Slavery, A Past and Present Tragedy
Date:
Channel: Omar Suleiman
File Size: 78.99MB
Episode Notes
Recent headlines about Islam and slavery have shaken many. We are excited to announce a free live webcast exploring the past and present manifestations of slavery, and how Islam and other religions viewed it. This will be a brutally honest program that will discuss this topic in great depth.
AI Generated Transcript ©
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Mohammed hamdulillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam ala rasulillah Karim Allah and he was like me and Marian, I want to welcome you all, to this class. And it's a history class and it's Saturday night, so I don't know what's wrong with you all. But uh, hamdulillah it's a, it's for a good purpose and shout out to Anna. And I think it's, it's one that that sparks a lot of curiosity. There are a lot of people that are deeply interested in this topic. And I could tell by the online response that a lot of people were sort of waiting for a deep, detailed explanation on the topic of slavery. And one of the things when we're discussing this topic that's very important to put out
there from now, because I'm sure that clips are going to be taken of this by islamophobes. And they're going to be plastered all over the internet, is that this discussion has more academic value than anything else, meaning we're not talking about how to reintroduce slavery in a proper way here. We're talking about the history of slavery, we're talking about, you know, how it developed, we're talking about everything that happened with slavery before Islam, we'll probably have a little bit of time to talk about it after Islam and then modern manifestations of slavery. Why number one, to just talk about the, the, the world in which Islam was born into and how it dealt with a very, very
brutal institution, something that was, unfortunately, universally, universally acceptable, and how Islam managed to redefine that. The second thing, you know, more than anything else is for us, even as Muslims, so it's not just necessarily non Muslims, for Muslims to sort of come to an understanding when they see these headlines out there about Islam and slavery. And when you hear about a group doing something in the name of Islam, unfortunately, many times it's not just, you know, non Muslims that would have misconceptions about the faith, but it's Muslims as well, because we've never really had to study the subject, there are certain things you don't talk about much. And
there's a reason why because, you know, it's by consensus of the Muslim scholars, there is no need for this institution today, there is absolutely no Islamic manifestation of slavery in the first place. So there's really not much need for the average Muslim at least before, you know, recent headlines and things of that sort to really know the ins and outs and the physical of slavery and things of that sort. So when we're discussing this topic, what I want you guys to keep in mind is that, number one, you're going to have to understand the the institution independent of Islam, and you're going to have to constantly remind yourself that we're talking about a world 1400 years ago,
and of course, when we go into the history of slavery before Islam, we're talking about the world 1000s of years ago, a world that would be completely unrecognizable to us. So things that we consider just morally wrong by nature by our fifth law, right, those things aren't going to be the same in those time periods. Now, when we talk about slavery as well, one of the greatest misconceptions that we have of slavery is that this is a thing of the past. And there are two types of slavery. There's chattel slavery, and chattel slavery is, you know, the traditional form of slavery when you imagine people in chains being sold, and so on, so forth. And then there are other
manifestations of slavery, which are simply forms of human bondage. And there has been no period in human history where there have been more forms of slavery, more manifestations of slavery than today, through human trafficking through work conditions, you know, the type of work conditions and labor conditions institutionalized racism, prostitution, right, all of these are things that exist today, child slavery, slavery, child labor, there has never been a point in history where we've had more human slavery than now. So we're not talking about something that's come and gone. We're talking about things that also exist today. And why is that relevant? When you're talking about
religion, whether you're talking about Islam, or you're talking about Judaism, or you're talking about Christianity, or you're talking about Hinduism, or Buddhism, which you really want to address is the entire religions approach to human rights. Right? Because, again, slavery is not limited to our traditional understanding from the movies that we've seen, and so on, so forth, but slavery has many, many manifestations. So you're going to study a religion, with its entire human rights record, and all of the things that that religion has to say about equality, and racism, and so on so forth, to really get a grasp on how we're supposed to approach the subject. Now, one of the
Other issues that we have with slavery, particularly in slavery historiography and the way that the history of slavery is written is that the vast majority of it has been written by Europeans and Americans. So it's extremely biased, right? It's extremely biased. And I guarantee you that many of the misconceptions that we have about slavery, so for example, you know, those of us that have watched movies like Amistad, and so on, so forth, there's this idea that slavery ended, because, you know, people felt a collective sense of guilt, and they realized that this was immoral. And they saw some people screaming in a courtroom that this was immoral, and they felt sorry for the slaves. And
that was the end of slavery, poof, it was gone. But the truth of the matter, the fact of the matter is that slavery ended because of slave rebellions. And because it was no longer politically and economically viable. No one felt bad and ended slavery, it wasn't ended, because of moral guilt, or because of collective guilt. And in fact, the American Revolution in particular affected the world far less than the French Revolution, other forms of revolution, when you're talking about the development of the New World. So for example, if I was to ask you guys, which revolution really, really dented, the institution of slavery really damaged the institution of slavery worldwide. It
was actually the Haitian Revolution, right? It wasn't the American Revolution, it was the Haitian Revolution, because it was a successful slave rebellion. All right. So a lot of the misconceptions that we have are based on the movies that we've seen, and also based upon the fact that the historiography of slavery has been written by Europeans and Americans. And in fact, there's a scholar, a Western scholar by the name of Michael Zoosk, who wrote a research called historiography and research problems of slavery and the slave trade from a global historical perspective. And he said that most of the religious rhetoric in regards to slavery so particularly when we're talking
about religion, and slavery, he says most of the religious rhetoric that stemmed from Western historians, has been nothing more than Christian globalist pamphlets directed against Islamic slavery. Right? So it's, it's apologetic in its nature, it's it's dishonest in its nature, right. And obviously, it feeds on people's ignorance about the history of this topic, as a whole. But when we talk about slavery, now, what I want to do is go to, you know, human history as a whole before we talk about Islam, one day slavery, you know, arise in the world first, when do we first recognize this institution in the first place, and the fact of the matter is that slavery is as old as human
history can be traced. Alright, so the very first, the oldest documents of law that we have is Babylonian law. And Babylonian law, which is, you know, the 2000 years before Christ, 2000 years before Jesus peace be upon him, has explicit references to everything that has to do with slavery and concubines. So it existed in the, in the earliest works of human law. And in fact, historians, they say, very interesting. Interestingly, subpanel love that slavery became a phenomenon in human history, probably about 11,000 years before Christ. Why because before then, human beings tended to be hunters and gatherers. But then they became, you know, into agriculture and things of that sort.
And just historically, speaking, when you have a lot of land, and you have a lot of poor people, you have a lot of slavery, all right, you have a lot of land that needs to be tended to you have a lot of crops, you have a lot of cattle, sheep, whatever it may be, and you have a clear lower class, then you're going to have conditions that will lead to slavery. So you had labor slavery, right? And that's the origin of slavery, which is, you know, people being brought into to cultivate land and to get things ready and to serve their masters and to and to serve the rich and society.
And contrary to popular thought, it wasn't all Africans. In fact, you know, there was truly a time when Africa was the land of kings. The original slaves were European. And the word slave comes from the word Slav. Okay, which, which you guys think of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, right, because of the amount of slaves that came from that region that came from the region of the Europeans, and were circulated amongst the, the Romans and the Greeks. So slavery was not something that was limited. In fact, it wasn't a phenomenon of the African continent. But instead, it was something that found itself into Roman and Greek society. If you go into Hinduism, right, you're not going to find a
condemnation of slavery. In fact, you're going to find the caste system, which only further enshrines slavery if you go into Buddhism, which is generally considered to be a very peaceful religion, right? Buddhism also inherited Hinduism's views towards slavery. So you're talking about thought 1000s of years before Jesus peace be upon him before Christianity. In Buddhism, a slave could not become a monk. And in fact, it wasn't until the 19th century that a certain strand of Buddhism in certain schools
Buddhism allowed for a slave to become a monk. So whether it was the Eastern religions or the western religions, you had slavery, you know very much so enshrined within the text and within the law
concubine, it's which is a very sore topic because it's just, you know, it reeks of, of the nasty images that we see around the world today. And trafficking and things of that sort of concubines is actually as old as human history as well. So where is the origin of it? most historians say it's from the ancient Chinese. Alright, so if you look at concubines, and this idea of having a concert and having a concubine, you actually find these, you know, full systems, of the rankings of concubines, from ancient Chinese emperors, and you know, when concubines was abolished in China in the 1940s. So you actually had concubines in China up until the 1940s. In fact, there's a
fascinating book called The Last concubine in China. Right, which actually talks about the life story of this woman that tries to make her way out of the Emperor's palace, after concubines was finally abolished by the Communist Party in China, and then you find it in the Roman society and you find it in Greek society, and so on, so forth. And what I wanted to do was I wanted to sort of transition through the religions before we get to Islam, how to Judaism in particular, and Christianity, in particular view slavery and view concubinage, before Islam comes into the picture. Now, obviously, for Muslims, all of the prophets of Allah, all of the prophets of God are
infallible. So a lot of the actions that are ascribed to Sulaiman on Islam to King Solomon, and to David and to Noah, peace be upon them all are things that we categorically reject, right. But if you're studying it from a historical perspective, and you're going to take the Old Testament as it is, and the New Testament as it is, then you're going to find some very distort disturbing trends in slavery. So particularly when you talk about Judaism, you find that there are different sets of laws that govern different types of slaves. So for example, in Leviticus, and this is where I want you guys to really start paying attention. In Leviticus. In the Old Testament, you have a set of laws
that govern Hebrew slaves, and you have a set of laws that govern the pagan slaves. Okay, the Hebrew slaves, which were the slaves within the kingdom of Israel within this within Benny slayed, the Hebrew slaves fell into the category of debt slavery, and labor slavery. What that means is back in the days, if a person wanted to, if a person had a huge debt to pay, then they would go into slavery until they could pay off that debt. Or a person would sell their children or put their children into slavery, to pay off their own debt. Okay, or if you owed someone money, they could actually come to your house, and they could take you into slavery if you did not pay your debt by a certain time. So
Hebrew slaves within Judaism, tended to fall within the category of debt slavery. Whereas when you talk about pagan slaves, which are Canaanite slaves can an okay, which is the area of Palestine and the surrounding areas of Palestine, then you find an entirely different set of laws that govern them. Why because you're talking about conquests, and you're talking about captives, and you're talking about people that are being brought into the kingdom. And so to give you guys a few examples,
you know, in Leviticus 44 to 46, it says that, however, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live amongst you, you can also purchase the children of Resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your lens, you may treat them as your property, you may pass them on to your children as permanent inheritance. You may treat them like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives must never be treated this way. So there's a different set of treatment, or a different rule of treatment for the non Israelite slaves and the Israelite slaves. How drastic does it get? Well, when you talk about prisoners of war, prisoners of war were taken
into permanent slavery, so there was no way out for them. Once they're taken into slavery, they are permanently subjugated into slavery, when they are not Israelite slaves, whereas Hebrew slaves within within early Judaism could only be a slave for up to seven years. So it says in Exodus 21, verse two to six, if you buy a Hebrew slave is only to serve for six years. You set him free on the seventh year and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If he was single, and he became when he became your slave and then he got married afterwards, then he will go free in the seventh year, but if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife will be freed with him. If his master gave
