Answering Objections to Islam · Ethics, Law & Society

Slavery in Islam

In short

• 1.Manumission is the expiation for broken oaths, accidental killing and breaking a fast.
• 2.Q 24:33 makes the mukataba (purchase of freedom) obligatory on the master if the slave requests it and shows good.
• 3.Zakat has a permanent designated category (fi al-riqab) for buying people out of slavery.

The claim being examined

Critics argue that Islam never abolished slavery, and that the Prophet and Companions owned slaves.

The Islamic position

Islam entered a world where slavery was universal and legislated systematically toward manumission: freeing slaves is the prescribed expiation for a range of sins, the Qur'an commands the manumission contract for any slave who seeks it, and freeing slaves is named as a supreme act of righteousness.

Analysis

The structural comparison is with the biblical treatment, which regulates slavery without an analogous manumission engine (Leviticus 25:44-46 permits permanent hereditary enslavement of foreigners). Q 90:12-13 defines the steep path as the freeing of a neck. The honest concession is that Islamic law did not issue an outright prohibition, and later Muslim empires expanded slavery well beyond what the scriptural trajectory supports — that history is a failure of Muslims, not a command of Islam. Jonathan Brown's Slavery and Islam is the standard treatment and does not flinch from either half.

From the Qur'an

From the Bible

From the Sunnah

Sources

Jonathan A.C. Brown · Bernard Freamon

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