Islam 102

Lesson 3: Quran and Human Rights

Emancipation of Slaves

Slavery is a curse for mankind. Islam condemns the kidnapping or hunting of humans to sell them in markets at high prices; Africans were the victims of the Europeans who kidnapped them from their lands and sold them at good prices. They set fire to a village at night and hunted the people who scattered to escape. Likewise in ancient times many captives of the wars were later on made slaves.

Captain John Hawkins was the first English man who started slave trade. Germany, France and Spain were active in slave trade. (Al Quran-Divine Book of eternal value by professor Ziauddin Ahmed)

Islam emphasizes the emancipation of slaves. The Prophet (P.B.U.H) contributed greatly to their well being and freedom. Freeing of slaves was patronized by the prophet and his companions to such an extent that it was considered to be the expiation of some of the sins. Quran says

“And he hath not attempted the ascent, and what will convey unto thee what the ascent is! It is the setting free of the slaves or the giving of food in the day of hunger to an orphan."(90:11-15).

“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 captives and the debtors, for the cause of Allah” (9:60).

The prophet said to his followers that no other act can please Allah more than to liberate slaves. He ordered that the slaves should be allowed to free themselves by the wages of their services. The prophet elevated the position of slaves to that of freedmen. He adopted his slave, Zaid bin Harith, as his son and later proposed that his own cousin marry Zaid. The Prophet loved his slave Zaid so much that when his parents approached him, the latter refused to go with them and preferred staying with him. Likewise Bilal, another slave of the prophet, was held in such high esteem that at the death of the Prophet he became unconscious with grief, when asked to call for Azan for the commencement of prayer. At the time of the Prophet, the marriage between a slave and freedman was not encouraged. In fact, it was looked at with contempt. In those days, the woman divorced by a slave was looked down upon by the society. No one would accept such a woman as a wife. Quran ordered the Prophet

“Then when Zaid had dissolved his marriage with her---, We rejoined her in marriage to thee.”(33:37)

This Divine order engaged Zaid’s ex-wife and the Prophet into the bond of marriage, giving new life to the divorcee in the world. Islam declares the freeing of slaves of one’s own free will as an act of great merit. The prophet in his life time liberated 63 slaves, his wife Ayesha freed 67, and Abdullah bin Umer, a prominent companion of the prophet, liberated a thousand slaves. As a result, the liberation of slaves became a popular trend in Arabia till there were no traces of slavery left except for the prisoners of war captured in different battles. When the governments of the captives did not take any constructive measures, these prisoners were distributed among those battalions of soldiers who captured them. This humane policy led to the wide acceptance of Islam among the prisoners whose future descendants produced great scholars, jurists and generals of Islam.

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