him a wife while he was a slave and they had children. Then the man will be free in the seventh year but his family will still
Remain in captivity, okay, and that man can decide at that point whether he wants to go back into slavery, and stay with his family in slavery, or become a free man. And if he decided to go back to being a slave with his family, then he was going to be permanently a slave as well, just like the non Hebrew slaves. So you had that set of laws for Hebrew slaves. And you had another set of laws for the pagan slaves. You also had this concept of selling your children into slavery. Okay, and in particular, into concubines, and this is an exodus as well, in the Old Testament 21 verse seven to 11, when a man sells his his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as
the men are, if she does not, please the man who bought her, he may be allowed to buy her back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to the pagans, or to the foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. So you have this entire notion of actually selling your children into slavery. And this is something that is still done in many parts of the world, in fact, in the Muslim world, and not in the Muslim world, right, and in the Western world, as well, where a person would sell their children into slavery into begging into prostitution to bring money back to the home. So unfortunately, that was also something that was enshrined. Within the Old Testament, you
also had the concept of beating your slaves. Okay, slave beating was also enshrined within the Old Testament. So this is also an exodus 21, verses 20 to 21. When a man strikes his, his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, this the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is included in his property. So in that law, in Old Testament law, if you if a master was to beat his leaf, and his slave was to not die, basically, or go unconscious for more than a couple of days, then then there was no penalty, the penalty was only if you beat your slave to a point that he would be unconscious
for several days, or he even reached the point of death. Okay, so there are very brutal laws within the Old Testament, in regards to slavery, things that you know, and to be fair to to scholars of Judaism, they say that you know, that as Judaism grew, and as time progressed, if you see the laws in the Talmud, and the laws of Judaism towards slavery as time progressed, and they became a lot more progressive, so for example, you know, they did away with the distinction between
Hebrew slaves and non Hebrew slaves, they did away with the idea of beating your slave, and so on, so forth. So these things tended to grow, or they tended to progress after the text had already been enshrined. And of course, there's no telling how much of this was added later, or how much of this was before. Now as for the racial implications of slavery, because this is also something very important to note, that most of the time in world history, slavery has nothing to do with race. Slavery is not racialized. Right? The transatlantic slave trade is the most brutal manifestation of racial slavery, okay, because they literally take people on the basis of the color of their skin,
and doom them to that institution. But traditionally speaking, that's usually not the case. Okay, before the 15th century, there was really no idea of having an entire slave society on the basis of their race. But is there a basis for that in the Bible? Is there a basis for that in the Old Testament, it goes back to the story of Noah Halle, Islam, the story of Noah peace be upon him. And the story is that Noah had three sons, and one of his sons, was a son by the name of ham or ham, in Arabic, it's ham. And this was the son that disobeyed Noah, and when when Noah, you know, went into a drunken state, you know, and of course, we don't hold that belief as Muslims, but when he went
into a drunken state, he was the one son that did not try to conceal his father. And so Noah dooms ham and his entire descendants to slavery forever to permanent slavery. Now, the Bible doesn't mention, you know, these people particularly being black people, but instead it mentions the descendants of Canaan. Okay, if can an almost you know, throughout history, it was almost always recognized that these were supposedly black people. So if you read the early Christian discourse in North America, about the slave trade, justifying the slave trade, they always went back to the story of him. And they believe that the entire black race was doomed on the on the basis that they belong
to the descendants of him. Okay. And then finally, you have concubines and the idea of having a concubine and within Judaism, what they what Jewish scholars actually write is they say that one of the reasons why Judaism actually encouraged concubines
Because actually encouraged in the Old Testament was to populate was to was to have more children. And some of them said particularly after the great flood of Noah, there was this idea that the Jews had to populate. And so when you find the staggering numbers that are associated with the prophets about how many concubines that they had, so for example, Solomon, so a man who probably lived about 1000 years before Jesus peace be upon him. Solomon in the Bible, it says that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Okay, this is actually biblical. And the idea was from a Judeo perspective is to populate. Some of the Jewish scholars also say that because in Orthodox Judaism, you can't convert
people to Judaism.
It's only in the reformed tradition of Judaism that people can actually convert to Judaism. So the idea is that this was the only way to preserve the religion was to have as many children as possible. So it wasn't just through wives, it was also through concubines. So you find this idea, and you find it particularly with captives. So in Deuteronomy, and I'm rushing through this to get to the Islamic part. So I know that this is just a lot of numbers and a lot of verses. But this is really just to give you an introduction, before we get into Islam. In Deuteronomy, chapter 20, verses 10 to 14, it actually says that as you approach a town to attack it, first you offer the
people peace. And if they accept your terms, and open the gates for you, then all the people inside will serve as forced labor. But if they refuse to make peace, and they fight you, then you attack them. And when the Lord your God, hands it over to you, then you will subject every man to the sword, and you will keep for yourself, all of the women, the children and the livestock, and you will enjoy the spoils of your enemies that the Lord your God has given you. So I want you to understand this, because this is going to come up later on that the Jewish law, the old Jewish law, in regards to captives of war, in particular, in accordance with Deuteronomy was that the men are
killed, and the women and children are taken as captives. Okay? Now, by the way, and this is just, you know, if a person was to quote these verses, and to tell most Americans that this is for an most Americans would believe you, right? You just put this out there. And you said, This is what Islam says about this. And this is what Islam says, I've actually tried this, I've actually been to university, and I've actually quoted verses of the Old Testament, and I've passed it off as verses of the Quran, and you can see people going,
and then I say, actually, those are from the Bible. Those are from the Old Testament. Now, why is this significant? Because as you phase into Christianity, the role of Christianity is far different. Why? Because Christianity doesn't have to address these types of laws and policies, because Christianity doesn't assume a role of authority. Right? So Judaism has that role of authority, and and you know, wars and so on, so forth. Christians, on the other hand, right, are basically going to assume whatever laws, they go to the lands that they go to. So Christianity really doesn't have to address these laws of slavery. And that's why when you talk about at least Paul's revision of
Christianity, you don't have many laws at all right? The entire laws abrogated from the Torah, from the Old Testament, and the only thing that sticks is what love thy neighbor. And, you know, you've Jesus came peace be upon them to fulfill the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law. So the law is in its entirety abrogated from a post Paul Christianity perspective. Why is that so important? Because they can argue, you know, Christians can argue that,
that none of these laws that we see in the Old Testament makes sense, and they don't apply to us. But the idea here is that it's the same God that inspired those prophets that inspired the the prophets of the New Testament, and that inspired the writing of the New Testament. So it's one thing to say that the God of the Old Testament legislated a different set of laws. It's another thing to say that God was immoral back then, and God suddenly became moral. You guys understand why this is important. So even though Christianity can argue that we're not subject to these laws from the Old Testament, you still have to, you know, you still have to defend them to an extent, right, you still
have to take, you know, accountability for them to an extent. Now, when Jesus peace be upon him was born. This is also just really important to understand from their society, half the population of the Romans were actually slaves. Alright, so Rome had like the biggest slave society in the world at that time, so half the population of Rome was slaves. And Christianity doesn't have state rule. And of course, Christianity assumed the laws of the Roman Empire, and carried on its practices. And the Roman Empire had some of the worst laws in regards to slavery in history. So for example, in Roman law,
which, you know, we're talking about post Constantine now when Christianity actually becomes a state, religion and Roman law, if necessary.
slave master if a slave owner is found kilt what is Roman law? What will what is Roman law dictate that each and every single one of his slaves is killed
right out of presumption that one of them might have been guilty for killing their master. Right when you talk about their loss towards concubines when you're talking about when you talk about their laws towards pagans, and so on so forth, and people that did not have Roman citizenship, they are the most brutal laws that exist. And there's a statement here by by Will Durant, and Will Durant who wrote the history of European morals, he said that the church did not condemn slavery, orthodox and heretic, Roman and barbarian alike assumed the institution to be natural and indestructible. In fact, the only mentions you have in the New Testament about slavery are about the slave being
dutiful to his earthly master. Okay, so you still have to be good to your earthly Master, there is no condemnation, whatsoever. He said, pagan laws condemned to slavery, any free woman who married a slave, the laws of Constantine, who, of course, made Christianity the state religion, ordered the woman to be executed and the slave to be burned alive. And he said, you know, that the Emperor decreed that a slave who accused the master of any offense, except high treason to the state should be burned alive at once, without inquiring into the justice of the charge. So he's actually saying that Christianity assumed fully the Roman approach to slavery. And what that meant was brutality, in
its worst form, brutality in ways that we've never known before. Now, all of that is just to kind of give you an introduction to where Islam is going to fall into the picture. And I don't want you to leave this class, and I don't want you to come out of this entire program thinking, well, all religions are terrible when it comes to slavery, and all systems were terrible. You know, I guess Islam just was the the, the least of the evils, if you will, I don't want you to come out with that with that mentality. And with that idea, if you want to approach history in a linear fashion, then you would say that slavery became or the approach towards slavery became more progressive overtime,
which is not true. Okay. But if you really want to look at the world that the Prophet peace be upon him was born into and how Islam approach slavery, you have to understand the way that previous religions previous systems, previous secular societies approached it. It was universally acceptable, number one, the institution of slavery and concubines. Number two, the types of laws that govern slavery and concubines were as regressive as we've seen, okay. Now, when the Prophet peace be upon him comes into this and when Islam is born into this world,
a question is asked, why didn't Islam just abolish slavery altogether? Why didn't the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him? abolish slavery altogether? Number one. All right, this is the first point that's really important to understand. Islam was a universally empowering message to everyone, specifically, the slave community in the downtrodden. Right, if you listen to the early words of the Prophet, peace be upon him. And the early words of his companions, Islam resonated most with the slaves and with the port, and with the oppressed and with the downtrodden. Write the very famous statement of robbery ignore honor, to to restore of Persia to the emperor of Persia was in the love
to Athens, it normally is every bad man, every bad distillery bad in our ibadah terrible river, that God has sent us Allah has sent us to take people, from being slaves to slaves, to being slaves to the Lord of all slaves. Allah has taken us from the slavery of from being slaves to men, from being slaves to the Lord of all slaves. Right. So there was this concept of empowerment. And the first people to accept Islam were who were the slaves. So the Prophet peace be upon him, his message resonated most with who with the slave community, which is very unique, okay, because usually, a religion gets picked up by an authority by the elite community. And that's the community that, that
implements it in a way that's friendly towards state and authority and government. But you're talking about a religion that grows first and foremost and actually, you know, not only grows but but gains victory on the backs of people that came from the slave community. And if there was anyone that was going to be offended by Islam stance on slavery, it would be the slave community. Right? If there is anyone that was going to view these policies or view the religion, as being oppressive and being manipulative as as other religions and other systems in the world, it would have been done. But instead you find the slaves themselves accepting this religion and seeing it as a method of
empowerment. So you find the balance of the world, right? You find the Prophet peace be upon him himself, even before it's not freeing the one slave
He owns, which was a dividend hanifa and taking him as an adopted son, and treating him so well that when his family actually found him after years of being abducted, right and being put into slavery when his family finally found him after all those years, they'd said, I'm gonna stay with I'm gonna stay with Mohammed.
