First, a knowledgeable Jew or Christian knows full-well that slavery is discussed in the Bible.\u00a0 The Jewish law has much to say about slaves and their treatment.\u00a0 This matter is not open to debate.\u00a0 It is a fact every rabbi and trained pastor is aware of.<\/p>\n
Second, just as the Jews and Christians do not discuss slavery in their teachings and sermons, Muslims do not teach much on the subject.\u00a0 Why? The simple reason is that slavery as it existed in ancient times does not exist anymore.\u00a0 To talk of “slavery in Islam” as if the Muslims practice it today is dishonesty.<\/p>\n
Every country has laws against slavery.\u00a0 However, experts say that slavery has taken a new form today that we shall discuss briefly.<\/p>\n
The slave has three defining characteristics: his\/her person is the property of another human being, his\/her will is completely subject to his\/her owner\u2019s authority, and his\/her labor is obtained by coercion.[1]<\/span><\/a> \u00a0The international community condemned slavery as one of the worst human-rights violations, and the classic definition of slavery, set out in the Slavery Convention of 1926 is, “The status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the power attached to the right of ownership are exercised.”[2]<\/span><\/a> \u00a0In 1956, several additional definitions of slavery were added: debt bondage, serfdom, the practice of forced marriage, transferring of wives, inheritance of wives and transfer of a child for purposes of exploitation.[3]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n The Bible, in both Old and New Testaments, endorses slavery.[4]<\/span><\/a> \u00a0The Bible existed before the Quran.<\/p>\n The Bible states that once Noah awoke and found out that one of his sons, Ham, had seen him naked.\u00a0 Noah cursed his misbehaving son, Ham, and all the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham, saying: \u2018a slave of slaves shall you be to your brothers\u2019 (Gen 9:25).\u00a0 It must be noted that this story or anything similar to it is not found in the Quran or the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him.<\/p>\n There is a long tradition among Christians that Ham is the father of the black races of Africa, Shem is the father of Semites (that includes the Arabs and Jews), and Japheth is the father of the while people.\u00a0 Therefore, this passage of the Bible is considered to have made the white races supreme and the black race their servants.[5]<\/span><\/a> \u00a0This “biblical passage became for many centuries a major justification for black slavery.”[6]<\/span><\/a> \u00a0Not too long ago, in South Africa, the Reformed Church referred to this “curse” to support the “right” of whites to rule over blacks.<\/p>\n Slavery is twice mentioned in the ten commandments found in the Bible,[7]<\/span><\/a> but not once in the ten commandments<\/a> of the Quran.<\/p>\n Leviticus 25:44-46 (one of the books of present day Torah, the Jewish scripture) is a key text used for the biblical justification of slavery.\u00a0 It says that God told Jews, \u2018you may also buy male and female slaves from among the nations\u2026you may bequeath them to your sons after you, to inherit as a possession for ever.\u2019<\/p>\n Abraham, \u2018the one whom God chose for His love,\u2019 and \u2018the father of the faithful,\u2019 bought slaves from Haran (Gen 12:50), armed 318 slaves born in his own house (Gen 14:14), included them in his property list (Gen 12:16, 24:35-36), and willed them to his son Issac (Gen 26:13-14).\u00a0 The Bible says that God blessed Abraham by multiplying his slaves (Gen 24:35).\u00a0 In Abraham\u2019s household, angels tell Hagar, his slave, to return to Sarah.\u00a0 The angel tells her, \u2018return to your mistress and submit to her\u2019 (Gen 16:9).<\/p>\n At God\u2019s command, Joshua took slaves (Josh 9:23), as did David (1 Kings 8:2,6) and Solomon (1 Kings 9:20-21).<\/p>\n Job whom the Bible calls \u2018blameless and upright\u2019,\u00a0 was \u2018a great slaveholder.\u2019 See Job 1:15-17, 3:19, 7:2, 31:13, 42:8 where Job speaks of his slaves.[8]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Jesus accepted slavery.\u00a0 The present day Gospels do not have a single word attributed to Jesus as saying anything about slavery.\u00a0 Jesus met slaves (Luke 7:2-10, 22:50, etc) and gave parables of slaves (Matthew 13:24-30, 18:23-35, 22:1-14, Luke 12:25-40, 14:15-24, etc), but he never spoke against slavery.\u00a0 Compare it to what the Arabian Prophet of Islam said about slaves in the next article.<\/p>\n In some seventy passages the disciples spoke directly in support of slavery.