Shari'ah (Islamic Law): Difference between revisions

Under Islamic laws, slavery is explicitly permitted.<ref>"''....I married a virgin woman in her veil. When I entered upon her, I found her pregnant. (I mentioned this to the Prophet). The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: She will get the dower, for you made her vagina lawful for you. The child will be your slave....''" - {{Abudawud|11|2126}}</ref> As Saudi Sheikh ''Saleh Al-Fawzan'', a member of the Senior Council of Clerics had said in 2003, those who argue that slavery is abolished are "ignorant, not scholars. They are merely writers. Whoever says such things is an infidel."<ref>Shaikh Salih al-Fawzan's "affirmation of slavery" was found on page 24 of "Taming a Neo-Qutubite Fanatic Part 1" when accessed on February 17, 2007 http://www.salafipublications.com/sps/downloads/pdf/GRV07000</ref> Muhammad himself was a slaver. Muhammad owned many male<ref>{{cite web |url=http://answering-islam.org./BehindVeil/btv5.html |title=Slavery in Islam: Chapter 5 |archiveurl=http://archive.is/20120915/http://answering-islam.org./BehindVeil/btv5.html |archivedate=2012-09-15 |accessdate=2012-09-15}} - Answering Islam</ref><ref>"Zad al-Ma'ad" by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya Part 1, Pages 114-116</ref> and female<ref>"Zad al-Ma'ad" by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya Part 1, Pages 114-116</ref> slaves, and also sold, captured, and had raped<ref>"''....Waqidi has informed us that Abu Bakr has narrated that the messenger of Allah (PBUH) had sexual intercourse with Mariyyah [his Coptic slave] in the house of Hafsah....''" - Tabaqat v. 8 p. 223 Publisher Entesharat-e Farhang va Andisheh Tehran 1382 solar h ( 2003) Translator Dr. Mohammad Mahdavi Damghan</ref> his slaves. His wives owned slaves as well. Muhammad generally had no animosity towards slavery,<ref>"''....Allah's Apostle sent someone to a woman telling her to "Order her slave, carpenter, to prepare a wooden pulpit for him to sit on."....''" - {{Bukhari|1|8|439}}</ref> and at times even discouraged the freeing of slaves.<ref>"''...."Do you know, O Allah's Apostle, that I [Maimuna bint Al-Harith] have manumitted my slave-girl?" He said, "Have you really?" She replied in the affirmative. He said, "You would have got more reward if you had given her (i.e. the slave-girl) to one of your maternal uncles.''" - {{Bukhari|3|47|765}}</ref> He once exchanged two black slaves for one Arab.<ref>"''....Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said: Sell him to me. And he bought him for two black slaves,....''" - {{Muslim|10|3901}}</ref> Whatever else may be the case, Muhammad's actions played a clear role in perpetuating slavery in the Middle East and North Africa by institutionalizing it within Islam, ultimately creating one of the largest trans-continental slave trades in history. The Eastern Islamic slave trade is the longest yet least discussed of the two major trades. Many people, unfortunately are unaware that the Arab slave trade ever existed, even though it began around 650 AD (pre-dating the European slave trade by over a thousand years and, according to most estimates, involved millions more living slaves than the shorter-lived Trans-Atlantic trade - and the death count was astronomically higher as described below). It was only officially abolished (due largely to pressure from the West,<ref>Brunschvig. [http://www.brill.nl/m_catalogue_sub6_id7560.htm 'Abd; Encyclopedia of Islam] </ref> ) in the 1960's. However, the slave trade still exists in the Islamic East. As of July 2009,<ref>Nick Meo - [{{Reference archive|1=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/ghana/5805113/Half-a-million-African-slaves-are-at-the-heart-of-Mauritanias-presidential-election.html|2=2011-04-05}} Half a million African slaves are at the heart of Mauritania's presidential election] - Telegraph, July 12, 2009</ref> there were over half a million slaves in Mauritania alone. In Pakistan, the labor minister of Punjab had said in early 2009 that there are "millions of forced laborers in 'private prisons' across the country",<ref>E. Benjamin Skinner - [{{Reference archive|1=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1932723,00.html|2=2011-04-08}} Pakistan's Forgotten Plight: Modern-Day Slavery] - TIME, October 27, 2009</ref> and the town of Hajja, Yemen, in 2010 is home to another 300 slaves.<ref>Jamal al-Jaberi - [{{Reference archive|1=http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hqh_clC3ngbax_X84fY4c7uGQihw|2=2011-04-05}} 'Slaves' in impoverished Yemen still dream of freedom] - AFP, July 20, 2010</ref> Unlike the Europeans who were primarily interested in male slaves for use as  agricultural workers, the Islamic slave marker preferred female slaves to use for sexual exploitation as concubines. Similarly unique to the Islamic slave trade were the large number of male slaves who were castrized and sold as eunuchs. Furthermore, putting aside the 1.25 million white Europeans Christians who were captured and sold into the Muslim slave trade between the 16th and 19th century,<ref>Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters:  White Slavery in the Mediterranean; the Barbary Coast and Italy 1500 - 1800, by Robert Davis, Palgrave MacMillan, 2004</ref> the number of innocent Africans who were taken (or died in the process of being taken) as slaves over the last fourteen centuries of Islamic slavery is estimated to be higher than 140 million.<ref>[{{Reference archive|1=http://www.christianaction.org.za/articles_ca/2004-4-TheScourgeofSlavery.htm|2=2011-03-20}} The Scourge of Slavery] - Christian Action, 2004 Vol 4</ref> This figure dwarfs the numbers that were taken at the hands of Europeans. And unlike in the West, male slaves (blacks in particular) were commonly castrated,<ref>Islam's Black Slaves, by Ronald Segal, Farrar, New York, 2001</ref> hence the lack of surviving descendants of black slaves in the Middle-East.