So the lahardee was awesome, I'm gonna stay with the profit. Why? Because he treats me better than any family's going to treat me. So the one slave that the Prophet peace, be upon him owns, was freed and turned into an adopted son. And unlike the profits of many slaves, unlike the profits of the Israelites, and this is something that historians mentioned the Prophet peace be upon him is a descendant of who have had some of Hagar, who herself was a concubine, she herself was a slave one. And the Prophet peace be upon him was born into, you know, the hands of a slave girl Baraka, amen. Love the Allah and he said he was surrounded his entire life by people from the slave community. So
the Prophet peace be upon him before he even starts his call to Islam. He has a certain relationship with this community. And when he starts to call to this religion, it is those people that feel most empowered by the message of Islam. Number two, the prophet peace be upon him actually explicitly abolished every form of slavery that could have possibly and practically been abolished in that context without causing a greater harm. So for example, that slavery, the prophet peace be upon him abolished it. Islam abolish is that slavery, not only does Islam abolish slavery, it there are so many Hadith so many sayings and traditions of the Prophet peace be upon him about the debtor and how
he should be kind to the one who owes him money. And that one of the people that shaded by the throne of Allah on the Day of Judgment is the one who has money that's owed to him and he's lenient to the one that owes money to him. The Prophet peace be upon him said if your brothers and then pay off his debt, and if you can't pay off his debt, then go with him to, you know, go with him to the one that landed him money and try to convince him to be lenient. Right. So there's this entire set of traditions as to how to deal with debtors and how to deal with people that are in debt slavery. Number two, the most common form of slavery was abduction and kidnapping back then. Okay, so
literally, you know, if you look at the story of Solomon, so the man just happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, a tribe takes him puts them into slavery. And somehow Sandman finds himself into slavery. Right, we find that was a dependent hanifa, who ended up in the house of the Prophet peace be upon him that he was just kidnapped, he was going out on a trip with his mother, one day, and this is in the Arabian society right before the Prophet peace be upon him. Right? His mother is walking with him, and he's kidnapped and he sold into slavery in his family doesn't see him for 10s of years, people used to abduct children, primarily children, because they were the most vulnerable
targets, and they sell them into slavery. That was the system not only of the Arabs, that was the system of the world. And again, this you know, slobs, you know, comes from that terminology, if you can catch someone, and you can take him by force, and you can sell them into slavery. That was something that was acceptable. The Prophet peace be upon him said, I will testify on the day of judgment against a man who captures a free man and sells them into slavery. I will testify on the day of judgment against a man who captures another man, a free man and sell him into slavery. So the Prophet peace be upon him abolish that form of slavery. Also, the idea of selling your children into
slavery was abolished by Islam. Labor slavery was abolished in Islam. Okay, in fact, not only that, because I said that you have to look at a religions entire human rights record. Right? What did the Prophet peace be upon him setup say about how you treat your labor, right, the one who's working for you that you have to pay him his wages before his sweat dries, you have this entire set of laws that govern Now, the way that you treat the person that you've given a job to, not not before Islam, and even in pre Islamic Arabia, what you could do is you could literally go up to somebody and you could say, I'll be your slave, if you give me this much money.
Okay, so you're gonna pay me this salary, I'll work with you, I'll be your slave. So that's something that existed before Islam and the Prophet peace be upon him abolish that as well. The Prophet peace be upon him also said if you have a slave and you give him a hard job, that that that's difficult for him, then you have to, you have to assist him in that. So the concept of labor slavery was abolished. Also, one thing that was global at the time was statutory slavery. What that means is that if you commit a crime against somebody, there were certain crimes that dictated that you became that person slave. Okay, so it wasn't just that slavery, if you killed somebody, or if
you harm someone from someone's family or tribe, then you would be taken as a slave to that family or tribe. And this is something that was practiced amongst the Romans and it was practiced again amongst the Arabs as well, and practice across the world. So
Prophet peace be upon him abolish that. Also forced marriage. Many of us don't recognize, but forced marriage is actually a form of slavery. But in the technical definition, to be married without consent is a form of slavery. And you cannot find anywhere else in the seventh century, where you have a person that's speaking against forced marriage. Can you imagine in that society where you're, you know, you're talking about the treatment of women in particular, a woman comes to the Prophet peace be upon them and says, I was married against my will the Prophet peace be upon him says you can go free here. There's no contract, he completely voids the contract. So the idea of marrying a
girl off without her consent was also abolished by the prophet peace be upon it. And that's why Adam Watson, he writes, and he writes an essay called Mohammed, the abolitionists, slavery in the Koran. He says the existence of slavery is an ancient condition. It existed long before the poor and was revealed to Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam, starting in 610. He said, What is interesting is comparing the depiction of slavery in the poor and to the Old and the New Testaments. In the older Jewish and Christian holy texts, a specific plan to eliminate the human bondage of our temporal present is never discussed. The poor and on the other hand, not only recognize the morality of slavery in the
seventh century, but it also sought to end it. The plan to do so is both implicit and explicit. To recognize this is to respect the Islamic attempt In the name of Allah to destroy an evil custom, nearly 13 centuries before America would legally and politically do the same. These are non Muslims that are writing about the Prophet peace be upon him approach to slavery. And again, you can make the arguments that the Prophet peace be upon him has abolished every form of slavery, except for one, which we're going to talk about, which is captives of war, prisoners of war, pow, every other form is completely abolished. Now, what about that one stream of slavery, prisoners of war. In
Islam, you have a different set of legal theory, you have what's called a cam attack lufia, which means you have things that are required, and you have things that are recommended. Okay, so you have fettled, and you have Mr. hab, right. Even in your personal practice, you have that which is mandatory, obligatory, and then you have that which is recommended. Now, Mr. hub, the idea of something being recommended, that is for people to do, you know, to express a greater appreciation of what Allah has given to them and to express a greater desire for God's mercy, to show greater mercy, and to go the extra mile. So most to have just by our legal theory, as Muslims that which is
recommended, is a standard that you can't be held to, if you don't do it, it's not that you're going to be punished. But if you do do it, you'll be rewarded. And so it's to encourage a certain level of a son, it's to encourage an added level and added degree of compassion, an added degree of diligence and dedication and devotion to God. So everything that falls within the category of Mr. hab of being recommended, and rewardable is clearly from the goals of Islam. And that's something that's very important to recognize here. It's from the goals of Islam. So on an individual level, for example, praying piano lit, praying, the night prayer is Mr. hab. It's from the goals of Islam that every
single Muslim is going to be praying to Allah, there's going to be praying the night prayer, but it's impractical to demand that from every single Muslim to make it a requirement on every single Muslim. So that's when you talk about individual acts of worship. Now, when you talk about societal fuddled, and Mr. hab and things of that sort, Islam requires, at the bare minimum, a removal of injustice. So what's, what's obligatory from a societal perspective, and Islam's legal theory is that you remove injustice and you establish justice. What is recommended and encouraged is compassion.
Right? So for example, in murder, you get asked this question all the time. Does this not believe in capital punishment? It's a hotly debated topic, right. Even in in North America, especially with the Pope's visit in recent days and things of that sort and appealing on behalf of someone on death row. is Islam for capital punishment or against capital punishment. Most Muslims don't know how to properly answer that question. Islam completely removes capital punishment from the state's authority, and instead gives it to the family of the one that's been killed, encourages the family to show compassion and forgive and let it and you know, and accept, you know, a compensation and so
on so forth. But at the same time, if a family demands the death penalty for someone that without justice killed one of their family members, then it has to be granted. The state only acts as the executioner in that regard, but the state doesn't
Come in and dictate that you know what we're going to kill every single person that committed the act of murder. So is Islam for capital punishment? Not in the truth? Not not in the contemporary sense? No, it's not. Because Islam encourages mercy. But you can't bound. You can't bind the family to that you can't tell the family you have to forgive. But you can encourage them and the Prophet peace be upon him used to encourage people. So the bare minimum is a removal of injustice. What's encouraged is a level of compassion. So when it comes to slavery, in particular, what was required, is treating slaves with so much dignity, that they're not really technically slaves anymore.
So those that have come into society, as slaves are treated with so much dignity, that they're not really slaves in the true sense of the word, that's the bare minimum, that they're not going to be abused, they're not going to be exploited. They're not going to be you know, they're not going to be subjected to things that are, that are out of their capacity. That's the requirement. But what's encouraged is to completely emancipate them is to completely free them. Is there any other system in the world and this is something this is not just Islamic propaganda here? Can you find any other system in the world in the time of the Prophet peace be upon him or proceeding the Prophet peace be
upon him, or even within 700 800 years after the Prophet peace be upon him that even encourages freeing slaves?
One Bible verse, one Christian reformer, one Jewish reformer, that actually you know, codifies a way to emancipate slaves and assigns a reward for it, you don't find it. Once you see what the prophet peace be upon him.
is, you know, multiple, multiple traditions of the reward of actually freeing the slave altogether. So in the poor and let's start with the Quran. Allah says lacewell Bella and to Allah would you are comfortable and machete well, Margaret, we're lucky nobleman M and a bit ly William and Arthur. So Allah says, it is not righteousness, or it's not only righteousness, that you turn your face, to the east or to the west. But then a lot, identifies are less pantalla highlights all of the different forms and manifestations of righteousness. So one of the things that Allah says is spending your money for recall, to free slaves. So a lot of calls it righteousness to free slaves, number one,
number two, Allah says, well, you'll put a monitor on there and I hope be here team and will Myskina and we'll see that they free slaves, out of an act of showing love to Allah. So they feed people, and they free slaves, freeing slaves is mentioned as an act of love to Allah, that out of their love for Allah, they will go and they will actually free slaves. A loss, says woman dynochem and Oktoberfest karaca what will help you on that steep path? what's going to help you get to paradise? what's going to help you escape Hellfire and go through this life? The first thing Allah mentions is freeing slaves. Then Allah mentions it Ahmed miskeen, and taking care of the orphan, feeding the
poor, and taking care of the orphans. So a lot of mentions it as the greatest form of charity, you find that and by the way, these ions and these are the most of them when it comes to emancipating. slaves are not specific to Muslims, they're actually general. So they mean Muslims and non Muslims because we don't restrict in Islam, we only expand, right, we expand within permissible balance. Now, are there a hadith are there traditions that specify Muslim slaves, an added reward for freeing a Muslim slave? Absolutely. So the Prophet peace be upon him. He said that whoever frees a Muslim slave, Allah will free each and every single part of his body from Hellfire, just as he freed each
and every single part of the body of that slave from captivity. So just you know, you've taken that person out of slavery and bondage in the dunya in this world, Allah would remove you from slavery and bondage in the hereafter. Now, why would the Prophet peace be upon him specifying Muslims here? Does that mean cruelty to non Muslims? No, because Muslims have an even greater right obviously upon humanity has a right upon you. Muslims have a right upon you, your family members have a right upon you. So when the Prophet peace be upon him specifies Muslims, he's not excluding non Muslims, but he's emphasizing something here. Right? It's just like when the Prophet peace be upon them talks
about your father. He says, the only way that you could possibly repay your father is if you were to find your father as a slave and purchase his freedom.
