The Details: In the Time of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) slavery was something ordinary. Islam considered it as a temporal necessity which vanishes when its reasons/circumstances disappear. Therefore Islam gave laws and rules for Muslims about slavery including the following matters:
- Which kind of slaves are allowed: we know that only prisoners of warcan be taken as slaves (note even in this case there are details: for example instead of enslavement the ruler could ask for ransom, or free them if this would be a benefit for Muslims and yes also killing could be an option) and here we also know if they declare "Islam" they won't be taken as slaves. And the Muslims at least could choose to free their prisoners of war etc.! An other possibility is to be born as a child of slaves in a Muslims household.
- Islam doesn't allow a Muslim to enslave a Muslim: Muslims can't in any case make a Muslim or (at least) one of the people of the book who live beside them a slave! But in medieval Europe a defaulter or debtor etc. could be made slave for his obligee/creditor! And prisoners of war no matter if they where Christians or Jews or anything else could be made slaves!
- Rules how to treat a slave!
- The rights of a slave: For example one can't force a slave to do something bad or a sin:
This Verse also shows that one could (is encouraged to) write a contract to free a slave or make contracts with slaves.
About the revealing of the last part of the verse It's narrated that a slave-girl (which according some narration has converted to Islam) was forced to do zina (after her conversion) and before coming to Medina she was used to do so.
- Many expiation for sins where one could choose or has to free a slave.
- Islam encouraged to free slaves:
see also in sahih
al-Bukahri and
Muslim.
- If a man harm his slave the slave becomes free
- We also have rules about relationships (intercourse/marriage) to female slaves (See for example: Shouldn't a slave woman guard her private parts except from her spouse?):
- a Muslim master could have intercourse with a female slave (he owns) under some conditions (For example a slave woman could reject her master for reasons like illness etc.!), but a Muslim woman is prohibited to have intercourse with a male slave.
- A Muslim man could marry a female slave owned by an other Muslim man.
- Apparently female slaves which are kufar, worship idols or polytheists are haram for this purpose, but there are opinions allowing it, for example ibn 'Abd al-Barr said that the hadiths (like this one) which show that Muslims had intercourse with pagan captives have been made void by verse 2:221
so this is the prevalent opinion according
this fatwa (in Arabic), while
this fatwa (in Arabic) uses one of the given ahadith as a proof to allow it.
- No Muslim man could have intercourse with a female slave if the property (of the slave) is joint (see for example here in Arabic). A slave falls into the property of it's new owner more or less the same way as for marriage it needs: two witnesses and the approval of the former owner or the authority (for example in case of a war the "General" who has distributed the war booty).
- A Muslim man if having a relationship with one of his slaves, has to take in account that her sisters/mother etc. are automatically mahramfor him as it would be with a free wife! Of course he couldn't have intercourse with a slave which is one of the haram relatives of his own.
- Some scholars say that a Muslim master has no sexual rights over a married slave (this is generally based on 4:24, as a captive could have been at least before her captivity somebody's legal wife)!
- If a female slave which was a concubine of her master give birth to a child from him (that means if this child at least cries once, it doesn't need to stay alive) she is automatically free if her owner dies, the owner is prohibited to sell her and she would have less duties than any other slave!
- Islam encourages Muslims to free their slaves if they convert to Islam!
- Muslims are also allowed and encouraged to marry their former slave woman by Quran (for the case of a man who can't afford the conditions to marry a free woman) and sunnah.
From this we can conclude that it's not a goal of Islam to maintain slavery!
Some useful links (mostly in Arabic):
