{"id":11515,"date":"2026-01-23T01:37:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T01:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/?p=11515"},"modified":"2026-01-23T01:37:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T01:37:41","slug":"islam-fight-slavery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/?p=11515","title":{"rendered":"How Does Islam Fight Slavery?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"How<\/a>

Islam came while slavery was a well-established and recognized institution all over the world.<\/p><\/div>\n

What did Islam say and teach about slavery?<\/p>\n

1- Islamic Principle: People Are Born Free, Slavery is Temporary<\/b><\/p>\n

The Quran states:<\/p>\n

O mankind, indeed We have created you from a male (Adam) and a female (Eve) and made you into various families and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most honored of you in God\u2019s sight is the most pious of you.\u00a0<\/b>(Al-Hujurat<\/a>\u00a049:13)<\/p>\n

The Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) declared:<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of you are from Adam and Adam was created from dust.\u201d (Abu Dawud, Ahmad and Al-Baihaqi)<\/p>\n

The principle that human beings are born free and slavery is accidental is accepted by all the scholars of Islam. Few important consequences of this principle are:<\/p>\n

– Voluntary slavery is not allowed. A free person cannot become a slave even if he wants to.<\/p>\n

– A free person cannot be enslaved. The interesting point is that Muslim theologians did not decide it, but the Prophet Muhammad declared it to be a sin 1400 years ago.\u00a0 He said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are three types of people against whom I shall myself be a plaintiff on the Day of Judgment. Of these three, one is he who enslaves a free man, then sells him, and consumes this money.\u201d\u00a0 (Al-Bukhari and Ibn Majah)<\/p>\n

– An unclaimed child with unknown parentage was to be treated as a free person even if the child appeared to have slave parents.<\/p>\n

2- A slave Was Granted Respect and Human Dignity<\/b><\/p>\n

The very word \u201cslave\u201d in English has extremely negative connotations of barbaric treatment.\u00a0 Compare it with how the Prophet of mercy spoke about slaves 1400 years ago:<\/p>\n

\u201cYour slaves are your brothers! God has placed them in your care.\u00a0 So, whose brother is under his care, he should feed him what he eats and dress him how he dresses.\u00a0 And do not burden them beyond their capacities; but if you burden them (with an unbearable burden), then help them (by sharing their extra burden).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the servant of anyone amongst you prepares food for him and has undergone its hardship of heat and smoke, he should make him (the servant) sit along with him and make him eat (along with him), and if he does not do that, then he should spare some portion for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Prophet of Mercy forbade hitting the slaves.\u00a0 He declared that the atonement of hitting or slapping a slave is to set him free .<\/p>\n

Moreover, a slave is not be addressed with hurtful words. The Prophet of Mercy stated not to address them as, \u2018My slave boy or my slave girl.\u201d He said, \u201cAll of you are salves of God!\u201d Address them with, \u201cO my young man, O my young lady!\u201d<\/p>\n

`Umar ibn Al-Khattab (the second ruler-caliph of Islam) was so fond of Salim, a freed slave, that he wished to appoint Salim to be the ruler-caliph if he were alive. Salim used to lead the Muslims in prayer, considered an honor in Islamic tradition.<\/p>\n

3- Islam Did Not Initiate the System of Slavery, while \u00a0it\u00a0existed in Judaism, Christianity, India, and China before Islam.<\/b><\/p>\n

Since the earliest times, Islam had opened doors to free slaves and to eventually end slavery. The Islamic paradigm did not ignore the realities of the world, nor did it endorse it. Islam regulated it.<\/p>\n

As Annemarie Schimmel, a German scholar, noted, \u201c\u2026therefore slavery is theoretically doomed to disappear with the expansion of Islam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shari\u2019ah Law severely limited the channels in which the number of slaves could multiply. The only source of slavery were captives of legitimate war and the children born to slave parents. In case of war, the captives were not required to be enslaved. The Muslim scripture laid other options of dealing with them as well:<\/p>\n

– Unconditional freedom:\u00a0\u201c\u2026either grace\u2026\u201d<\/b>\u00a0(Muhammad<\/a>\u00a047:4)<\/p>\n

– Ransom: \u201c\u2026or ransom till the war lay down its burdens.\u201d<\/b>\u00a0(Muhammad\u00a0<\/a>47:4)<\/p>\n

After limiting the sources of new slaves, Islamic law dealt with the reality of the existing slaves.<\/p>\n

4- Islam Granted\u00a0Equal Religious Rights<\/b><\/p>\n

Islam granted equal religious rights to the free and the slave and in most civil matters. Their special laws were to make their jobs easier.<\/p>\n

Slaves were at the same footing of a freeman in terms of religious obligations, as well as reward and punishment from God. A slave\u2019s testimony was considered acceptable in the Hanbali tradition. A slave had right to personal belongings and property.<\/p>\n