Now, the scholars say the Prophet peace be upon him didn't mention the mother because there's no way you can repay your mother. But he said, that the way you repay your father is if you were to find your father, so if you ever want to go to your dad and say, I owe you nothing, then you had you would have had to have found your father's slave and purchased his freedom and enabled him just as he enabled you in this world. Right. So why is the Prophet peace be upon him mentioning these things? If you notice with these two traditions, the scholars say that freeing a slave in his
Lamb is likened to giving life. Freeing a slave in Islam is actually likened to given life. And that's why the penalty for accidentally killing somebody accidental murder in Islam from the Quran is what freeing the slave, because just as you accidentally took the life of one person, now you need to give someone else a chance at life. That's the penalty.
And we find that you know, even for unrelated sins at times are things that appear to be unrelated sin. So for example, fasting, if you were to break your fast, intentionally, okay, or particularly if a person wants to become intimate with their spouse on a day of Ramadan, the very first expiation is freeing slaves. And the scholars say this is very significant. Why? Because fasting is supposed to create a sense of empathy. And that's why when you can't fast What do you resort to charity. And so when you have disregarded your duty too fast to that extent, then the way that you that the way that you you, you expiate that the way you compensate for that is you go and you free a slave, which
is again, the greatest form of charity, a lot directs you to the greatest form of charity in that regard. A broken oath in Islam requires freeing a slave or certain oats require freeing the slaves in Islam. So there are different things, you know, within the within the idea of being recommended acts that clearly showed that Islam seeks the eventual emancipation of all slaves, the mentioned the eventual depletion of this institution to a point that it no longer exists, they call it a sunset clause, right? It's only meant to exist for a certain period of time. And to prove that more than anything else, Allah subhanaw taala put it in the category of Zika,
which is mandatory now. It's what it's the third pillar of Islam. And one of the permanent categories of Zakat is to do what is to free slaves. Now a very simple answer to someone who says that that's nonsense that Islam seeks the eventual end of slavery is that Islam seeks and time when Zakat is no longer necessary, right, and we talk about the coming of Jesus peace be upon and we talked about as a collector, not being able to find anyone who's worthy of Zakah. So if there's a permanent, dedicated category to freeing slaves, then that shows you once again, that Islam seeks the end of slavery. Islam sought it at a time when not a single person in the world was talking
about abolition, because it was impractical at that time. I mean, the world's economy functioned on slavery, Islam was already legislating certain things, to eventually end this entire institution. And moreover, the not you know, something, and this is just for someone that studies history. And you know, a lot of you, you know, you've heard me talk about Sahaba, and companions, and so on, so forth. And if you go back to any story of any companion, you always have something on their resume, which is how many slaves they freed. In fact, if you look at the biographies of the companions from the CEOs of an amount of that'd be Rahim Allah, it's like the it's like the icing on the cake, you
know, and this person, by the time they died, they fried this many slaves. So he shot all the law, and by the time she passed away, the wife of the Prophet peace be upon it, she freed 67 slaves of the love Norma, if you look at the story of love, Norma, now the love No Omar freed his slaves.
But knafeh still stayed with him in common and became his students. And even Ahmed had a particular affinity to freeing slaves. But which types of slaves did he want to free, he wanted to free the religious slaves. So now, it says that the slaves used to gather in the mud in the first row, and they used to act like they were humility and prayer. So even Ahmed would see them and feel sorry for them and free them because it's an honor to love to free pious slaves in particular. So now that came them and never himself as a former slave, and he said, and now you have the Runic they're teaching you. And he says, that's okay. Let them cheat me for the sake of Allah. You know, how many
slaves have been freed, he freed 1000 slaves. So it's part of his biography. It's part of his accomplishments, under oath about the Law of Demeter oath, who is the richest Companion of the Prophet peace be upon him? One of the greatest accomplishments of an elf that's mentioned is that he freed in his own lifetime, 30,000 slaves. That's an entire country back then. Right? He freed 30,000 slaves. And so when you talk about the realm of that, which is recommended, and things of that sort, there was a culture now, where if you want it to come close to a lot, you freed slaves, if you wanted to, if you wanted to have a great accomplishment, life, it was actually, you know, it was
actually something to be sought after to actually go earn money so that you could purchase the freedom of slaves. I'm hustling and bustling, who's from the second generation after the companions from the tambourine? You know, some people came to him and he himself comes from a family of freed slaves come to him and they tell him that there are too many slaves right now you know, you need to give
you need
To give a sermon about freeing slaves, you know, usually when people come up to us and they tell us to give hope to Moses, like you need to give a hope about wiping over your socks, you need to give a hold of about Halloween, you need to go home. That's usually what people suggest for homeless. People go to hustle and bustle and they say, look, slavery, it's getting out of hand, no need to get a hold of about slavery. There's too There are too many slaves in Iraq, give a hoot about it. Imam Hassan bacillary tells them okay, he agrees. Two weeks go by he doesn't give a multiple about slavery. The third week, he gives an entire book about the benefits and the rewards of freeing
slaves of purchasing the freedom of slaves. And cultiva. Baghdadi in the history of Iraq, he says that literally, you know, Iraq became a party, because all of the slaves were roaming free in the streets of it all of a sudden. And they went to the Manhattan embassy and they said, you know, why did you wait for three weeks you should have given us multiple, three weeks ago. Right. And you know what he said, he said, because I didn't have enough money to purchase the freedom of a slave myself. So I waited till I could earn enough money to do so myself. Then when I had enough money, he literally went and worked, earned his money free to slave Then he told everyone else to do the same.
This was a culture that the Prophet peace be upon him actually put amongst the most. Number four, and this is very significant. Slavery is one thing but slavery at the end of the day is a symptom of greater problems in society, the greatest of which is inequality. So even if you abolish slavery, technically, as we see in our modern day, in our in our modern day, manifestations of slavery, even if you technically abolish slavery, if you allow inequality to grow in your society, and if you institutionalized racism, then slavery still exists, even if you're not calling it slavery, it's still slavery. And the Prophet peace be upon him instead effectively countered racism and tribalism
and equality in this society, that's what he was fighting against. And so we find that the Prophet peace be upon him was putting, you know, people of, you know, black people, Persians, and so on so forth in positions of authority
to show the people that this was a new era. I mean, I want you to think about this on the day of the conquest of Mecca. Could you imagine just today the cat, I mean, anyone who's done an ombre had is still fresh in my memory because I was there a few days ago. And I was thinking to myself, you know, even with the monstrosity of the buildings around the cabinet, those Gotham like towers around the cabin. Could you imagine the power of a man standing on top of the cab? Like, could you imagine doing the law and looking at a man standing on top of the cab? It would completely shake you? Who did the Prophet peace be upon him putting that position below?
Right? He puts Bilaal on top of the cab to call a van below a person that was born into slavery and subjugated subjugated to slavery, his entire life, has his feet on top of the cabinet calling Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. And the Prophet peace be upon him says, Look, if you have a problem with this, get used to it. This is the new system. This is how things work here. And so on the day of the fact to have met on the day of the conquest of Mecca, he said, Yeah, you had us in the La Habra. uncom obeah tell Julia, Wahhabi Abba Fernando Raja Raja Rohan balanta peon, Karim Allah Allah Allah. Wa theurgy, Ron shocky, and Hainan Allah when nasib no Adam wahala kala, who Adam and Ventura, he said,
Oh people, Verily Allah has removed your slogans from the days of ignorance, and its reverence for its forefathers. He said, Now there are two types of men. There is a man who is righteous, pious and honorable in the sight of Allah. And there is a man who is wicked and insignificant in the sight of Allah. And Allah created everyone from Adam alayhis salam and animals created from dirts. He's saying this sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he's making this point when on the day of the conquest of Mecca, which is to show you that this is how things are going to be here. Now. This is the change that you're going to witness in your society if you don't like it, get used to it. You know, it's
very powerful that the Prophet peace be upon him. He always waited for, you know, these gatherings, you know, when people were all gathered together to really address racism in depth in detail and inequality and detail. And so you find and in his last hedge his farewell speech now, anyone that's seen the people in the head on it's a very powerful site. It truly is, you know, when you see everyone in there, no matter where they came from, or what what position they hold in life, you can't tell I was sitting next to this hedge in particular, seriously in Mina. I was sitting next to someone that's worth over $500 million.
I had no clue.
Right? Why isn't?
Everybody's an add on. Everyone's covered in dust everyone is calling upon a lot. Well, unless you're in those super VIP accommodations. Everyone's covered in dust, everyone's tired, everyone's hot. When does the Prophet peace be upon him address racism and what to do with that and his farewell address. The people are an add on and he calls people's attention in the beginning of his last address his farewell address to the people
says look around that you you don't look around. And he says that there is no superiority of a black man to a white men or white men to a black man or out of over a foreigner or a foreigner over an Arab. All of you are from the children of Adam, the only way you perceive one another is in piety, he decides to call people's attention to this in hatch, and the only hedges that he does, so the Prophet peace be upon them is signaling that there's a change that you know that there's a change in system here, that it's not just a technical emancipation, it's an actual emancipation. And the goal of the Prophet peace be upon him, particularly with slaves was to reintegrate them into society. And
that's the one thing if you're going to forget everything that I've said in the first 40 minutes of verses and things of that sort. Just remember, the goal of the Prophet peace be upon him, was to reintegrate slaves into society, so that they wouldn't just be technically free, but they would actually live like free men and free women. Why? Because guess what, we live in North America, when, when slavery was abolished in North America, technically, did it actually result in an end of inequality and racism and and black people being targeted by the state and lynched and you know, suffering all forms of injustice and inequality? Clearly not? Because we're still seeing it today.
Right? We're still seeing it today. Because you have to address the root causes here. You don't just address the technical institution, you address the root causes. And you know, there's this this again, back to the fantasy of slavery historiography that Abraham Lincoln just felt sorry for slaves and decided to abolish slavery and everything was okay. And everyone just suddenly started to hug, you know, and it was all good. Actually, the emancipation proclamation of Abraham Lincoln did not abolish slavery, you know what it did, it said that if a slave can manage to get out of the South, escape a plantation, and come fight on the side of the Union, then they're free.