\u00a0 They told slaves to accept their fate and instructed their masters to treat them kindly (1 Corinthians 7:20-21, Eph 6:5-9, Col 3:22-25, 1 Tim 6:1-2, Tit 2:9-10, Phlm 10-18, 1 Peter 2:18-19).\u00a0 1 Tim 6:1-3 instructs slaves to accept their position and obey their masters because it is commanded by “Lord Jesus Christ.”<\/p>\n Most Christian theologians and scholars until late last century believed that the Bible sanctioned slavery.\u00a0 The list includes Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, and others.[9]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n In 1835, the Presbyterian Synod of West Virginia attacked the movement to set slaves free, calling it a belief that goes against “the clearest authority of the word of God.\u2019[10]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Old School (presbyterian) General Assembly Report of 1845 concluded that slavery was based on \u2018some of the plainest declarations of the Word of God.\u2019[11]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n In 1861, a Jewish Rabbi, Dr.\u00a0 M.J.\u00a0 Raphall of New York, wrote a much publicized pamphlet entitled “The Bible View of Slavery” in defense of slavery.[12]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n As late as 1957 John Murray of the Westminster Theological Seminary[13]<\/span><\/a> \u00a0was still arguing that Bible allows for the institution of slavery and the past Christian scholars were correct in their understanding of the Bible.<\/p>\n The Three-Fifths Compromise is found in Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 of the US Constitution.\u00a0 The 3\/5\u2019s Compromise enabled more masters to become lawmakers, even though the 3\/5\u2019s of the slave population counted, had no voice or vote in the democracy.<\/p>\n The Slave Trade Compromise was an agreement during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, protecting the interests of slaveholders, that forbid Congress the power to act on the slave trade for twenty years.\u00a0 The Slave Trade Compromise stopped slave imports after 1807 encouraging slave breeding within the United States and slave auctions throughout the south.<\/p>\n The American Civil War was fought, in part, over slavery.\u00a0 During the war, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in rebel states.\u00a0 The North\u2019s victory in 1865 brought the end of legalized slavery throughout the United States.<\/p>\n Slavery as practiced in the old south took away any control from blacks over their own lives; they were to be slaves for life, their children were born into slavery, forbidden formal education, were harshly punished for small acts of disobedience, their families split as children were sold off, and women sexually exploited. The America\u2019s race-based slave system was designed at every level to take away the humanity of the slave, relying on ideas taken from the domestication of animals.\u00a0 Dehumanization had a special meaning for America\u2019s slave system. In America the slaves were marked by the color of their skin. In this, America\u2019s slave system was supported by American religion: the Bible informed Christians that slaves weren\u2019t fully equal humans but descendants of Canaan, marked by God to be inferior and servants of others.[15]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Legalized slavery may have ended, but the institution exists today under different names. United Nations Human Rights states, “Slavery was the first human rights issue to arouse wide international concern yet it still continues today.”[16]<\/span><\/a> \u00a0US State Department also recognizes “modern slavery.”[17]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Slaves are cheaper these days than they have ever been in about 4,000 years. In 1850, a slave would cost about $40,000 in today\u2019s dollars.\u00a0 Now, a slave costs $30-$90.\u00a0 There are 27 million slaves by conservative estimates and more than at any time in human history.[18]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n “\u2026between 14,000 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States annually, according to the US government, most forced into the sex trade, domestic servitude, or agricultural labor.\u00a0 At any one time, between 52,000 and 87,000 are in bondage\u2026 according to the United Nations, profits from human trafficking rank it among the top three revenue earners for organized crime, after drugs and arms.”[19]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/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.