Are you attempting to place Islaam in competition with the American Constitution? 8O Two wrongs do not make a right. The fact that Islaam institutionalized slavery, instead of abolishing it, is unacceptable to many Muslims.

Your comment shows that you either did not read or did not comprehend the last paragraph of the original post, which, to repeat, says:

Of course this goes without saying, but regardless of how we perceive any concept in Islam relative to other social norms and customs, we know that Islam is the religion of Allah, and thus any concept endorsed by the Qur’an and Sunnah is true and of the highest level of morality. As Muslims, we are totally comfortable with this concept, so regardless of how we feel about the concept of slavery in Islam and regardless of how others are or are not practicing slavery, we know that the truth lies in our deen. Walhamdulillaahi Rabbi al’aalameen.

Please re-read and re-think.

BTW, I am in full agreement with Br. Amad’s comment above.

What an insane question to ask, but just for the record, the answer is an emphatic NO!

And on the topic, some of us need to worry more about accepting to be slaves of Allah, rather than allowing our arrogance to be our ilaah.

There are a couple of aspects of prison labor which might also be useful to consider:

1) the rate of incarceration of minorities (particularly black and hispanic) is much higher relatively, esp. for lower-level felonies (which is where they recruit the laborers) – combine this with urban neglect (except when gentrifying) and outright racial disparity

2) the crackdown on [illegal] immigration and the direct connection to [menial?] labor cost/supply, and the coincidental build-up of prison-camps in the same time period (last 5-10 years)

Jezakum Allahu Khayr, Br. Yasir for pointing out that slavery is not encouraged in shari`a – quite the opposite, the freeing of slaves is one of the best deeds.

Alhamdulillah, a very nice blog, BTW…

w’Salaamu `aleykum

Woah, I definitely didn’t know about that!

Awww, man… now I wish I’d paid attention to my father’s series of lectures on slavery… :S

1) Focus on “Modern Slavery“.

2) In pictures: Sudan’s slave voices.

The second one is quite a disheartening read from a Muslim perspective.

It might seem like a silly question, but i feel that it is valid just because slaves in the past seemed to be capable of attaining different positions in Muslim society. They were not a social underclass as the blacks were in the West.

Is the status of slave in relation to master, the same as child to parent? That is, a child is both under the care of the parent, but must also ‘serve’ the parent, take permission for certain activities, and be obedient in all things halal?

There is also the tricky area of the sexual rights of male masters over their female slaves. I have seen this issue argued a lot in different places.

Lastly, are only the people who took part in the war campaign allowed to be taken as slaves? What about the people who stayed behind, i.e., those people who were not involved in the fighting, but are citizens of the conquered town/city/country? Can they be enslaved once the place has been subdued and they have surrendered, or is it only those who were captured during hostilities?

JazakAllahu khayran Shaykh Yasir for pointing out that subtlety. I was not trying imply by any means that slavery is wajib or mustahabb. Of course, slavery existed before Islam and Islam only regulated it.

But it is exactly at this point that ‘progressives’ and non-Muslims alike attack Islam’s stance on slavery. It is as though these people are upset that Islam did not make slavery haraam! And then they (progressives) often go out of their way to make something haraam which Allah has not made haraam (i.e. slavery). Yet these people are the very same people who always attack Sunni Muslims for, according to them, “always making the halal haram.” (not that Sunni Muslims ever do that in the first place)

MashaAllah, looks like the progressives are all of a sudden contradicting their own principles!