It's political. It doesn't solve root problems, it doesn't solve the root cause of inequality and racism. And if you don't solve those problems, then even if you technically strike down slavery, you're still going to have a problem. And so bondage is not just physical, it's psychological, it's emotional, it's mental. It's in every single form. And so the Prophet peace be upon him, what he does is he introduces rights for slaves that made it undesirable to have them in the first place, and basically put them in the position of a member of the household. So the first form of dignity, obviously, is that you're not allowed to abuse them. And you know, obviously, the first thing that
comes to your mind when you think slave, right, and I'm just going to say the word and I want you to just think what's the first thought that comes to your mind? Probably the things that you saw, even in the promo for this class, right? You think of a person and change, you think of a whip, you think of beatings you think of, you think of brutality, the prophet peace be upon him. He once saw a man that was beating his slave and he said to him, Allah is more capable of doing that to you, then you are of doing that to him.
He said, Jada sola, I freed him. The Prophet peace be upon him said, had you not freed him, Allah would have thrown you into hellfire. And the Prophet peace be upon him said, Don't just listen to this. He said, He who slops a slave. And he mentioned the slap. He didn't mention closed fist or whips or chains. If you slap a sleeve, or physically abused him, the only way to expiate for that or the only explanation is to grant him freedom.
Meaning if you slap a slave, in accordance with the law of Islam, the only way that you can make up for that is to let them go free, you have to let them go free. That's just for a slop. You imagine the other forms of brutality. And actually, if you read the early books of filk, they say that if a master even showed his slave a whip,
and the slave can complain to the Father and said, My master has a whip. Right, then that's enough, that could be enough grounds to grant him freedom. Why? Because there was a legitimate threat there violence, so there's no violence allowed, you're not allowed to abuse your slave at that time. Okay. And if you did, then you would have to let them go free. And by the way, this is a culture again, once again, that the Prophet peace be upon put within the companions as well, we find a very famous story in the lava in the caliphate of our model of the Allahu taala. I know that in Egypt, where Ahmed have been asked was the governor, one of the children of Ahmed was racing with a Christian
slave, camel racing with a Christian slave and the cop that you know, he beat him.
He beat him in the race. He didn't. He beat him in the race. So he goes up to him afterwards. And he's and he smacks him with a whip. And he says that I am a nobleman, the son of the nobleman. That Christian slave goes all the way to Medina to complain to Alma about what happened to him. Can you imagine he makes the journey from Egypt to Medina, knowing that Omar is going to give him justice almost summons the governor of Egypt, Ahmed and his son, I'm going to didn't do anything.
I want you both to come here. He sets this, you know, he sets this man up with his accommodation and everything like that. So the man is waiting literally for over a month for Ahmed and his son to show up from Egypt to get justice for being hit by a width. And he, you know, first he basically almost confirms that that incident took place, then almost hands this Christian slave whip. And he says, lost both of them.
And he said, Well, why would I lost his father? What did the 1100 What did I remember? I asked him, he said, because you were put down in his name. It's panela, you were put down in his name. So don't just hit him hit his father as well. He let him go free, and all model the law and returns to Austin to his son. And he says How can you enslave a man that was born free?
How can you enslave a man that was born free? That's actually in the United Nations Charter. So saying of the law on the first person, actually, where you can trace those words to how can you enslave a man that was born free, was almost the second halifa to the Prophet, peace be upon them. So abuse is forbidden Muslim or non Muslim sleep, you're not allowed to call them names that they don't like you're not even allowed to call your slave a slave. Okay, so and this this by the way, this is a very important point here because Can we really say that would exist the system that existed in Islam at the time of the Prophet peace be upon him and up until it was abolished? Can you
really say that it was slavery in Islam? Probably not. The Prophet peace be upon him says Lyor Cohen adhikam Abdi what MIT? What I akula No, ma'am. Luca Robbie, Rob Betty. When you're coding nariko fatawa were fatality when he echoed in mameluke who say Ed was a EDT for in a coma mucuna while Rob Bulava, Azerbaijan, the prophet peace be upon him said, none of you should say my slave or my slave girl. He said instead, and he said, the slave should not say, you know, my Lord, or you know, you know, in both the masculine or the feminine sense. So, the prophet peace be upon him forbade the master, technically the master from saying slave, and he forbade the slave from saying, Master. And
he said, that instead you should say fatawa, or fatality, which means, you know, my young man, my young woman, the same way you'd refer to your children, that this is a member of my household. And the Prophet peace be upon him said that the slave should say, say, Ed, or say you that he and you know, that would also be loosely translated as Master, but it's really not Master, it's, it's, it's, it's more than it's just, you know, it's it's an endearing term, like we say, about the Prophet peace be upon him. So you do know sallallahu wasallam. And so the Prophet peace be upon him says at the end of this, all of you are slaves to Allah, and Allah is the only master. All of you are slaves
to Allah and Allah is the only master. So the true sense of slavery only belongs to Allah subhana wa, tada, you cannot actually think that you own someone in the absolute sense, there is no such concept of that. The Prophet peace be upon him set. So we're moving on to dignity. It's not just not abusing them and not calling them names. He also went to the extent of saying that you have to give them the same clothes that you wear, and you dress your family with and the same food that you and your family have. And Abu Dhabi, or the Allahu anhu. He was one scene and he had his best garments, his best cloth split in half. And he's walking around with his sleeve, right with his servant, and
they're both wearing the same garment. And people were like, you know, that's really interesting, why did you do that. And he said that the Prophet peace be upon him said that they are nothing except your brothers, whom Allah has placed under your care. They are nothing but your brothers, whom Allah has placed under your care. So whoever has his brother under his care, let him feed him from his food, and let him clothe him from his clothes, and let him not give him a task that he cannot bear. And if you give him a duty that he cannot bear than a system, so three things, number one, feed him what you feed yourself, clothed him with what you clothe yourself. And if you give him
a difficult assignment, then you need to help him with that. You need to actually assist them with that just as you would treat someone in your own family. One of my teachers schelotto have a lot to it, he actually pointed out that the chapter of slave treatments in many books of Hadith In fact, in some Nativity actually comes under Bob sila, which is the chapter of family. So slaves were actually considered part of the family, they were considered part of the household the same way you establish the ties of kinship, and you were to show compassion to your family members. You were also to show that same level of compassion towards those slaves. Now compare that to even the North American
slave trade. If you notice, by the way, historically speaking, within Judeo Christian slavery, slaves were not allowed to wear shoes.
Okay, if you actually see the pictures of slaves even in America, they were not allowed to wear shoes. Why? Because in Luke 1522
But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him, put a ring on his hand and put shoes on his feet. And so the idea was that shoes are a sign of freedom. And so you're not even allowed to walk with shoes. Compare that to what the prophet peace be upon him is talking about now, where are they able to assume positions of leadership and authority? well below we just mentioned Billa, who was nicknamed our master, who was freed by our master, Osama bin Zaid, while the Allahu anhu the first commander of the Muslim army you know the if you guys remember when when Shahada for forget his last thing, either. kilbirnie was appointed as the Imam of the huddle. Just a
few years ago, there was an article that came out that called him the Saudi Obama, the first black Imam of the masjid al Haram in Mecca. Actually, the first email of messages of how long was I thought it'd be an ally, who was from Sudan. Okay, the first Mufti of Mecca the first Imam of the Haram and that's in the in the true sense of the word was actually a black man. So no, he's not the Saudi Obama. All right, we didn't have to wait that long to have a black Imam, of Muslim How about so were they able to assume positions of authority? Yes, we mentioned not their job, it will be a low enemy says about NAFTA, NAFTA was the freed slave of of love, Norma, that not fair. You know, he
had a broken Arabic accent.
And now he had the darkest of skin. And he's a freed slave. And he said that that the richest of the companions would gather around him to kiss his hand and to sit with him to learn from the fifth of an Alma. He's the teacher of human medical him a whole lot. So in scholarship, they were able to assume positions in leadership they were able to assume positions in authority. The Prophet peace be upon him said hold on, quote Adam and autobild learned the Quran from four people. He says Abdullah Massoud Salim Mola, or be heard Eva obey immunocap and more either blue jumper and Salim Mola. Have you heard Eva? Okay is the free slave of Abu hanifa who is Salim Salim was the person that the
Prophet peace be upon him appointed to lead the companions in salah and messages about the first message? So Salim was the Imam in Muslim Oba. Now why is Salim so significant here because he's not just a scholar, he's not just someone that ascends those rings. When Omar was passing away or model the Allahu anhu said there are two people two men if either of them were alive, I would make them the halifa without taking any shorter I wouldn't even consult with people. He said if our VEDA algebra was alive, I would have made him the halifa without Shura, and he said if Salim was alive, I would have made him the halifa without Shura, meaning the third Khalifa of Islam could have been a
freed slave all matters and Amara doesn't just say things just for the heck of it right. Almost saying I wouldn't have even consulted you people. I would have just made him the Khalifa. This is all about the proud Arab Ahmad right. He's saying I would have made solemn the halifa of the Muslims, the third halifa of the Muslims without even asking you people, had he only been alive. And that culture, by the way, is that it's you know, it shows that Islam put this system in place where freed slaves and their children could actually become governors could become coolatta. So if you look in the history of Islam, you'll find the mamluk dynasty for example, the mameluke dynasty is
probably unprecedented in history. mameluke literally means owned, right? The mameluke dynasty from the 1200s, to the 1500s, for 300 years ruled the oma, these are all the children of slaves, right, who ascended in the ranks of the army, and literally took control of the oma and Napoleon, not not Napoleon from the outlaws, Napoleon Bonaparte. And you know, he actually said that he was commenting on on slaves within Islam and authority and he says that the slave inherits his masters property. And then Mary's his daughter, the majority of the pashas had been slaves. Many of the grant says visitors was yours, like ministers, all of the Mamelukes, I leave no more art. All of them were
slaves. They began their lives by performing the most simple of services and the houses of their masters. And then they were raised in status for their merits or by favor. He said, In the West, on the contrary, the slave has always been below the position of the domestic servants. He occupies the lowest rug, and he said, the Romans even when they emancipated their slaves, they never considered them as equal or as free born, okay, or as equal to those that were born free. He says the ideas of the east and the west are so different, that it took a long time to make the Egyptians understand that all the army was not composed of slaves belonging to the Sultan, Al Kabir. So even Napoleon is
commenting on his admiration of the Muslim world, that the system that Islam put in place allowed for people that were actually born into slavery, not just the descendants of slaves, people that were born slaves to rise and become leaders.
In the oma, you find one of the most famous people was the last halifa of the of the UB dynasty. Okay najma Dean, a youth who was a medical sila Naja Medina you he himself was the child of a concubine, he himself was born a slave, he goes on to become the A, you will be so fun.
