Spotlight On Islam

Part 3 – Did Islam Abolish Slavery?

Revelation, Regulation, and the Myth of Abolition

🔥 Introduction: A Religion That Regulates, But Never Rejects

One of the most widespread modern claims made by Muslim apologists is this:

“Islam didn’t abolish slavery overnight, but it set in motion its eventual eradication.”

This is a noble sentiment — and a thoroughly false one.

Because here’s the uncomfortable reality:
Islam never abolished slavery.
Not in the Qur’an. Not in the Sunnah. Not in Sharia. Not in 1,300 years of Islamic empires.

Instead, Islam legalized, regulated, and integrated slavery into its moral and legal system — embedding it so deeply into the architecture of Islamic law that it lasted well into the 20th century, only ending under Western colonial pressure.

In this part of the series, we dismantle the myth of abolition in Islam — and show why claims to the contrary are either:

Post-hoc moral revisionism, or
Flat-out dishonest.

📜 Step 1: What Does the Qur’an Say About Slavery?

Let’s begin where any serious critique must begin: the primary text.

The Qur’an mentions slaves over a dozen times. In every single case, it assumes the legitimacy of slavery — and never once prohibits it.

📌 Examples of Qur’anic Regulation of Slavery:

Surah 4:3 – Slaves as Marital Alternatives

“... marry women of your choice... but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly, then marry those that your right hands possess.”

The Qur’an positions slave women as substitutes for free wives.

Surah 24:33 – Slave Contracts

“If any of your slaves desire a contract to free themselves, write it for them if you find good in them...”

This is the concept of mukataba — a contractual manumission, at the discretion of the owner. It doesn’t make slavery wrong — it makes ownership a condition of mercy.

Surah 16:75 – Slaves vs. Free Men

“Allah sets forth the example of a slave under the control of another and a free man...”

Again, the legitimacy of human ownership is presented without critique.

Surah 2:178 – Compensation for Murder

“If a believer is killed by mistake... then the freeing of a believing slave is prescribed.”

The freeing of slaves is framed as a penalty — not a human right. And only believing slaves qualify.

🚫 What Is Missing: Abolition

Nowhere in the Qur’an does Allah ever say:

“Slavery is wrong.”
“Slavery is abolished.”
“You must not own another human being.”

Not even close.

And no verse can be reasonably interpreted that way without projecting modern ethics onto an ancient text.

📚 Step 2: Hadith and Muhammad’s Personal Practice

Let’s look at how Muhammad, the “ideal example,” lived.

✅ Muhammad Owned Slaves

He owned:

Male slaves: Zayd ibn Harithah, Anas ibn Malik, Abu Rafi’, Thawban
Female slaves: Maria al-Qibtiyya, Rayhana, Safiyya (initially), and more

Some he freed, others he did not.

The hadith and sira literature are replete with references to:

His purchase, sale, and use of slaves
His distribution of slaves as war booty
His sexual relations with concubines

He was not a reformer aiming to dismantle the system. He was a participant in it.

🏛️ Step 3: What Did Sharia Law Say?

All four major Sunni schools of jurisprudence affirm slavery as legitimate. Not one rejects the institution.

🔹 Legal Categories in Classical Sharia:

Slaves as war booty (ghanima)
Slaves through purchase
Children born of slave women become property
Sexual relations with concubines legal
Slaves have fewer legal rights (e.g., cannot testify against free Muslims)

Manumission is encouraged, yes — but only for reward or expiation, not because slavery is wrong.

Reliance of the Traveller (Shafi’i Manual):

“The legal status of slaves is that they are property... it is permissible to buy, sell, gift, or bequeath them.”

This wasn’t fringe law. It was mainstream Islamic jurisprudence.

📜 Step 4: 1,300 Years of Islamic History

Let’s move from doctrine to history.

No Islamic empire, from the Rashidun Caliphate through the Ottomans, ever outlawed slavery.

Instead, they:

Expanded the slave trade
Created massive slave bureaucracies (e.g., the Mamluks, Janissaries)
Built economies partially dependent on captives, concubines, and eunuchs
Enslaved Africans, Europeans, Central Asians, and Hindus by the millions

Even as abolition began spreading through Christian Europe, Islamic lands resisted.

Examples:

The Ottoman Empire continued slavery until 1924
Saudi Arabia outlawed slavery in 1962
Mauritania criminalized slavery in 2007, but it still exists today

This is not accidental. This is the natural outgrowth of Islamic theology.

🔁 The Apologist Move: “But Islam Encouraged Manumission!”

Yes. It did. And so did every other religion, empire, and legal system that accepted slavery as normal.

Encouragement is not abolition.

Let’s be clear:

Act	Islam’s Position
Owning a human being	Permissible
Buying/selling slaves	Permissible
Having sex with slaves	Permissible
Freeing a slave	Encouraged, not required
Ending the system	Never commanded

🧠 Debunking Modern Myths

❌ “Islam led to abolition!”

Reality: Abolition came despite Islam, not because of it. The final blows to slavery in the Muslim world came from:

British and French colonial laws
International treaties
UN human rights frameworks
Pressure from secular modernity

There is no historical evidence of a purely Islamic movement that sought to end slavery on theological grounds.

❌ “Muhammad freed his slaves!”

Reality: He freed some, but retained others. Freeing a slave out of personal piety is not the same as challenging the system itself.

Muhammad participated in slavery, regulated it, and left it intact.

❌ “Manumission shows Islam was moving toward abolition!”

Reality: That’s wishful thinking — not in the Qur’an, not in Hadith, not in fiqh. The underlying moral claim that slavery is inherently wrong is absent in Islam.

Manumission is good — but slavery remains good too, in Islam’s legal framework.

🔄 Debate Trap Summary

Let’s walk this through the logic trap:

You ask:

“Did Islam abolish slavery?”

They say:

“No, but it encouraged freeing slaves.”

You follow up:

“Encouraging isn’t abolition. Can you show me the verse that prohibits slavery outright?”

They say:

“No, but it was on a moral trajectory...”

You reply:

“Then the Qur’an preserved slavery, not ended it. Islam regulated the ownership of human beings — it didn’t reject it.”

Now they’re forced to admit:

Either Islam failed morally, or
Slavery is still legitimate today under Islam

Either way, Islam collapses as a universal moral system.

🔚 Final Verdict: A Religion That Failed to Evolve

For a religion that claims to be:

The final revelation
The most just and compassionate law
The perfect system for all times and places

Islam’s stance on slavery is not just a failure. It is a damning indictment.

It:

Legalizes ownership of human beings
Permits rape through concubinage
Gives slave owners control over their victims’ lives and bodies
Sanctifies the system in scripture, Hadith, and law
Was historically practiced without interruption for over a millennium

Slavery in Islam isn’t a bug.
It’s a feature.

⏭️ Coming Next in the Series…

Part 4 – Was Sex with Captives Consensual?

We’ll now drill into the central ethical question:

“In Islamic law, could a female slave legally refuse sex with her owner?”

You probably already know the answer. But we’re going to prove it — from the Qur’an, Hadith, tafsir, and legal rulings — and expose what that answer means for Islam’s moral claim.