approve it today. It took me a decade to de-program my Liberal Private School Education regarding such matters and to train my eyes to insha’Allah, cut through the propaganda.

Slavery is a constant, it is ugly, like poverty, and sometimes a cause of misery, like poverty, but often slavery fulfills a valuable social function.

The entire, or at least most, of the Ottoman government, and military ELITE were slaves during many periods of Ottoman history.

Jaria girls or “kanizes” in many places, at many times in Islamic history, contributed beautifully to the culture and were many times dynamic players with influence, power, and rights.

I had to symbolically smack my head against a proverbial brick wall for the better part of a decade to de-program myself regarding my formerly liberal and “progressive” understanding of such matters. Indeed I’ve found that high school teachers are as apt, if not more so, to brainwash one, with greater degrees of subtlety, as any Molvi…

Reply

I do not differ with you on the point that all the examples that you have mentioned are indeed extremely grave contemporary situations, which epitomize the exploitation of the weak at the hands of the strong. Nevertheless, ‘slavery’ is not merely any exploitation of a class at the hands of another. It was actually an institute with its own unique characteristics. This institute was an integral part of the world society, generally, till a few decades back. This institute was also an integral part of the Arab society, at the time of the revelation of the Qur’an. The Qur’an in its directives has, generally, tried to improve the condition of the slaves, as well as to inculcate the spirit of freeing them and has ultimately, in its final directives regarding slaves, has given the slaves the irrevocable and the unchallengeable right to buy their own freedom. It is primarily these directives of the Qur’an, which point to the fact that Islam was never in favor of the institute of slavery and that it tried to relieve the human society of this vice. Islam had to cope with the deep-rooted social phenomenon and the directives of the Qur’an evidence the fact that Islam dealt with it in a manner that was truly wise and effective.

The examples that you have cited are, generally, not completely similar to what we call ‘slavery’. I do agree that these examples may sometimes entail shades of the great vice of slavery, yet they are not absolutely the same. A slave, as we are familiar with the ‘term’ was a part of the legally recognized, movable and transferable property of the slave owner. Slave trading; acquisition and disposal, under this definition, were absolutely acceptable activities and norms. There were, generally, no legally recognized rights of the slaves over their masters. The masters, on the other hand, had complete legal control over their slaves. This was the reason that, generally, there was no requirement of a written law to govern the slave-master relationship as such a law would, by its very existence, have given rights to slaves. The owner, by definition, could utilize his/her slave as he would his property and other commodities in his possession. The acquisition of slaves was primarily through wars and through open market purchases. It was strictly against the social norms to make slaves of one’s own nation, creed and tribe. All these activities regarding acquiring and maintaining slaves as well as utilizing them for the master’s pleasures were legally and socially recognized and protected.

Compare the above explanation of what slavery was with the cited examples of exploitation of one human being at the hands of another, and you shall see that even though, Islam would approve neither, yet the two are not similar in nature.

You write:

The mere fact that such ‘slavery’ system is retained in a ‘covert fashion’ evidences the fact that the general attitude and aptitude regarding slavery has tremendously altered over time. This is precisely what I had implied in my referred statement.

You write:

I would not question the validity of your statement, as I am not directly exposed to the system, yet I would only like to mention that not all ‘thoroughly evil’ systems should be termed as ‘slavery’. Slavery is a distinct institute with generally recognizable features. Nevertheless, I would not differ with the idea that all such human activities, which, directly or indirectly, result in the exploitation of other human beings should be taken as an abominable mark on the conscience of the whole human race.

You write:

Therefore it is incorrect to state that Islam in its wisdom was simply waiting for slavery to naturally end, the only reasons why legalized slavery mostly ended 1300 years after the blessed Nabi (saw) is due to the industrialization of Britain and the Northern United States, and the politics associated with these phenomena.

I agree with you. I would, however, like to add that the reason why Islam did not give any macro-level directives for the eradication of slavery was precisely the socio-cultural, economic and technological development state of the human collectivity, in general. It was only at a very later stage that mankind reached a stage where the collectivity could plan and implement programs for the macro-level eradication of the vice. Till such time, no collective administrative action could have been taken against the vice, individuals could only prompted against it, and this, in my opinion, is precisely what Islam did.

You write:

This, in fact, is the point of disagreement between us. Had Islam only been interested in making the practice more humane and had it accepted ‘slavery’ as a ‘constant’ of the human society, its directives would have been restricted to the improvement of the living conditions of the slaves. We know, however, that such is not the case. Islam has prompted individuals to free slaves and get rewards in the hereafter in return for such a humane act. Such and other related directives of Islam are not in consonance with the theory that Islam accepts slavery as a constant of the human society.

I would, therefore, suggest that if you desire to make any additions to this discussion, you should first of all answer the following questions, to support your theory that Islam accepts ‘slaves’ as a constant of the human society:

Why did Islam promote freeing slaves?
Why did Islam give the law relating to Mukaatabah (i.e. contract), whereby a slave-master was bound to enter into a contract with every such slave who was desirous of buying his freedom by giving a stipulated amount of money to his master within a stipulated period of time(1) (Al-Noor 24: 33)?
Why did Islam prescribe ‘freeing of slaves’ as a permanent head of expense of the Zaka’h fund collected from the Muslims (Al-Taubah 9: 60)
Why did Islam disallow the provision of converting prisoners of wars into slaves, which was an accepted international norm of the traditional societies (Muhammad 47: 4)

UIUK

⁽¹⁾It may be added here that if the slave was not able to pay the stipulated amount within the agreed upon time, and yet proved himself/herself to be able to live productively as an independent individual, Islam ordained the Islamic state (Bayet al-Maal) to pay the stipulated amount to the master, on the slave’s behalf.

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