Answering Objections to Islam · Ethics, Law & Society
Slavery in Islam
In short
- 1.Freeing a slave is the fixed penalty for a broken oath, an accidental killing and breaking a fast.
- 2.Q 24:33: if a slave asks to buy their freedom and is trustworthy, the master must agree.
- 3.Zakat has a permanent share set aside for buying people out of slavery.
The claim being examined
People argue that Islam never banned slavery, and that the Prophet (SAW) and his companions owned slaves.
The Islamic position
Islam arrived in a world where slavery was everywhere, and it built a system that kept pushing people out of it: freeing a slave is the set penalty for several sins, a master must accept a slave's request to buy their freedom, and freeing people is named among the highest good deeds.
Analysis
Compare it with the biblical law, which regulates slavery but has no comparable machinery for getting people out of it — Leviticus 25:44-46 allows foreigners to be owned permanently and passed on to your children. Q 90:12-13 calls the hard climb "the freeing of a neck". The honest part to concede: Islamic law did not issue a flat ban, and later Muslim empires expanded slavery far past anything the scripture points towards. That is the failure of Muslims, not a command of Islam. Jonathan Brown's Slavery and Islam is the standard book on this and does not dodge either half.
From the Qur'an
وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا ٱلْعَقَبَةُ فَكُّ رَقَبَةٍ
wamā adrāka mā l-ʿaqabatu fakku raqabatin
What will make you know what the steep path is? It is the freeing of a slave.
وَٱلَّذِينَ يَبْتَغُونَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ مِمَّا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَـٰنُكُمْ فَكَاتِبُوهُمْ
wa-alladhīna yabtaghūna l-kitāba mimmā malakat aymānukum fakātibūhum
Those who seek a contract of freedom — contract with them if you know goodness in them.
From the Bible
Hebrew
You may buy slaves from the nations around you; you may bequeath them to your children as inherited property.
Read it in their BibleFrom the Sunnah
Whoever frees a Muslim slave, Allah will free from the Fire a limb of his for every limb.
Sources
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