Why Modern Muslim Rejection of Slavery Doesn’t Save Islam

Many Muslims today sincerely reject slavery. They argue that since every decent human being now recognizes slavery as wrong, Islam must also be against it. They point to modern Muslim-majority states outlawing slavery and to popular preachers who insist Islam’s “spirit” is freedom.

But this defense collapses the moment we separate Islam the ideology from Muslims as people. Muslims may personally reject slavery — but the Qur’an and Sunnah do not. Modern moral instincts cannot erase or override the plain text of revelation.

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The Qur’an Never Abolished Slavery

1. Qur’an 4:24 — Captive women as lawful sex partners

   “And [forbidden to you are] married women, except those your right hands possess. This is the decree of Allah upon you.”

   • Tafsir Ibn Kathir: “Allah made lawful the women prisoners of war for the Muslims, after ensuring they have completed their iddah [waiting period].”

   • Tafsir al-Jalalayn: “Except those whom your right hands possess, that is, those whom you own from among the captured women, even if they are married, it is lawful for you to have sexual intercourse with them.”

   This is not regulation toward abolition. It is divine sanction of sexual slavery.

2. Qur’an 33:50 — Muhammad’s concubines

   “O Prophet, indeed We have made lawful to you your wives … and those your right hand possesses from what Allah has returned to you [of captives]…”

   • Classical exegetes explain this verse justified Muhammad’s sexual relations with Maria the Copt, a slave gifted to him.

   Again, this verse normalizes concubinage.

Nowhere in the Qur’an do we find: “Free the slaves, for slavery is forbidden.” Instead, we find repeated acknowledgment of slavery as a permanent social institution.

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Muhammad Practiced and Endorsed Slavery

If the Qur’an’s wording could somehow be stretched, the Prophet’s actions remove all doubt.

• Muhammad owned multiple slaves, including male servants like Anas ibn Malik and female concubines like Maria the Copt.

• Sahih Muslim 4345 records Muhammad distributing enslaved women from the tribe of Hawazin to his followers.

• Sahih al-Bukhari 4138 reports companions asking Muhammad about coitus interruptus with captive women, to which he gave no moral objection — only technical guidance.

Muhammad did not abolish slavery. He participated in it, regulated it, and treated it as an ongoing reality. His Sunnah is considered binding law in Islam.

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Islamic Jurisprudence Codified Slavery

For 1,300 years, all four Sunni schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi‘i, Hanbali) treated slavery and concubinage as lawful:

• Al-Mawardi (Shafi‘i jurist) in al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyyah: “The ruler has the right to distribute the captives, either enslaving them, ransoming them, or killing them.”

• Ibn Qudamah (Hanbali jurist) in al-Mughni: affirmed the permissibility of intercourse with female slaves without marriage.

• Maliki fiqh manuals such as Mukhtasar Khalil clearly permit sexual relations with concubines.

No classical jurist ever ruled that slavery itself was forbidden. It was considered part of Sharia.

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Modern Rejection = Rebellion Against the Text

So what happens when modern Muslims say, “Slavery is wrong”?

• They are not following the Qur’an or Sunnah. They are following modern secular ethics.

• Their morality is coming from the United Nations, Enlightenment philosophy, and universal human rights — not from Islamic revelation.

• This proves that Islam is not self-sufficient as a moral system. It requires external correction.

If slavery was truly abolished by Islam, why did no Islamic empire outlaw it for over a thousand years? Why did Saudi Arabia wait until 1962? Why does Mauritania still struggle with hereditary slavery despite “abolishing” it in 1981?

The answer is simple: because Islam’s sacred texts never abolished it.

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The Inescapable Truth

Even if every Muslim alive today personally abhors slavery, Islam as an ideology still validates it. Rejection of slavery by modern Muslims is, in fact, a rejection of the Qur’an’s plain teaching.

This leaves only two choices:

1. Admit that the Qur’an is morally flawed, needing correction by human ethics.

2. Cling to the Qur’an’s commands and endorse slavery as eternally valid under Sharia.

There is no third option.

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👉 That’s the section. It shows with Qur’anic verses, hadith, and juristic rulings that slavery is embedded in Islam’s core — and that modern rejection of slavery is not Islamic reform but a contradiction of Islam itself.