Allegation: Islam endorses Slavery
'And what should make thee know what the steep ascent is? It is the freeing of a slave (Quran 90:11-13)
Quran sets the precedence. The steep ascent being ascending of spiritual nature of a muslim. It is a clear incentive given by God in Islam to Muslims that one way to acheive a steep ascent to God is by freeing of a slave.
People say why didn't Quran outright say Slavery is forbidden from this day.
The line of thinking is a result of ignorance as you will see that is not what the ultimate goal of Islam was and is.
Islam employed effective steps in removing slavery rather than making one declaration abolishing it effective immediately. Islam took a similar approach to how it removed racism and prejudice by letting the inner conviction of muslims themselves realizing that they are ultimately a sin.
Slavery was rampant in pre Islamic arabia. So much so that slaves were bought and sold without any regard of family and killed off without consequences. The first step Islam provided was to give all humans the sense of equality slave or no slave. This included the fact that no free man was to be enslaved and sold off, thus cutting off the major source of expansion of slavery and essentially plateuing the slave trade before diminishing it. the second step through equality was to tell the owners of current slaves to treat them as equals which if you look at it, which slave master would treat their slave as equals as themselves, but they were told to do so and they did. As a result the built up compassion, many muslims freed their own slaves thus shrinking the slave population even further.
The further steps was Quran mentioning that one way to remove sins which each and every muslim strived to do was to free a slave which gave muslims a realization that to expunge their sin, they could simply free their slave. If a muslim ever commited involuntary man slaughter, one 'punishment' for them was to free a slave as to many still, they were essential to their economic conditions. A husband had to free a slave woman before marrying them. Another 'punishment' Islam prescribed that if a muslim man insulted his wife physically or verbally, he had to free a slave.
Now we see that Islam trended in the position that if you commit a sin, you had to free a slave as atonement. this made muslims realise that a blind freedom of slave would bring them atonement which led to muslims buying slaves and freeing them bringing them a cleansing of their sins.
There is a tradition that the Holy Prophet (saw) said to have freed mass amount slaves every time the sun or moon eclipsed not due to sin or punishment but because it was a sign of God so the thoughts tended to free society of sins by freeing of slaves. When the Holy Prophet (saw) married his first wife, she set her property to him including her slaves, his first act was free all her slaves.
Hadith of the Holy Prophet as examples;
'What is the best kind of manumission of slaves? He replied 'the manumission of the most expensive slave and the most beloved by his master'
'He who sets free a muslim slave, Allah will deliver from the fire the hell every limb of his body in return for every limb of the slave's body, even his private parts'
Even in his farewell addressed he specifically mentioned the remaining slaves and their treatments.
Hadith:
'Allah says "I will be against 3 person on the day of resurrection, 1. one who makes a covenant in my names but proves trecherous 2. one who sells a free person as a slave and eats the price 3. one who employs a laborer and gets full work done by him but does not pay him his full wages'
Caliph of Islam Umar narrates: ' The Prophet(saw) forbade selling of slaves or giving it as a present'
Next Quran required muslims to free slaves who earned thier freedom
Quran 24:33
'such as desire a deed of manumission in writing from among those whom your right hands possess, write it for them if you know any good in them; and give them out of the wealth of ALLAH which HE has bestowed upon you.'
In essence the goal was not really to end slavery suddenly, the goal was to let society slowly ween away from slavery without impacting the society as a whole. The end result desired was that the prejudice and racism would be nowhere near close to the hearts of muslims and they accept everyone as their equals. If Islam had forced removed slavery, many would have freed slaves but very few would have the freed slaves as brethern. by enforcing brotherhood and equality first and letting muslims free slaves with more and more incentives, the prejudice and racism was removed first which let to the freed slaves treated as equals unequivically.
Another Hadith:
' Your servants and slaves are your brothers and your stewards, Allah has placed them under your hands; whoso then has a brother under his hands, let him feed him out of what he feeds himself, and let him clothe out of what he clothes himself and compel them not to do work which will overpower them, and if ye do compel them (to any such overpowering work) then assist them in doing the same work with them.'
Is this what we call slavery, eat what you eat, wear what you wear. Imagine a CEO asking his employee to live like a CEO. Islam prescribes not a slave master relationship but employer employee relationship with the slaves of then getting better treatment than many employees here in the west in modern day and age.
Another hadith:
Abu Masud Al Badri narrates: 'I was beating my slave with a whip when I heard a voice behind me. 'Understand Abu Masud' but I did not recognize the voice due to intense anger. Abu Masud says 'He came near me and I realized it was the Messenger of Allah (saw) and he was saying 'Bear in mind, Abu Masud, bear in mind Abu Masud!' Abu Masud says 'I threw my whip from my hand. Thereupon the Holy Prophet (saw) said again 'Bear in Mind, Abu Masud, verily Allah has more dominance upon you than you have upon your slave,' Abu Masud finally says 'I will never beat by servant in the future'
Another Hadith:
'Give food to the hungry, pay a visit to the sick and release the ones in captivity (by paying his ransom'
Thus muslims were told to use their own funds to free the enslaved.
As historian Lerone Bennet Jr says, Islam was far from racial and many slaves in Islam became army generals and administrators and poets of highest statures.
Usama bin Zaid and Zaid bin Harr were slaves who became the high ranking generals in muslim armies. former slaves Ata bin Abi Rabah and Ibn e Sireen became renouned imam of Hadith and Jurisprudence. former slaves Ibne Sireen became the premier authority in dream interpretation in muslim world. Mujahid bin Jubair and Musa bin Akba became one of the most famous islamic scholars and historians.
Under Islam acts of charity like Zakat and charity in general were used as emancipation for freeing of slaves.
Even though Slavery came back a few hundred years after Muhammad (saw) in some form it is at a downward trend again with focus back on relearning what Islam taught about slavery itself.