And he actually fights and defeats the Crusaders in many different places. Like there is no system in history that actually put something in place that would have given slaves a chance to ascend to that level. So the Prophet peace be upon him, puts him in that situation. And the way to describe the way you know, his approach to slavery sallallahu wasallam overall, is that he took many sources of slavery, many sources of slavery, because again, there was labor, slavery, there was debt slavery, there was there was child slavery, there was, you know, there was a, you know, selling your daughter into slavery, prostitution, things of that sort. He takes all of these forms and reduces
them into one source, which was prisoners of war captives, which we're going to talk about in a minute inshallah. And when he reduces them all to one source, not only that, but he takes that one source of slavery, and he introduces avenues out of that one source that had never existed before either. So there's one source of slavery in which is captives prisoners of war, and then there are ways out for the captive that had never previously existed. And inshallah because this is the juiciest part of class and I know you guys need a break, I'm going to go ahead and give you guys a one to two minute break inshallah to stand up stretch, rub your eyes and then we'll talk about
captives and we'll talk about the prisoners of war and how and why this form of slavery still exists in the time of the Prophet, peace be upon them. So inshallah tada we will resume in a minute to two minutes inshallah.
Okay, so continuing on, we're talking about captives, we're talking about this one source of slavery that remains. Now in jelly and the days of ignorance. It's important to point out that the captive
had absolutely no rights upon the captor meaning what that if you were taken as a slave or even if someone was killed from your family if your town was ravaged by by someone, then you basically had to figure it out yourself. So usually what used to happen is that, you know, people would have to go into begging, the women would traditionally have to resort to what they'd have to resort to prostitution naturally. Why? Because that was the only way to make a living at that point. Any moment joining Rahim Allah, He says that one of the strategic points of the incredibly humane treatment of the Prophet peace be upon him towards prisoners of war, is that the enemy would more
easily Submit. You know, he said that before if you're if you're fighting in a battle, and this is true, I mean, if you look, even in modern history, if you're fighting a brutal enemy, and you know what he does to his prisoners, you know what he does to his captives, then you'd rather commit suicide and just fight to death even if you're losing. Because you know what's what awaits you. And I'm gonna join he says that because of the treatments that the Prophet peace be upon him show towards captives and prisoners of war, you would find that people would would more easily submit in the battlefield, because they knew that they were going to be treated in a certain way they wouldn't
commit suicide and so on, so forth. And when you look at how strictly the companions complied, with the order given by the prophet peace be upon him to treat the the the captive as well, one of the the prisoners of bedeutet, who accepted Islam, are they even familiar? He says that I was taken as a captive on the day of bed. And he said that when my captors took me in when the unsought took me in, when they had lunch, or dinner, they used to give me their bread, and they used to suffice themselves with a few dates. He said, I used to wonder why they would eat less than me and why they would clothe me with clothes that were better than me. Then I realized that they feared disobeying
the Prophet peace be upon them when he said, to treat the captives Well, again, to feed them what you feed yourself, and to and to clothed them with what you clothe yourself. So what are some of the reforms that were made by the prophet peace be upon them, and this is a very tricky subject here. And this is where it usually gets blurry in the discussion of slavery. Everything that I've mentioned before is usually more readily available when you're talking about the topic of you know, CAFOD on emancipating slaves and things of that sort, but particularly captives. One of them the first reform is that the only time the Prophet peace be upon him would take prisoners of war was if
the opposing army would take prisoners of war.
Okay, that's number one. That's the bare Remember, we said that there's justice and then there's axon there's compassion beyond justice. The only time the Prophet peace be upon him would take captives is if the army that he was fighting, had that as a condition. So if that people were going to do the same thing, if they defeated the Muslims, and the Prophet peace be upon them was also going to take captives. So for example, when animals stuck, they had that condition but animal stalock would take prisoners of war if they won the battle. Race, on the other hand, did not. So enslavement or taking kept captives from Cora is when the Prophet peace be upon and fought against
price was not even an option. Why, because that wasn't the practice of grace. with grace, the, you know, the prisoners were either executed or let go, there was one of two options. But there was no concept of taking captives and leaving them in captivity. But the thing about the Prophet peace be upon him is that he always wanted to show a greater level of ersan. Right, a greater level of compassion. So how did he do that? Because the, you know, there's this perception that Muslims were captive hungry, right? You want to go ahead and get as many slaves as you can, right? You want to bring in as many concubines as you can you want to bring, that's the perception that's being put out
there. But even in the battles that the Prophet peace be upon him had that opportunity, what did he do? So for example, with Bentonville, stalock Bentonville, stalock plan to attack the Prophet peace be upon him and he got news of that. So he attacked first he caught them off guard. So then we'll start up was defeated heavily, or even though they were a powerful tribe, and, you know, they used to take prisoners they used to take captive so the Prophet peace be upon him, he held them to that condition, when the Muslims defeated benomyl stalock. And the Muslims took the captives, the leader of Ben and masala and had a tea flood. Okay, now the daughter of a Hadith, Joy Ria bintan Hadith,
the princess basically of that tribe, she came to the Prophet peace be upon them and she complained to the Prophet peace be upon them, she said, O Messenger of God, you know, I'm a princess amongst my people. This isn't befitting, you know, let me know what I can do, what is it that we can do to get out of the situation and so on, so forth? Now? The Prophet peace be upon him he married Judea. Here's the thing, if the Prophet peace be upon him wanted to and this is a very significant point. He could have just taken her as a captive if this was as islamophobes will allege. Right. You know, just
Something about attraction and desire on the part of the messenger peace be upon him he would have taken her as a captive because that was her fate Anyway, she was already a captive, and the Prophet peace be upon him would have simply taken her that way. Instead, the prophet peace be upon him is listening to her in front of the captives. And there were hundreds of captains from venerable startup. And the Prophet peace be upon him said, you know, I'll give you a choice. He said, either, I can give you the money, set you free, and you can go back. The Prophet peace be upon him said, Oh, hide them in Dallas, or I'll give you another option, you can become my wife. So she is actually
being given a choice to go free, or to marry the Prophet peace be upon him. She chooses to marry the Prophet peace be upon him. Now what was the wisdom of the Prophet peace be upon him in doing so? When the Prophet peace be upon him, married joy, do all the Sahaba all the companions who had the cactus from Ben, and we'll start off they said, Wait a minute, these are the family members of the Prophet peace be upon him now. We can't keep these people as captives. So they all came out to the Prophet peace be upon him. And they said, We want to free all of these captives. So I saw the law and he says that over 1000 households were freed, because the Prophet peace be upon him marry God.
And the companion said, Wait a minute, we can't keep them as captives, because now that the family members of the Prophet peace be upon him. And she said that Mo Mo arella. Bottle cats in Allah tomyam enjoy it. I don't know of a woman that brought more bottle cuts to her people than Julia her entire her entire tribe, you know, hundreds of people were freed, because of her marriage to the Prophet peace be upon him. And then almost all of this becomes one of the close tribes to Islam. This becomes one of the, you know, a good tribe in Islam, and had it accepts Islam and so on so forth afterwards, when he finds out what the prophet peace be upon him Did you know so this is very
significant here that the Prophet peace be upon him even in those battles where he had that chance. The Muslims were not captive hungry, right, they didn't go out there and try to capture as many prisoners as they could. Another example is the Battle of her name, and the Battle of her name. The Prophet peace be upon him was sitting after the battle, and you have over 600 captives. And an old woman comes up to the Prophet peace be upon him disheveled old albia a bad one. And she says to the Prophet, peace be upon him. I still have the bite marks on my back from when you were a kid. Prophet peace be upon him says Who are you? And he says, I am ashamed of mental health. See, Matt Benson had
it was the daughter of Halima Sadie, the woman who breastfed the Prophet peace be upon so she's the sister of the Prophet peace be upon him in the law, and the Prophet peace be upon him hasn't seen her for almost 60 years. And when they were when the Prophet peace be upon him was a baby, he used to play around with her she was a few years older and the Prophet peace be upon her bit her back when he was a kid. So the Prophet peace be upon him says madhubani octi Welcome to my sister, he kisses her on the forehead. He hugs her he embraces her, he starts to cry. He walks her over jabs at all the Allahu anhu says the companions were shocked. The Prophet took his boat off, he took his
cloak off, he put it on the ground under a tree, Saturn down under the shade. He himself sits in the dirt, starts talking to her about memories. How have you been? how, you know, how is the tribe? What have you been through? And he said, They laughed and they cried, and they laughed and they cried all the way until sunset and the companions are just waiting for a resolution like what's going to happen here? What's the end of all of this? So the Prophet peace be upon him says, you know, to the Dinelli farmer to Mary Do you want to stay with me will count llama 10 as desert and I'll treat you well you'll, you'll have everything that you want or an elder in a Holic? Do you want to go back to
your people? She said the lso live kids back there and I want to go back to my people I don't want to leave my people. So the Prophet peace be upon them says fine. So the Prophet peace be upon them goes and gets her a nice camel and he puts her on the camel, he helps her up, he starts bringing her stuff. And we'll have a see this. And they asked the Prophet peace be upon him about the cactus. So what are the prophet in the companions? Do they free them all, send them all back, and they send them back with money and possessions and goods.
This was a battle, this was a war. And the Prophet peace be upon him not only does it you know, not only does he not take them in and subject them to universal laws of the time, he gives them stuff and sends them home in a better situation than when they came to fight against the Prophet peace be upon him. So this is very significant to point out again, that the Prophet peace be upon him, was not out of his slot to us. And I'm actually I said 600 prisoners, 6000 prisoners. 6000 captives, he was not captive hungry, nor were the companions of the Prophet peace be upon him. Now the most criticized, you know, action of the Prophet peace be upon him from a military sense by islamophobes
and by orientalist was how he dealt with Benny called Eva. Why? Because Benny called Eva, you know, committed treason. It was a Jewish tribe in Medina that committed treason in the Battle of the trench. When the
Sam's effectively guarded Medina with the trench Benny for either attacked from inside and in fact, they attack the women in the children, they actually try to attack the women.
And there is a whole story behind that which I don't have time to get into. But they actually tried to attack the women and the Prophet peace be upon him. He laid seeds to them after that Muslims basically sniff them out. And they laid seeds to Benny called a the after that, and for 25 days, many kureta was under siege. And you have to imagine what they're thinking, because they know the laws of the world. Now, by all standards, by all universal standards, no matter what convention it is, we're going to be killed because we committed treason. So Caribbean, an acid, in fact, was one of many coryza carbonyl acid. He says, look, we have a few choices. He said either will kill our
women and children first, before the Muslims get a hold of them. Because what they're going to do to them, it's going to be crazy. Why? Because we tried to attack their women and children, or we'll all commit suicide, or we'll all fake, you know, embrace Islam will come out and we say we all embrace Islam, and we'll see how that goes. Or we'll just rush out and fight to the death.