Slaves were equal in retribution of blood-money. They were to be helped to legally win their freedom if they so choose through a mechanism known as\u00a0mukatabah<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0tadbeer<\/i>. This mechanism is enshrined in the Muslim scripture by God:<\/p>\n

And such of your slaves as seek a writing (of emancipation), write it for them if you are aware of aught of good in them, and bestow upon them of the wealth of Allah which He has bestowed upon you.\u00a0<\/b>(An-Nur 24:33)<\/p>\n

5- Islam Made Freeing Slaves an Act of Worship Pleasing to God<\/b><\/p>\n

It set freeing of slaves to be an atonement of sins and for specific acts of transgression. Muslims were encouraged to willingly set slaves free to release themselves from the torment of Hell Fire.<\/p>\n

The state was also a source of setting the slaves free as Islamic Law dictates that zakah \u2013 obligatory charity given by wealthy Muslims to the state \u2013 is to be spend on setting slaves free among other things:<\/p>\n

The alms are only for the poor and the needy, and those who collect them, and those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and to free the captives and the debtors\u2026\u00a0<\/b>(At-Tawbah 9:60)<\/p>\n

6- Islam Tried to Integrate Slaves into the Mainstream Society<\/b><\/p>\n

The issue of integration of freed slaves into the mainstream society has been discussed by some contemporary scholars. The Islamic solution was to integrate them into the society by making them part of the tribes and families. The system was known as\u00a0wala<\/i>\u2019. The Prophet said: \u201cFreeing slaves is like establishing relations by blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Historical Observations<\/b><\/p>\n

1-\u00a0 Abul `Alaa\u2019 Maududi writes in his paper, \u2018The Position of Slavery in Islam,\u2019: \u201cThe Prophet alone liberated as many as 63 slaves. The number of slaves freed by `A\u2019ishah was 67, \u2018Abbas liberated 70, \u2018Abdullah ibn `Umar liberated one thousand, and `Abd Al-Rahman purchased thirty thousand and set them free.\u201d<\/p>\n

2-\u00a0 \u201cZaid, the freedman of the Prophet, was often entrusted with the command of troops, and the noblest captains served under him without demur; and his son Osama was honored with the leadership of the expedition sent by Ab\u00fb Bakr against the Greeks. Kutb Ad-Deen, the first king of Delhi, and the true founder, therefore, of the Musulman empire in India, was a slave.\u201d<\/p>\n

3-\u00a0 \u201cEven ordinary domestic slaves were often better fed, clothed, and protected than many free men and women.\u201d<\/p>\n

4-\u00a0 \u201cThe entire history of Islam proves that slaves could occupy any office, and many former military slaves, usually recruited from among the Central Asian Turks, became military leaders and often even rulers as in eastern Iran, India (the Slave Dynasty of Delhi), and medieval Egypt (the Mamluks).\u201d<\/p>\n

5-\u00a0 \u201c\u2026the exclusivity of the owner-slave relationship that typifies slavery systems was never part of Ottoman realities.\u00a0 The \u015eeriat-based (Shari\u2019ah-based) court system breached that exclusivity by allowing slaves to complain of ill-treatment, which could lead to forced manumission. Although, as we have seen, the courts were reluctant to intervene in owner-slave relations, and the state was careful not to force owners to manumit slaves involuntarily, an arbitration mechanism was at all times available in the background, able if necessary to step into that relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

6-\u00a0 \u201cAs for Saudi Arabia\u2019s slaves, they shared the same food, clothes and homes as their owners and many of them became rulers of vast regions in the land and were active in the running of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

7-\u00a0 \u201c\u2026Saudi Arabia\u2019s late abolition of slavery. Slavery in Saudi Arabia was abolished in 1962\u2026that is because Saudi Arabia did not exist as a modern state before 1932, which means it took thirty years after its creation to end slavery, and that without a civil war.\u201d<\/p>\n

_________________________<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0<\/i>IslamHouse.<\/a><\/i>Soucre Link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How Does Islam Fight Slavery?: The principle that human beings are born free and that slavery is accidental is accepted by all the scholars of Islam. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4189,2404],"tags":[7674,9,2614,2916,7675,7676,7677,76,5502,7678,3760,3762,7679,7680],"class_list":["post-11515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights","category-the-faith","tag-divine-religions","tag-featured","tag-freedom-in-islam","tag-freedom-of-expression","tag-freedom-of-souls","tag-freedom-of-thought","tag-how-does-islam-fight-slavery","tag-islam","tag-islam-and-slavery","tag-man-is-born-free","tag-prophet-mohamed","tag-religion-of-allah","tag-slave-of-allah","tag-slavery-in-islam"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/slavery.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imuslim.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}