This Is Islam Uncovered

🧠 Eternal or Ethical?

The Qur’an, Slavery, and the Morality Dilemma

Is the Qur’an a timeless guide to morality, or a reflection of 7th-century Arabian norms?
This question becomes inescapable when confronting the subject of slavery and concubinage, both explicitly permitted in the Qur’an. Today, these practices are widely condemned as gross violations of human rights. Yet, in Islam’s holiest text, they are not only tolerated—they are regulated and sanctified.

This creates a profound ethical and theological dilemma:
If we reinterpret Qur’anic verses to forbid slavery today, then the Qur’an is not timeless. But if we uphold their original meaning, we must accept slavery and sex with captives as morally justifiable.

This article offers a deep-dive analysis into this conflict, using historical sources, modern scholarship, Qur’anic exegesis, and logical reasoning.

📜 The Verses in Question: Slavery and Sex with Captives

Qur’an 4:24

“And [forbidden to you are] married women, except those your right hands possess. [This] is the decree of Allah upon you...”
(Surah An-Nisa 4:24)

This verse allows Muslim men to have sexual relations with enslaved women—even if those women are already married. In modern terms, this constitutes state-sanctioned rape.

Qur’an 33:50

“O Prophet, We have made lawful to you your wives... and those whom your right hand possesses from among the captives Allah has given you...”
(Surah Al-Ahzab 33:50)

Here, the Prophet Muhammad himself is granted divine permission to take female war captives as concubines.

The phrase “those whom your right hands possess” (Arabic: mā malakat aymānukum) appears in at least 15 places in the Qur’an. In all cases, it refers to slaves—usually women—captured in war or bought in the marketplace.

🕰️ Historical Context: Slavery Was the Norm, Not the Exception

In 7th-century Arabia, slavery was a deeply embedded institution. The Qur’an did not challenge this system—it absorbed and regulated it.

The Prophet Muhammad himself owned multiple slaves, including:
- Mariyah the Copt, a concubine gifted by Egypt’s Christian governor.
- Rayhana bint Zayd, a Jewish captive from the Banu Qurayza massacre.
Classical Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) uniformly accepted:
- The permissibility of owning slaves.
- Sexual relations with slave women without their consent.
- Selling, buying, and inheriting slaves.

🧠 Logical Analysis: A Contradiction in Eternal Morality

Islamic theology claims that:

The Qur’an is universal and eternal (Qur’an 6:115, 5:3).
Allah’s morals are perfect, just, and unchanging.
Slavery and concubinage, permitted by the Qur’an, are immoral by today’s standards.

This creates an inescapable logical contradiction:

If the Qur’an's ethics are timeless, then slavery and concubinage are timelessly moral.
But if slavery and concubinage are immoral, the Qur’an’s ethics are not timeless.

This violates the Law of Non-Contradiction in classical logic:

A proposition cannot be both true and false at the same time and in the same sense.

🟢 Common Muslim Apologetics — And Their Failures

1. “Islam gradually abolished slavery.”

Response:
False. The Qur’an never abolishes slavery. It encourages freeing slaves as charitable acts or atonement for sins (Qur’an 4:92, 5:89), but always within a framework where slavery is normative.

“It is not righteousness that you turn your faces toward the East or the West... but [also] to free slaves...” (2:177)

Slavery is treated as a perpetual system—not a temporary evil to be eradicated.

2. “Those verses were context-specific, not eternal.”

Response:
This undermines the Qur’an’s own claim to universality and timelessness. If parts of it are historically outdated, then the Qur’an becomes partially obsolete, contradicting claims like:

“We have sent down to you the Book as clarification for all things...” (Qur’an 16:89)

3. “Islam improved the condition of slaves.”

Response:
Perhaps it introduced better treatment, but it did not challenge the system’s morality. Even slave concubinage—rape by modern standards—is affirmed and practiced by the Prophet himself.

“They are forbidden to you unless they are your right-hand possessions…” (4:24)

Regulation ≠ Abolition. The Bible regulated slavery too—yet Christians today admit those verses are not morally viable.

4. “We don’t practice slavery today, so the issue is moot.”

Response:
Islam isn’t just judged by what’s done today. If the Qur’an is eternal, then these verses are morally valid forever. They are part of divine law.

Either you say the Qur’an’s rulings were contextual (and not divine),
or you say these practices are still morally justifiable.

📚 What the Scholars Say

Shaykh Saleh Al-Fawzan (Saudi Arabia’s Council of Senior Scholars)

“Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long as there is Islam.”

Jonathan A.C. Brown (Georgetown University, Muslim academic)

“Many Muslims do not like to admit that slavery is allowed in Islam. But it is there… And it was seen as moral in its time.”

(Brown, Slavery & Islam, 2020)

Bernard Lewis (Historian, Princeton)

“There is no doubt that Islamic law authorizes slavery. The abolition of slavery was not the result of a reinterpretation of Islamic law, but a result of Western pressure.”

⚖️ The Moral Cost of Doctrinal Loyalty

Any belief system that claims eternal validity must survive the test of moral scrutiny. If we excuse slavery and concubinage as “historical,” we acknowledge they are immoral today. But if the Qur’an commands them, then we face a painful truth:

Either Islam’s ethical core is historically contingent, or it supports practices that modern conscience rightly rejects.

There is no middle path.

🧩 Conclusion: A Theological Time Bomb

The Qur’an’s treatment of slavery and concubinage is not an obscure issue—it’s a central ethical fault line. Attempts to reinterpret or defend it fall short because:

The text is clear and unambiguous.
The practices were modeled by the Prophet.
The institution was upheld by 1,300 years of scholarship.

Therefore, we’re left with two stark options:

Admit the Qur’an contains outdated, unethical rulings—and thus cannot be the perfect moral guide for all time.
Accept slavery and concubinage as eternally moral—and compromise basic human rights and dignity.

For anyone committed to logic, ethics, and human decency, the first option is the only defensible one.

📚 References

The Qur’an, Surah An-Nisa (4:24), Surah Al-Ahzab (33:50), Surah At-Tawbah (9:60), etc.
Jonathan A.C. Brown, Slavery & Islam, Oneworld Publications, 2020.
Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East, Oxford University Press, 1990.
Kecia Ali, Sexual Ethics and Islam, Oneworld, 2006.
Sayyid Qutb, In the Shade of the Qur’an, Tafsir of 4:24.
Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid, IslamQA Fatwa #10382, “Is slavery permitted in Islam?”
Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., “ʿAbd,” “Jāriya,” “Riqāq.”