\u00a0 Indeed, the most honored of you in God\u2019s sight is the most pious of you.” (Quran 49:13)<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Prophet of Islam declared,<\/p>\n \u2018All of you are from Adam and Adam was created from dust.\u2019[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The principle that human beings are born free and slavery is accidental is accepted by all the scholars of Islam.\u00a0 Few important consequences of this principle are:<\/p>\n The very word “slave” 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 “Your 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).”[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n “When 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.”[4]<\/a><\/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[5]<\/a>.<\/p>\n Moreover, a slave is not be addressed with hurtful words.\u00a0 The Prophet of Mercy stated not to address them as, \u2018My slave boy or my slave girl.” He said, “All of you are slaves of God!” Address them with, “O my young man, O my young lady!”[6]<\/a><\/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.\u00a0 Salim used to lead the Muslims in prayer, which is considered an honor in Islamic tradition.<\/p>\n Since the earliest times, Islam had opened doors to free slaves and to eventually end slavery.\u00a0 The Islamic paradigm did not ignore the realities of the world, nor did it endorse it.\u00a0 Islam regulated it.\u00a0 As Annemarie Schimmel, a German scholar, noted, “\u2026therefore slavery is theoretically doomed to disappear with the expansion of Islam.”[7]<\/a><\/p>\n Shariah Law severely limited the channels in which the number of slaves could multiply.\u00a0 The only source of slavery was captives of legitimate war and the children born to slave parents.\u00a0 In case of war, the captives were not required to be enslaved.\u00a0 The Muslim scripture laid other options of dealing with them as well:<\/p>\n After limiting the sources of new slaves, Islamic law dealt with the reality of the existing slaves.<\/p>\n Slaves were at the same footing of a freeman in terms of religious obligations, as well as reward and punishment from God.\u00a0 A slave\u2019s testimony was considered acceptable.\u00a0 A slave had right to personal belongings and property.\u00a0 Slaves were equal in retribution of blood-money.\u00a0 They were to be helped to legally win their freedom if they so chose through a mechanism known as mukataba<\/em> and tadbeer<\/em>.\u00a0 This mechanism is enshrined in the Muslim scripture by God in 24:33.<\/p>\n It set freeing of slaves as atonement of sins and for specific acts of transgression.\u00a0 Muslims were encouraged to willingly set slaves free to release themselves from the torment of Hell Fire.\u00a0 The state was also a source of setting the slaves free as Islamic Law dictates that zakah<\/em> \u2013 obligatory charity given by wealthy Muslims to the state – is to be spend on setting slaves free among other things (Quran 9:60).<\/p>\n The issue of integration of freed slaves into the mainstream society has been discussed by some contemporary scholars.\u00a0 The Islamic solution was to integrate them into the society by making them part of the tribes and families.\u00a0 The system was known as “wala<\/em>.” The Prophet of Islam said, \u2018Freeing slaves is like establishing relations by blood.\u2019[8]<\/a><\/p>\n Source: https:\/\/www.islamreligion.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roots of Slavery in the Bible<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Slavery in US Constitution<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Slavery in Post Civil War US<\/strong>[14]<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h2>\n
Slavery Today<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Slavery in Islamic Law with Some Historical Observations<\/strong><\/h1>\n
1. Islamic principle: People are born free, slavery is temporary.<\/h3>\n
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2. A slave was granted respect and human dignity.<\/h3>\n
3. Islam did not initiate the system of slavery.\u00a0 It existed in Judaism, Christianity, India, and China before Islam.<\/h3>\n
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4.\u00a0 Islam granted equal religious rights to the free and the slave and in most civil matters.\u00a0 Their special laws were to make their jobs easier.<\/h3>\n
5.\u00a0 Islam made freeing slaves an act of worship pleasing to God.<\/h3>\n
6. Islam integrated slaves into the mainstream society.<\/h3>\n
Some Historical Observations<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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