Expert: Abo Muhammed Samir Faid - 2/11/2005

Question
Is slavery permitted in Islaam? And when are war or killing justified?

Answer
The word "Jihad" means struggle, or to be specific, striving in the cause of God. Any struggle done in day-to-day life to please God can be considered Jihad. One of the highest levels of Jihad is to stand up to a tyrant and speak a word of truth. Control of the self from wrong doings is also a great Jihad. One of the forms of Jihad is to take up arms in defense of Islam or a Muslim country when Islam is attacked. This kind of Jihad has to be declared by the religious leadership or by a Muslim head of state who is following the Quran and Sunnah.

NOWHERE DOES ISLAM ENJOIN THE KILLING OF INNOCENTS.. The Quran says: "Fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but do not transgress limits. God does not love transgressors." (Quran 2:190) "If they seek peace, then seek you peace. And trust in God for He is the One that heareth and knoweth all things." (Quran 8:61) War, therefore, is the last resort, and is subject to the rigorous conditions laid down by the sacred law.

According to the Quran, "There is no compulsion in religion" (2:256), thus, no one can be forced to become a Muslim. While it is true that in many places where Muslim armies went to liberate people or the land, they did carry the sword as that was the weapon used at that time. However, Islam did not spread by the sword because in many places where there are Muslims now, in the Far East like Indonesia, in China, and many parts of Africa, there are no records of any Muslim armies going there. To say that Islam was spread by the sword would be to say that Christianity was spread by guns, F-16's and atomic bombs, etc., which is not true. Christianity spread by the missionary works of Christians. Ten-percent of all Arabs are Christians. The "Sword of Islam" could not convert all the non-Muslim minorities in Muslim countries. In India, where Muslims ruled for 700 years, they are still a minority. In the U.S.A., Islam is the fastest growing religion and has 6 million followers without any sword around.

verses relating to fighting or "killing" refer to those who aggressed against Muslims and mostly [especially in Chapters 8&9 of the Quran] refer to idolatrous Arabs who committed "war crimes" against Muslims.

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When Islam was reveled to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), slavery was a worldwide common social phenomenon; it was much older than Islam. Slavery was deeply rooted in every society to the extent that it was impossible to imagine a civilized society without slaves. In spite of this social fact, Islam was the first religion to recognize slavery as a social illness that needed to be addressed. Since slavery was deeply rooted in the society, Islam did not abolish it at once. Rather, Islam treated slavery in the same manner it treated other social illnesses. Islam followed the same methodology of gradual elimination in dealing with this social disease as it did with other social illnesses, for example: the prohibition of alcohol in three steps.

From the early days of the message, Islam declared the equality of all human beings, including slaves; equality in origin, equality in values, equality in destiny. Under this declaration, for the first time ever, slaves became brothers and sisters of their masters in the Islamic ummah (community). In al-Bukhari, it was reported that the Prophet (pbuh) said:

‘Your servants and your slaves are your brothers. Anyone who has slaves should give them from what he eats and wears. He should not charge them with work beyond their capabilities. If you must set them to hard work, in any case, I advise you to help them.'

Islam forbade the traditional practice of enslaving free individuals by capturing them and selling them into slavery. The Prophet (pbuh) said:

‘There are three categories of people against whom I myself shall be a plaintiff on the Day of Judgment. Of those three, one is he who enslaves free men, then sells him and eats this money…'

Islam established rules, which leads to the eventual freedom of slaves. It declared the act of freeing slaves as a good deed, which is tremendously rewarded by Allah. Therefore, Muslims were encouraged to participate in freeing slaves. The freedom of slaves was also encoded in the legal system of Islam by requiring it as part of the penance for sins and as the punishment for criminal acts. Islam listed freeing slaves as one of the eight elements for which zakat (state collected alms money) could be used.

In addition, Islam established many other ways by which slaves could easily gain their freedom. For example, a baby born from a slave and her master is not only considered free, but also guaranteed the freedom of his mother. A second example is that if a slave was physically tortured by his master, he automatically becomes a free man! A third example is that slaves were allowed to buy their freedom from their masters, and are allowed to seek financial help to do so. Actually, you can find many other examples in the fiqh (Islamic law) books.

Eventually, through this systematic plan of gradually freeing the slaves and making them accepted in the society, the idea of eliminating slavery became powerful enough that after Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) died, the freed slaves remained free and not one of them was ever enslaved again. Also, within the times of the prophethood and the rightly guided caliphate (the first four caliphs) there were 32,320 slaves who were freed! See the book: Subul al-Salam of al-San'ani.

The final word is that although Islam did not abolish slavery, Islam was directing the ummah toward it. In other words, it was Islam, which paved the path toward abolishing slavery.

Allah knows the best - wa salaam