INVESTIGATING ISLAM

Part 5: Slaves of God and Man

How Sharia Legalized Human Ownership

Let’s rip the bandage off.

Sharia didn’t abolish slavery. It institutionalized it. Legitimized it. Branded it with divine approval and rolled it out as moral policy.

While the rest of the world clawed its way out of the moral gutter of human bondage, Sharia codified it — not as a tolerated evil, but as a legal right. Not as a regrettable past, but as God’s law.

And for those desperate to argue that “Islam gradually abolished slavery” — save it. The evidence is clear, the sources are explicit, and the legacy is devastating.

🛑 Islam Didn’t Abolish Slavery — It Regulated It

Qur’an 4:3 — “…marry those that please you of [other] women—two or three or four—but if you fear you will not be just, then [marry] one or those your right hand possesses…”

There it is. The polite euphemism for slaves: “those your right hand possesses.”

It’s used 15+ times in the Qur’an. And in every single instance, it refers to human beings owned as property, typically prisoners of war or purchased slaves — often for sexual use.

This wasn’t temporary. This wasn’t discouraged. This was explicitly sanctioned, regulated, and normalized under Islamic law.

📚 Sharia Law on Slavery: Legally Binding Ownership

Islamic jurists didn’t debate whether slavery was acceptable. They debated:

How to buy and sell slaves
How many slaves you could sexually access
The rules for beating, inheriting, or freeing them

Codified in:

Reliance of the Traveller (m5.0–m5.12, k32.0, k33.0)
– A man may have sex with his female slave.
– A slave does not have the right to consent.
– Slaves may be inherited, gifted, or sold.
– Children of a slave woman and her master become his property.

This isn’t a moral loophole. It’s full-on human ownership, blessed by religious law.

🔥 Sex Slavery: Legal, Literal, and Lethal

Let’s be crystal clear: Sharia legalized rape — as long as the woman was a slave.

Qur’an 23:5–6 — “[Believers are those] who guard their chastity, except with their wives or those their right hands possess...”

This verse creates a legal category of human beings who can be raped with divine immunity.

Bukhari 2228, Muslim 1438a — The Prophet’s companions asked about sex with captive women. The Prophet approved — even if their husbands were still alive.

📌 This is not war trauma. This is war doctrine.

🏛️ Canonical Consensus: All Four Sunni Schools Approved Slavery

No major Islamic school of jurisprudence opposed slavery. Not one.

School	Legal Status of Slavery
Hanafi	Permits ownership, sex with female slaves
Maliki	Detailed laws on concubines, inheritance
Shafi’i	Endorses captivity, sale, beating within limits
Hanbali	Legalizes sexual access and defines slave rules

Slavery was not a "byproduct." It was engineered into the system.

📜 Muhammad Owned, Sold, and Gifted Slaves

Islamic tradition portrays Muhammad as:

Owning at least dozens of slaves (male and female)
Having sex with at least two known slave women (Maria the Copt, Rayhana)
Gifting and receiving slaves in diplomacy
Selling and freeing slaves as property exchanges

Sahih Muslim 1603a: “A slave came and pledged allegiance to the Prophet on condition that he would not flee his master. The Prophet accepted his pledge.”

Muhammad didn’t abolish slavery. He affirmed it with action, law, and silence.

🧷 Female Captives and Consent: A Nonexistent Concept

Qur’an 4:24 — “[Forbidden are] married women, except those your right hands possess...”

Translation: You can’t sleep with married women — unless they’re slaves.

Even if they’re already married, their enslavement nullifies their marriage and makes them sexually available.

This is not consent. This is state-approved sexual violence.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn (on 4:24): “Those [married women] whom you own — it is lawful for you to have intercourse with them.”

🧠 Logical Collapse: “It Was Normal Back Then” Is Not a Defense

This isn’t about history. It’s about legal theology.

Other civilizations had slavery. The difference?

They moved on
Their religious systems didn’t eternalize it as divine law
Their founders aren’t claimed to be moral infallibles for all time

Islam locked slavery into scripture and called it moral.

That’s the problem.

🌍 Sharia-Enforced Slavery in the Modern World

Slavery didn’t fade in the Muslim world. It persisted the longest under Islamic regimes.

Country	Abolition Year	Notes
Saudi Arabia	1962	Under pressure from the West
Mauritania	1981 (criminalized in 2007)	Still practiced
Sudan	2000s	Abductions by Islamist militias
Niger	2003	Still reports of chattel slavery
ISIS/Daesh	2014–2019	Revived sex slavery using Sharia texts

ISIS captured Yazidi women, enslaved them, cited Qur’an 4:24 and Hadiths, and issued slave “contracts.”
No leading Muslim authority globally condemned the scriptural basis — only the PR optics.

That’s not a rogue interpretation. That’s textbook Sharia.

👶 Child Slaves and Legal Child Sex

Reliance of the Traveller (m5.13) — Sex with a slave girl is allowed once she is capable of intercourse — defined by physical development, not age.

Let that sink in: Sharia allows child sex slavery under religious license.

No ethical framework in the modern world would tolerate this. Sharia doesn’t just tolerate it — it writes it into law.

🔓 Manumission? A Convenient Excuse

Apologists love to claim, “Islam encouraged freeing slaves!”

Sure — under specific, limited circumstances:

As atonement for sins
In will/testament statements
As voluntary charity acts

But that’s not abolition. That’s PR fluff over ownership.

Meanwhile:

Slavery remained legal in Islamic empires for over 1,300 years
It was only abolished due to Western pressure, not internal reform
No verse or hadith mandates ending slavery systemically

🔥 Final Verdict: Sharia Made Slavery Divine

Sharia didn’t challenge slavery — it codified it.

It didn’t protect the vulnerable — it branded them.

It didn’t uplift humanity — it shackled it, raped it, and called it righteous.

While abolitionists fought to end slavery, Sharia preserved it in the name of Allah. You can’t reform that. You can only reject it — or be complicit in sanctified oppression.

⚠️ Disclaimer

This post critiques Islam as an ideology, doctrine, and historical system — not Muslims as individuals. Every human being deserves dignity. Beliefs that justify human bondage do not.

📚 Sources & Documentation

Qur’an — Surahs 4:3, 4:24, 23:5–6, 33:50
Sahih al-Bukhari — 2228, 3012
Sahih Muslim — 1438a, 1603a
Reliance of the Traveller (Umdat al-Salik) — Sections m5.0–m5.13, k32.0–k33.0
Tafsir al-Jalalayn — Commentary on 4:24
Human Rights Watch — Reports on modern slavery in Mauritania and Sudan
Amnesty International — Documentation of slave trafficking by ISIS
BBC, Al Jazeera, Reuters — Historical records on slavery abolition in Muslim countries
ISIS Slave Contracts — Verified translations of Daesh documents
UN Special Rapporteur on Slavery — Reports on Sharia-based slave practices