107. Why did Islam allow men to have sex with slaves?
In these verses (4:3, 4:24,25, 4:36, 16:71, 23:6, 24:31, 33:50, 33:52, 33:55, 70:30) the word “women whom your right hands possess” is used to refer to women slaves.
In these verses it is said ‘one can run a family with women slaves even without getting married to them.’
Since there are no man or women slaves these days, it is better to understand the history behind theses verses.
When a war breaks out between two countries those days the victorious take in prisoners of war of the vanquished which might include men and to a lesser extent women.
There were no prisons in those days, like today, to hold them, maintain them, and feed them. Hence, they were handed over to people who took part in the war, they in turn employed them and fed them.
People who could not utilize them as employees sold them in slave markets in those days.
There is a question why Islam which decimated many social evils couldn’t do the same regarding slaves? Why did Islam in the first place accept it?
We need to take into consideration many aspects while finding an answer to this. Though slaves were a result of wars they were immediately sold in slave markets and mostly remained with people who were their owners.
If slavery were to be abolished suddenly, they (owners) stand to lose extensively. If the government compensates all the owners, it would be difficult to run the government, and if a law is promulgated without compensation it would result in a huge loss to the legal slave traders of the time.
And if Prophet Muhammad had ordered the release of slaves on payment of compensation from the government it would still end as a harm to them.
And due to frequent wars being fought at that time, the announce of this nature from one side would result in Muslims remaining as slaves in other countries with the enemies being released immediately.
And a thought would pervade among the enemies that fighting Prophet Muhammad would not result in a big loss to them, and he would be the most affected of it. This is the reason why slavery was not immediately abolished.
Unless and until a common decision was arrived at, an unilateral decision on the part of Prophet Muhammad alone would not be prudent.
At the same time many arrangements were being made by Prophet Muhammad to abolish slavery such as:
A) Prophet Muhammad encouraged the release of slaves as a remedy for having broken a promise made in the name of Allah or of having prematurely breaking a fast.
B) Prophet Muhammad encouraged the release of slaves by letting them enter a contract with their owners for partial payment after their release.
C) Prophet Muhammad encouraged the release of slaves by bringing a law that said if a slave is released freely, the wealth of the slave would be inherited by his owner.
D) He also encouraged the release of slaves by announcing the best of the good deeds by a person is to release a slave.
He brought down significantly the number of slaves in his lifetime. This information is in general about slaves and the Prophet’s attitude towards them. Let us know about female slaves. Usually, the female slaves live in the houses of their owners. Their husbands either live in a different country, or they may not have husbands at all. At such situations these female slaves need to be protected from the prying eyes of other males, at the same time her bodily needs must be fulfilled.
Taking this factor into consideration their owners were allowed to live with them and in cases where the owners were more than one, only one is allowed to live together. At such instances when she (female slave) gives birth to a child, the newborn as well as the mother were decreed released by Islam.
If such permissions like the owners taking custody and living with them were not allowed, and she enslaved with nobody to plead on her behalf in a foreign country, it would become impossible to avoid preying on her, or for that matter her own owner.
A thought ‘She is after all a slave’ would encourage others to take advantage of her for misbehaving. But when there is her owner in place of her husband it would deter any such advances by others.
When she is living with a single owner as per Islamic norms, the child begotten will be treated as that of the owner and cannot be treated as prostitution.
There is no other option than to allow this arrangement during the days of slavery. And since all over the world slavery is abolished this kind of practice cannot be allowed now.
And more over servant maids cannot be treated as slaves and they are not products to be bought by owners and change their owners at will. But this is not the case with the slaves where they cannot change owners at will.
