This Is Islam Uncovered

How Concubinage Was Codified into Sharia

The Legalization of Sex Slavery in Classical Islamic Law

When Captivity, Ownership, and Coerced Sex Became a Sacred Legal Institution

“Your wives are a garment for you... and those your right hands possess.”
— Qur’an 2:187, 23:6, 33:50

Islamic apologists often claim that Islam gradually abolished slavery or elevated the status of women. But historical Sharia literature shows the opposite. The practice of concubinage — sexual access to female slaves — was not only permitted, but fully systematized.

This article tracks how Muslim jurists:

Defined who could be enslaved,
Outlined how concubinage worked,
Determined rules for slave children,
And embedded this into Islamic civilization for centuries.

🧱 Foundation in the Qur’an and Sunnah

Concubinage has three core foundations in Islamic scripture:

✅ 1. Qur’an 4:24

“Forbidden to you are married women — except those your right hands possess...”
Allows sex with captive women even if they had husbands.

✅ 2. Qur’an 23:5–6 / 70:29–30

“[The believers] guard their private parts, except with their wives or those their right hands possess…”

This equates wives and concubines as lawful sexual partners.

✅ 3. Qur’an 33:50

“O Prophet, We have made lawful to you… those whom your right hand possesses from what Allah has given you as war booty…”

Specifically directed to Muhammad, but used by jurists to extend rules to all Muslim men.

⚖️ Codification by the Four Sunni Madhhabs

🕌 1. Hanafi School (Abu Hanifa, d. 767 CE)

A free Muslim man may have sexual relations with a slave woman he owns, regardless of her consent.
If the slave becomes pregnant, she is upgraded to umm walad status (mother of child), and cannot be sold.
Slave concubines can be shared or inherited, but not married to others unless freed.

Source: Al-Hidaya (Marghinani), Sharh al-Karkhi, Mukhtasar al-Quduri

🕌 2. Maliki School (Malik ibn Anas, d. 795 CE)

Concubinage is permitted as long as the ownership is valid.
A man may not have intercourse with another man’s slave woman, but may purchase her for that purpose.
Slave women cannot refuse sexual access.

Source: Al-Mudawwana al-Kubra by Sahnun, quoting Malik

🕌 3. Shafi’i School (al-Shafi‘i, d. 820 CE)

A Muslim man can have sex with his female slave without marriage.
She cannot seek divorce or refuse access.
Children are free if father is free, but not if mother was pregnant at time of purchase.

Source: Kitab al-Umm by Al-Shafi‘i, Nihayat al-Matlab by al-Juwayni

🕌 4. Hanbali School (Ahmad ibn Hanbal, d. 855 CE)

A man may have multiple concubines in addition to four wives.
Slave concubines are subject to beating and discipline without recourse.
If man frees and marries her, she loses status as slave but not child-bearing rights.

Source: Al-Mughni by Ibn Qudamah, Al-Kafi by Ibn Qudamah

🕋 Shi’a Jurisprudence: Ja‘fari School

The Ja‘fari madhhab, followed by most Twelver Shi’as, also permits concubinage.
Sexual relations with female slaves are valid even if the woman is married to a non-Muslim at the time of capture.
This is cited in classical Shi’a texts such as:
- Al-Kafi by Al-Kulayni
- Tahdhib al-Ahkam by Shaykh al-Tusi

Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq is quoted saying:
“A man may have intercourse with a female captive acquired through war, even if she is married.”

🔄 Legal Rules That Emerged

Legal Ruling	Status in Classical Sharia
Consent of slave woman required?	❌ Not required
Can slave be forced to have sex?	✅ Yes, if owned
Can owner have multiple concubines?	✅ Unlimited
Do children of slave inherit?	✅ If father is free
Can slave woman marry someone else?	❌ Not unless freed
Can a woman own a male slave for sex?	❌ No (female concubinage not allowed)
Can a man sell a pregnant concubine?	❌ No — umm walad status protects her

📆 Endurance of the System

This wasn’t theoretical. Concubinage was widespread in Islamic civilization:

Abbasid Caliphs: Thousands of concubines in royal harems
Ottoman Empire: Female captives used in Topkapi harem system
Mamluk Sultanate: Elite military class born of slave mothers
Safavid Iran: Sexual slavery of Christian and Jewish women

None of this was ever considered haram — it was halal by consensus, based directly on the Prophet's practice and the Qur’an.

🧠 The Theological Problem

Islam claims to be:

Final revelation, valid for all times
A system of universal moral justice
Based on divine mercy and equity

But if Sharia law:

Permits sex without consent,
Allows human ownership, and
Normalizes rape through war capture,

Then it is not mercy. It is sanctified domination.

A god who codifies sexual slavery is not just. A prophet who practices it is not a moral example. And a law that upholds it for over 1,000 years is not divine.

📚 References:

Qur’an: 4:24, 23:6, 33:50
Al-Hidaya – Marghinani (Hanafi)
Al-Mudawwana – Sahnun (Maliki)
Kitab al-Umm – al-Shafi‘i (Shafi'i)
Al-Mughni – Ibn Qudamah (Hanbali)
Al-Kafi – Al-Kulayni (Ja‘fari Shi’a)
Tahdhib al-Ahkam – Shaykh al-Tusi
Kecia Ali – Sexual Ethics and Islam
Jonathan A.C. Brown – Misquoting Muhammad
Bernard Lewis – Race and Slavery in the Middle East