ASSIGNMENT # 03

(PROJECT)

NAME: MUSHAL MANZOOR

REG NO: FA19-BSE-082

SUBMITTED TO:
MAM ANEEBA BASHARAT
CAMPUS:

CUI SAHIWAL
MAIN TOPIC:
Current Social, Moral and Political
Challenges of Muslims and their Solutions in the Light of Islamic
Teachings.

TOPIC:
“ SLAVERY “
 TABLE OF CONTENT
Pg no.

1) Introduction ......................................................................4
2) Definition .......................................................................4
3) Types of Slavery.................................................................4
 Temple Slavery
 Domestic Slavery

4) Findings and Discussion ................................................5

 Productive Slavery.............................................................5
 Slavery in pre-Islamic Arabia..........................................6
 History Content...................................................................6
 By Boko Haram....................................................................7
 Abul A’la Maududi...............................................................7

5) Conclusions and Recommendations...............................7

 Why is slavery wrong?.......................................................7
 Gods Commandment to emancipate slaves...................9
 Anti slavery ethics of Islam..............................................9
INTRODUCTION:
Definition:
Slavery, condition in which one human being was owned by another. A slave was
considered by law as property and was deprived of most of the rights ordinarily held
by free persons. There is no consensus on what a slave was or on how the
institution of slavery should be defined. Nevertheless, there is general agreement
among historians, anthropologists, economists, sociologists, and others who study
slavery that most of the following characteristics should be present in order to term a
person a slave. The slave was a species of property; thus, he belonged to someone
else. In some societies slaves were considered movable property, in others immovable
property, like real estate. They were objects of the law, not its subjects. Slavery
existed in a large number of past societies whose general characteristics are well
known.
TYPES OF SLAVERY:
There have been two basic types of slavery throughout recorded history.
 Temple slavery
 Domestic slavery

Domestic slavery
The most common has been what is called
household, patriarchal, or domestic slavery. Although domestic slaves occasionally
worked outside the household, for example, in haying or harvesting, their primary
function was that of menials who served their owners in their homes or wherever
else the owners might be, such as in military service.
Temple slavery
Temple slavery, state slavery, and military slavery
were relatively rare and distinct from domestic slavery, but in a very broad outline
they can be categorized as the household slaves of a temple or the state.
 Islamic views on slavery represent a complex and multifaceted body of Islamic
thought. Slavery was the mainstay of life in pre-Islamic Arabia and surrounding
lands. The Quran and the hadith (sayings of Muhammad) address slavery
extensively, assuming its existence as part of society but viewing it as an
exceptional condition and restricting its scope. Early Islamic dogma forbade
enslavement of free members of Islamic society including non Muslims.

Prophet Muhammad said:

"O mankind, your Lord is One and your father is one. You all descended from
Aadam , and Aadam was created from earth. He is most honored among you in
the sight of God who is most upright. No Arab is superior to a non-Arab, no
colored person to a white person, or a white person to a colored person except
by Taqwa (piety)."

Findings and Discussion

Productive Slavery:
The other major type of slavery was productive slavery. It was
relatively infrequent and occurred primarily in Classical Athenian Greece and
Rome and in the post-Columbian circum-Caribbean New World. It also was found
in 9th-century Iraq, among the Kwakiutl Indians of the American Northwest, and
in a few areas of sub-Saharan Africa in the 19th century. Although slaves also
were employed in the household, slavery in all of those societies seems to have
existed predominantly to produce marketable commodities in mines or on
plantations.
Slavery in pre-Islamic Arabia
Slavery was widely practiced in pre-Islamic Arabia, as well as in the rest of the
ancient medieval world. The minority were white slaves of foreign extraction,
likely brought in by Arab caravaners (or the product of Bedouin captures)
stretching back to biblical times. Native Arab slaves had also existed, a prime
example being Zayd ibn Harithah, later to become Muhammad's adopted son. Arab
slaves, however, usually obtained as captives, were generally ransomed off
amongst nomad tribes.The slave population increased by the custom of child
abandonment , and by the kidnapping, or, occasionally, the sale of small children.

Female slaves were at times forced into prostitution for the benefit of their
masters, in accordance with Near Eastern customs.

History Content
The historical accounts of the early years of Islam report that "slaves of non-
Muslim masters ... suffered brutal punishments. Sumayyah bint Khayyat is famous
as the first martyr of Islam, having been killed with a spear by Abū Jahl when she
refused to give up her faith. Abu Bakr freed Bilal when his master, Umayya ibn
Khalaf, placed a heavy rock on his chest in an attempt to force his conversion."

In 1807, a wealthy 37-year-old scholar was captured in West Africa, in what is now
Senegal, and transported to the United States to be sold into slavery.
That man, Omar Ibn Said, lived the remainder of his life enslaved in the American
South, and his story might have been forgotten if not for the handwritten
autobiography he left behind.
It is estimated that over 50% of the slaves imported to North America came from
areas where Islam was followed by at least a minority population. Thus, no less
than 200,000 came from regions influenced by Islam. Substantial numbers
originated from Senegambia, a region with an established community of Muslim
inhabitants extending to the 11th century.