Which one do you guys want? They said, let's let's talk to let's talk to Ross, which was one of the two main tribes of the unsought and elsewhere the allies have been called Eva before Islam. So let's talk to an else and see if they could talk to the Prophet peace be upon him for us. So they talked to the Prophet peace be upon when they said, Look, you know, we had an alliance with Benny called Eva, be gentle with them, be merciful with them, the prophet peace be upon them allows them to choose their own arbitrator to make a fair judgment upon them.
Think about that for a moment. He says, let them choose an arbitrator, and he will make a fair judgment they chose Adam Roth, who is the head of an oath, to judge by what law to judge by the law of the tiller,
to judge by the law of Judaism, that they would be subjected to their own law. And that was their own law was that the men would be killed, and the women and the children will be taken captive. That was the law of Judaism. Not only that, but who were the women and children placed under the love No salon who was the Chief Rabbi of this of Medina before he became Muslim. And there are a lot of there's a lot of, you know, and look, when you're talking about Benny Pereda, in general, by the way, when you're talking about that entire incident, the numbers fluctuate like crazy. And the and the details, and the accounts of that incident, are very politicized, obviously. So depending on
what book you read, it's like you're reading an entirely different incident. But at the end of the day, one thing that we could agree upon by consensus is that the Prophet peace be upon him subjected them to their own law, by their own choice. They chose their arbitrator, and that arbitrator judge them by the by the law of their text, and that was the way of the Prophet peace be upon. That's justice. That's justice. He didn't go any further beyond that. And so there, you know, that is a principle amongst the Muslims. It's a culture of generosity. And, you know, we find that even once a lot of Dean conquered Jerusalem when he came back to Jerusalem, right, this isn't just something
that was limited to the time of the Prophet peace be upon him. Once the LA Dean comes back to Jerusalem, you know, the Crusaders after the stuff they pulled on the Muslims, and not just the Muslims, but the eastern Christians and the Jews in Jerusalem. They thought that the Muslims were going to do all kinds of things to them. I mean, they ate dead children, the Crusaders, they actually roasted and ate children. These were the most brutal people that have ever lived. This panel. I mean, you're talking about disgusting human beings. They filled Jerusalem with blood to their knees, you know, and so you can imagine Salahuddin is coming back now, what did they start to
do? You know, many people committed suicide. The women started to mutilate themselves, they shaved their heads, and they start to mutilate themselves, because they thought they were all going to be raped. Because that's what they did to the Muslim women. So they thought that was their fate. Right? I mean, that's what they thought was going to happen what it's been doing stuff. Right. He keeps on repeating the Hadith of the Prophet peace be upon them when the Prophet peace be upon him entered into Mecca. It's amazing. So hon Allah he's going through all of the words of the Prophet peace be upon him and the actions of the Prophet peace be upon him. And he treats them so well that you
actually find from the from the Crusaders themselves, at least the fair ones when they wrote about the way they were treated by the Muslims by the Frankish troops after the Crusades. So you'll find a Liveris and I know I'm gonna butcher this name. I usually try to make it a point to learn the proper pronunciation but Olivia's a Liveris, scholastic is a liberal and I didn't make that up. You actually wanted the Crusaders. And he was defeated by American cabinet. So that the the successor to Salahuddin and he wrote he said, Who could doubt that such goodness, friendship and charity came from God, men whose parents sons and daughters, brothers and sisters died in agony at our house.
Hence, we took their lens, we drove them naked from their homes, and instead, they revived us with their own food when we were dying with hunger and showered us with kindness, even when we were under their control. That's how they responded to us. This is a culture. This is something that the Prophet peace be upon him teaches and preaches. So that's number one. The way you know there's a culture of generosity, the way that you treat the captives, the way that you treat the prisoners of war. Is that sun? Is the sun at the you know, compassion at the bare minimum is justice. Number two, what is the loss of kind of want to say that you know, and sort of Mohammed, that after the battle
is over after you've engaged in this fierce battle for men and Perodua Emma Fida? Either you show generosity or you ransom them? Either you show generosity or you ransom them. And what that means is either you let them go free.
And you know, and embed that what did the Prophet peace be upon him? Do you teach 10 companions how to read you go free, right? Either you come up with it with an option to just let them go free, or you allow them to ransom themselves. And that ransom cannot be unfair. It can't be too heavy, it can't be a burden that's insurmountable, it actually has to be something they're capable of. Right? And and prisoners and slaves actually had access to the judges of the time to the law, to say that the ransom that was set for them was too high, can you lower it?
Because it could be a form of injustice. And this is the whole system by the way, which is known as animal cassava. For slaves in general, more cassava means to to ransom yourself to make a contract between the slave and the master. Now, why is this significant? Because one of the one of the technical definitions of slavery is that it's a unilateral bondage, that the slave has no choice in his affair. But here, if a slave says catnip, I want to make a contract to get myself out of slavery, the master will then draw up a contract of manumission, with the slave to get them out. So it's literally like working extra hours. Okay, so you're going to have to do this much, and you'll
earn this much money. And when you pay off this, then you'll go free. And it's something that should be reasonable. And the master should help the slave come to a reasonable agreement and the Prophet peace be upon him. He used to help the companions in mokaba. Right? He told some model the law and who kept it just go ask your master tell him how much he wants, we'll make it happen hundreds of palm trees, you've got it. Gold, you've got the Prophet peace be upon himself plants, the palm trees for sentimental the a lot of time. I know, some will. cassava is a system now within Islam that is very much so unique within Islam. And, you know, you'll find that that will cassava when the slave
asks for freedom. The scholars debated you know, and there are very elaborate laws here and nuances here. At what point does the slave go free, when he makes the agreement when he pays half of it three quarters when he pays the full thing? Right? At what point does the slave go free? They also, you know, and this is something very significant that scholars point out that the chapter of mcats, about the chapter of a slave manifesting themselves whether it's a prisoner of war of a person that came through some other form, right before Islam, or was born into slavery, and so on, so forth. The process is so detailed, the laws that govern mcats are so detailed that it's often one of the
thickest chapters in the books.
Why? Because it's very easy to exploit people, right? It's very easy to find loopholes. So literally all of the what ifs and you know, what if this happens, and what if the master dies? And what if the master changes his mind, the master is not allowed to change his mind. He's not allowed. If he gets into a fight with the slave, he can't say, you know what, I was gonna let you go for 200. Now I want 500. If the master tries to sell the slave, he's bound by the mokaba. Nope, can't sell the slave, you've got to make it happen. Right? There is no way you can change the conditions, there is no way you can explain it. So if you look in the water, for example, in my medical himolla, going through
all of the different what ifs all of this was to do what was to protect, to protect that person to protect, you know, people that were subjugated, right, it wasn't to protect the master it was to protect the slave because just generally speaking, if a person is in a vulnerable situation, it's more likely that they would be exploited, then they would have their rights protected. And by the way, this mokaba you'll actually find some of the the slaves that came to North America, the Muslim slaves going into macatawa agreements with their North American Masters so there's a very famous he's referenced in certain in certain places, Prince Abdulaziz Amina Abdulaziz from Tanzania, who
was actually a poor and teacher. And he was a slave. He was brought here to North America and he enters into a mcats of agreement with his masters masters like what is that? He's like, Look, I'm a prince. I can pay myself off. Not only that, but I'll pay my I'll ransom myself and I'll ransom my children. So they draw up a contract of mcats about a North American
slave owner, and Aziz from Tanzania. And he actually goes home and he reclaims his status and he does what he has to do. And he starts freeing his children as well. So he starts buying drawing up mcats of agreements for other slaves, as well, as we set some amount of the allowance It was also we'll catch up, he was also someone that was in that situation. Now, one of the most underestimated, you know, or undervalued portions of this is that Allah Subhana Allah doesn't just say, to draw up a contract of manumission and emancipate your sleep. And Allah subhanaw taala says, what to whom and Mandela, he led the attack,
that you know, don't send them back into society vulnerable, give them from the money that was given to you. So you know what, don't just say, Okay, now you're free to go. Now go figure it out. Allah says Be generous. When you send these prisoners, these, you know, back into society, and you send these slaves back in a society as free men, be generous, give them some money to stand on their own two feet while they try to figure it out. Like, can you think, can you imagine this is seventh century Arabia and this stuff is being implemented and this stuff is being executed? Now, you can imagine with this much kindness, though, many slaves would prefer not to leave the homes of their
masters. Also, something very unique to the oma, you know, I'm not going to say which country I was in, but I was in a country where if the Nationals if the if the citizens of that country are arrested for their offenses, the prisons that they went to, they had like satellite TVs, and the, you know, three, three course meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner they were taken care of. And I remember meeting a guy that went to one of those prisons for a traffic offence again, he was a citizen of that country, and you know who you are right now, and you're watching but he said, I didn't even want to leave. He said, I got treated better over there than I get treated at home,
right? That's very rare, right? That's very rare. Okay. Now with slaves, and people that were in the situation, you have a phenomenon in the oma of melancholy. And these were people that were freed, but they wanted to stay in the homes of their master, and they basically became part of the family. All might have been added as a Mullah to Allah. When Omar became the halifa. And Ahmed was a very rich man, he had many, many servants, Alma decided to set them all free. You know, they said that there was never a night that they heard more crying from a household that people thought Omar died. Because all of those, all of those servants were crying and begging Omar not to let them go. Because
they became part of the family. We said, Look, but I can't take care of you guys anymore. Right. And that was that was fine. They, they stuck to it because they became members of the family. nuffic, right. Mola, Abdullah Norma he's not a slave. He is a free man, but you know what he's staying with the loving All right, many of these people silent and other her they were actually very close. They're, you know, you read it, it's one of the most beautiful relationships that you can read about. They didn't want to leave. So they actually became members and parts of the household. And you know, they were able to grow and function that way and they became scholars and so on so forth.
Okay. Another thing another reform that the Prophet peace be upon him introduces which is very significant, the prophet peace be upon him makes it illegal to separate families. One of the most tragic things when you read about the transatlantic slave trade, right, and you read and just slavery in general, it's obviously a very ugly reality is that families are usually separated mothers are taken from their children, siblings and so on, so forth. The Prophet peace be upon him said, may Allah curse, the one who separates a mother from her child or a brother or sister from their siblings.
He actually cursed them.
You know, for the Prophet peace be upon them to invoke learn upon them, may Allah curse those people that separate families. So when captives were taken in, then it was illegal to separate them. If there was a family, they had to be kept together so they would go into the house of the family. And they would they would go through the process together, but they were not to be separated because that often is more traumatic. You know, if you read about some of the journals and the diaries of slaves in North America, and I really wish I had the time maybe it'll be like a black and noble Part Two or something like that inshallah one day, but to talk about even Muslim slaves in the
transatlantic slave trade, but you know, people would would be willing to die to go on journeys of death, why to be reunited with their children, right, they try to escape their plantations to go to another plantation, they know they're going to get beaten almost to death, if not killed, but you know what? It's worth it to do what to be reunited with your children. That's the most tragic flaw in the Prophet peace be upon him. He bends that now obviously, the most controversial topic in this entire discussion and I said that I'm not going to cut corners and I'm going to be very direct and explicit. The most controversial topic in this entire discussion is the topic of my Medicare a man
what your right hands possessed the concept of concubines in Islam. Okay, number one, as we said to reiterate, that the Prophet peace be upon
him did not introduce an institution he reformed an institution.
