Issue of Slavery
-
-
I wrote a short essay about slavery on Orkut around three years ago which I later posted on this forum. You can read it at http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=16867.0 It's nowhere as good as the essays you find on free-minds.org, but I daresay it can convince you that slavery is alien to islam (peacemaking).
-
salam diem. classical scholars, after examining the structure of the quran, came up with a learning device called the ehkam ul khamsa, the five instructions.
the five instructions are
mandatory... fard... do this and you will be rewarded, do not do this and you will be punished
wajib.. discretionary.. do this and you will be rewarded, do not do it and you will not be punished
indifferent... mubah.. do it or do not do it, no reward or punishment
objectionable... makruh... do this and you will be punished, do not do this and you will not be rewarded
haram... forbidden... do this and you will be punished, do not do it and you will be rewardedthe issue of slavery, is not described as fard, wajib, makruh, or haram. by default it falls in the category of mubah, indifference.
the issue of freeing a slave, is described in the quran as wajib, freeeing a slave is an expiation of sin.in this discussion, a distinction must be made, between the western practice of slavery, and the muslim practice of slavery. though the word slavery is used for both, in that a slave is purchased or acquired as a captive as a spoil of war, however, the rules for conduct of a slave owner are drastically different in western and islamic law. in western law slaves have no rights whatsoever, however, in muslim law slaves have lots of legal rights. this is why discussing the topic of slavery with a westerner, has to be prefaced with this distinction.
what usually happens is the westerner recalls the horrific experiences of western slavery, and tries to extrapolate this to all slavery, which is an invalid extrapolation. the premises are radically different, the extrapolation fails due to the dissimilarity in the premises.
allah is the law.
-
What is the Quranic take on slavery. If it is not allowed, then why was it allowed in the time of the prophet? I understand that it was not liked, but nonetheless it was allowed. Lots of non-muslims ask me this question and I honestly cant answer it.
The only thing you need is Quran 2433.
Now, for humans being muslims and obeying the god and taking the example of the prophet. They'd be keep to those words, and on top of that would have been spreading the message aswell.
Then again, why would anyone want to become a slave? Better than starving. Oh and it's alternative to the massive scale modern methods of welfare. That is, where you allow the movement of responsibility regarding the most poorest from the community as a whole, to those rich enough to look after such people.
Sounds more better than welfare. Unfortunately, the welfare of the "slaves" depends upon the quality of master. If slavery still existed, then the first solution to prevent atrocities against humans, would be to get a license to owning slaves. Maybe we'd see Finish driving license style examinations.
This is the only reason I can see why the god did not forbid "slavery", or that which your right hand holds. And I can see the benefit over the current welfare model.
By the way, your government does own you, and can sell you. They do this in China. They sell you alive, or dead... to rich Japanese patients waiting for organs.
Please note the etymology of the word Slavery