By Boko Haram
Apparently the first report of slave-taking by Boko Haram was on 13 May 2013
when a video was released of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau saying his
group had taken women and children - including teenage girls - hostage in
response to the arrest of its members' wives and children.[5]
According to Islamism expert Jonathan N.C. Hill, Boko Haram began kidnapping
large numbers of girls and young women for sexual use in 2014. The attacks
echoed kidnappings of girls and young women for sexual use by Algerian Islamists
in the 1990s and early 2000s, and may reflect influence by al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb.[3][6]
Abul A'la Maududi
Abul A'la Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami has written:
Islam has clearly and categorically forbidden the primitive practice of capturing a
free man, to make him a slave or to sell him into slavery. On this point the clear
and unequivocal words of [Muhammad] are as follows:

“There are three categories of people against whom I shall myself be a plaintiff on
the Day of Judgement. Of these three, one is he who enslaves a free man, then sells
him and eats this money" (al-Bukhari and Ibn Majjah).”

Conclusion and Recommendations

Why is slavery wrong?

Although slavery does seem 'obviously wrong' it's worth listing some of the
reasons why it's wrong.
 Slavery increases total human unhappiness
 The slave-owner treats the slaves as the means to achieve the slave-owner's
ends, not as an end in themselves
 Slavery exploits and degrades human beings
 Slavery violates human rights: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
explicitly forbids slavery and many of the practices associated with slavery

In the ensuing discussion, Member States emphasized the need to stamp out
criminal networks and terrorist groups involved in human trafficking, whether it
 was Boko Haram, Al-Qaida in the Maghreb or Islamic State in Iraq and the
Levant.
In recent years, according to some scholars, there has been a reopening of the issue
of slavery by some conservative Salafi Islamic scholars after its "closing" earlier
in the 20th century when Muslim countries banned slavery and "most Muslim
scholars" found the practice "inconsistent with Qur'anic morality.

A controversial high-level Saudi jurist, Shaykh Saleh Al-Fawzan, said in a lecture,

"Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long
there is Islam.

In Quran:

“The alms are only for the poor and the needy, and those who collect them, and
those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and to free the slaves and the debtors, and
for the cause of Allah, and (for) the wayfarer; a duty imposed by Allah. Allah is
Knower, Wise.”

There are many common features between the institution of slavery in the
Quran and that of neighboring cultures. However, the Quranic institution had
some unique new features.
Bernard Lewis states that the Qur'anic legislation brought two major changes
to ancient slavery which were to have far-reaching effects: presumption of
freedom, and the ban on the enslavement of free persons except in strictly
defined circumstances
According to Brockopp, the idea of using alms for the manumission of slaves appears to be unique to the Quran, assuming
the traditional interpretation of verses [Quran 2:177]
and [Quran 9:60]. Similarly, the practice of
freeing slaves in atonement for certain sins appears to be introduced by the
Quran (but compare Exod 21:26-7).[21] The forced prostitution of female slaves, a Near Eastern custom
of great antiquity, is condemned in the Quran.[23][39] Murray Gordon notes that this ban is "of no small significance."[40]
 Brockopp writes: "Other cultures limit a master's right to harm a slave but few exhort masters to treat their slaves kindly,
and the placement of slaves in the same category as other weak members of society who deserve protection is unknown
outside the Qur'an.

God’s commandment to emancipate slaves

The Torah, the New Testament, and the Quran do not have any direct commandment calling for
the abolishment of slavery. These scriptural revelations deal with the ancient practice of slavery
as a fact of life in their historical context.
However, unlike the Jewish and Christian sacred texts, which do not have any implicit or explicit
mention of eliminating slavery, the emancipation of slaves was clearly intended by God in the
Quran. This resulted in Prophet Muhammad launching a comprehensive campaign against
slavery.
God sets this goal for Muslims in the Quran, chapter 90, verses 10-14, to end this unjust practice
of exploitation. This sacred text declares that the first task Muslims are commanded to do to
achieve closeness to God is to free slaves. In a 2014 letter to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
more than 100 top Islamic scholars from several countries reaffirmed in a signed statement that
this is what these verses mean.
Here are other references to the emancipation of slaves in the Quran:

Anti-Slavery ethics of Islam

 The equality of individuals, nations, and tribes is the cornerstone of Islamic ideals.
(Quran 49:13, 4:1)
 Freeing slaves was among the top commandments to develop piety: (Quran 2:177, 90:1-
14)
It is not righteousness that you turn your faces toward East or West; but it is righteousness . . . to
spend of your substance . . . for the ransom of slaves. (Quran 2:177)
 Freeing a human being from bondage is the only way to make up for accidently killing
another human being. Freeing a person is, therefore, comparable to giving life, and
bondage to death (Quran 4:92)
 Free slaves to compensate for a sin or to compensate for a crime (Quran 5:89)
 Marry female slaves (Quran 4:25)
 Do not prostitute slaves (Quran 24:33)
 Free a slave to reconcile with one’s spouse (Quran 58:3-4)
 Sexual relations with a slave was lawful only through marriage (Quran 4:25)
 Nowhere does God prescribe slavery as punishment
REFRENCES

https://www.britannica.com/topic/slavery-sociology/Historical-survey
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/slavery/ethics/intro_1.shtml
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_21st-century_Islamism
https://www.soundvision.com/article/an-islamic-response-to-isis-
revival-of-slavery