Right? He reformed it and actually depleted this institution
to an extent that it almost cease to exist. Okay. So when you talk about concubines and when you talk about concubines in general because my medical a medical was actually more specific than concubines, but concubines in general, this was very much a global practice. It was a universal practice, in fact, even until the 20th century, in Europe, and it you know, and in Asia, as we mentioned, it was a global practice until today, it's still underground, but it's still a practice, not with the Prophet peace be upon him. He limits this number one non medical a monochrome, the concept of what your right hands possess, it's limited to who to captives. Why is that, and the days
of ignorance in Jabalia, when women were captured, one of two things used to happen, either they used to escape and become prostitutes and you know, try to earn whatever in whatever way they could. And that was the most reasonable way for them to earn, that's the only thing that they that they could do is go out there and try to fetch in these societies that they didn't know. And that way, or even worse than that, their captors would take them, and they would force them into that situation of prostitution. It's a very ugly reality. There is also no restriction on partners and things of that sort. So a person you know, had no rights, they could be abused in every way possible. What is
the loss of Hannah to Allah reveal? Allah says, first and foremost, what took me who fanatical LLB law, don't compel these women into prostitution. Don't compel them into that into immodesty. And you know, into things that they don't want to do. Why did Allah reveal this because I've loved and woolbabe and salute. And others literally, they would take these captives, these women as captives, and they'd not only, you know, subject them to all sorts of sexual abuse, they'd send them out to earn as prostitutes.
And they complained to the Prophet peace be upon them, and a lot revealed not to compel these women into a sense of prostitution. Now, we said that in Islam, in the legal theory of Islam, there's the ideal, there's the recommended and there's the bare minimum, the bare minimum, as we said, is removal of injustice. That's what's mandatory. What is the Mr. Happy here? What did we say the goal of the Prophet peace be upon him was with slavery with the slaves was to re integrate them, to bring them back into society in a dignified way. Right. So what is the Mr. hub here the Prophet peace be upon him says this hadith is actually in hon hottie narrated by Abu Musab the Prophet slicin him
says he who has a female captive, and he educates her and treats her with kindness and then he frees her and then he marries her fellow agilon he will have double reward from a loss of habitat. So the Prophet encouraged people so the Lord to sell them because that's the ideal is to free them to first treat them kindly treat them nicely free them and then marry them. That is the ultimate form of reintegration into society. Right you come in just as you know, you're married again you're, you're in a reasonable situation and things of that sort in a strange land than a string society. So that's number one. Allah subhanaw taala says this is a second ideal situation second was to have a last
panel as well and keep an eye on them income will slide in a minute you buddy Come on, man, come in your corner forgot your name or your name alone and last Pinter Allah says and marry the unmarried amongst you and the rightest amongst your male slaves and female slaves, if they are poor, Allah will enrich them from his bounty, so to marry them off. Okay, so to actually set up marriages for them to actually try to find spouses for them. All right, the male and the female captives that's reintegration to an extreme, you act as a guardian for them. Okay, help them find good spouses. Right. And one thing that's very significant here is they, even as they were captives, they still
had full consent as to who they wanted to marry and who they didn't want to marry. So you can't force them into that either. And there's a very there's it's funny, but it's also sad burrito about the law and who is the free slave of it. So about the Ola burrito was married to Leith while the law and they were both slaves and burrito was was was fried. So burrito has a choice whether to stay married to her husband who's a slave, or to go free. But he decides to dissolve, dissolve the marriage and literally move he chases burrito around the streets begging her to stay with him all the time.
So but he does walking in the streets and leave. This poor guy is behind her, begging her to take him back. And the prophets lie Selim is sitting with a double bucket and he's looking at that in the profit slice and I'm says, isn't it amazing? How much more he loves her and how much she hates him.
Isn't that amazing? Like as much as he's like begging her, please come back. And she's like, not seeing
He's completely ignoring him. So the prophets lie. Some says I'm going to go talk to her. So the prophets I said goes to Benito, she's a freed slave and the prophets lie some sighs you know, why don't you give belief and other tents? You know, but he says, you think about the nerve of a freed slave. She says, Jada sola, is this a command from you? Are you just interceding on behalf of belief? profits? I said, No, I'm just suggesting
I'm not commanding you to do anything. She said, If that's the case, you want to stay away from us? I said, Fine.
The point is, you talk about empowerment and reintegration into society, like this woman is talking to the profits licen them that way. Like, you know, look, I'm if you're telling me I have to, then I will, because you're the Messenger of Allah. But otherwise, I'm going to decide to stay away from belief. I'm going to decide to keep that marriage dissolved. So their choices were respected. There is consent. Now, when you talk about concubines throughout history, in particular, were they treated with respect? the very definition of a concubine is no, because concubine comes from the Latin word concubines, which is to lie with some mistress in the house, basically, right? So that's the idea of
a concubine, they're not going to be given rights. They're not going to be treated with respect. They literally will be there to fulfill that one purpose and that one purpose alone. So what are the conditions of being intimate with my medical a monocle? Number one, Allah subhanho wa Taala does not mention in a single verse, nor does the Prophet peace be upon and mentioned any reward for that intimacy.
Because we said, and I want you guys to realize this in Judaism, and in that thought, it was praiseworthy to be intimate with concubines why to have more believing children. All right, and the very early scholars of Islam they said that the Maqsood that what is desired through that is not more children. So that is because there is isn't there a general rule in Islam? Or isn't there an encouragement to have children? Yes, the prophets lie Selim says that, you know, have as many children as you can, because I will be proud of your number on the day of judgment and Muslims took that commander pretty seriously. Michelle, right. Because we have a lot of kids, you know,
especially the Palestinians, Mashallah they keep killing us and we keep out birthing them. Right. But you know, it is what it is, you know, so the prophets lie, some of them. He has that, but did the prophets lie Selim see that institution, the institution of my Melaka, it's a monochrome as a means of growing the oma No, the early scholars of Islam, okay. wrote that that was not one of that was not of them opposite of that institution. Now, what are the conditions that one can become intimate? And this is a very, I know, it's a disturbing topic. And again, I want you to realize we're talking about 1400 years ago, in the context of war, we're not talking about an ideal
situation, we're talking about a solution that has to deal with a very ugly reality. And Islam is grounded in that reality and finding the ideal solution to ugly realities, not presenting solutions or proposing solutions and idealism, because it's not an ideal situation. Ideally, everyone will free them and marry them and they'll all be reintegrated but you can't put that expectation on everybody. So what are the conditions that one can become intimate with what can be number one? If her husband is alive, she remains with him and it's impermissible to be intimate with her.
All right, even if her husband was taken as a captive,
they cannot be separated. And you cannot be intimate with a woman whose husband was still alive. That's number one. Number two, she would have to have been Muslim or from the people of the book, according to the majority of scholars. Why is that significant? You know, if you look at recent headlines why that's significant. Okay, demand and now we're talking a lot to Allah. He said in his shot, actually, of the Hadith, his explanations like a Muslim, that those who aren't Muslims or people of the book, it's impermissible to be intimate with them until they accept Islam. Alright, so that's number two. Number three, there was a, there was a waiting period for that woman because
again, the ideas that we have in our head are very sick and twisted is that they're going they're, they're taking off the battlefield, they're still mourning and they're forced into this very unpleasant situation, there's actually so she actually passes a cycle. Okay, which gives her a chance to mourn obviously, at whatever it is that that's been lost in the situation. And to also be clean and purified. And, you know, to establish that there is no child because half the Nussle protecting lineage is one of the main causes of shutting out it's one of the goals of Islam is to protect the lineage to protect the name of the child to know where the child came from, and so on so
forth. Right. So you establish that through the
number four, only one person can be intimate with her and it has to be known.
Why is that significant? That was unheard of before Islam.
Not just in Arabia, all around the world. When a woman is brought into the house as a captive as a prisoner. Unfortunately, throughout history, she was fair game for the entire household.
Right, we're even talking about Europe. I mean, we're talking about, you know, we're talking about very recent history, Islam restricted it, one person could be intimate with that woman, and it would have to be known who it is. Number five, she can't already be in a state of mokaba. If she's already negotiated her release, she's already made a contract with someone to be released, and so on so forth. She can't be put in a situation. That's number five. Number six. And this is perhaps one of the dirtiest accusations against Islam, which unfortunately, Muslims themselves cannot refute. And it disturbs me.
Is consent necessary or not? Is rape allowed? No, it is absolutely not allowed. Consent was necessary for this woman that comes into the household in that way, even though she's a prisoner of war. Even though she comes in as a quote unquote concubine, which again, is unheard of her consent was absolutely necessary. What is the proof of that? First of all common sense if the prophets lysozyme said that if you do this, you have to expiate a slave,
then rape is far greater of an abuse than that, right? It's common sense. number one. Number two, there are narrations of the Sahaba, punishing men who raped women that came in that fashion.
So it was actually a punishable offense. Now, someone might say, Well, you know, is there anything clear is this? And this is one of the problems honestly, is that a lot of the material out there is either, you know, very brief and shy away from discussing these topics, or it's, it's apologetic, and you don't know what to make out of it. You don't know if it's, if it's just defensive if it's authentic or not. And this is something that I want to share with you. Well, is there anything in explicit in Islamic law that prohibited because I forget now, because but the article that came out in the New York Times something about the theology of rape or whatever it is, is there anything
explicit in Islamic law that forbade raping female prisoners of war and female captives? One of the earliest books of Islamic law, if not the earliest was Kitab. And oh, by the amount of Sharia law, this is the URL of the earliest books on Islamic legal theory and Islamic law. And I'm going to read it in Arabic. What amount of Scheffer he said, so that there could be no ambiguity and no doubt about what he says. He says, what are the thoughts about logical jatiya? Some will apply the Lusby well, who am invaded Elijah halia. Okay, that mean who Algeria? Well, Kima and he had dinner, he said, a whole lotta out if a man acquires a slave girl by force, and then he forces himself on her.
And that slave girl, and he's, you know, a woman lady. Anjali. And that could be that he's, he's either someone who's,
you know, he's Muslim, or so on, so forth. So he's subject to the law of Islam. So he's not from the people outside of Islam, or he's not someone who's Matador who is not someone who's crazy. Right.
Now, Mushaf, are you talking a lot to add a set number one, she's free, the woman goes free. Number two ogema. And he had the Zener, the punishment of adultery is applied to him, not her. It's applied to him. And he must pay her something. So there has to be a fine or there has to be something. So she goes free. And you know, and this man is killed, or this man is taken care of in accordance with whatever he has done somehow to law. It's as explicit as it comes. So the next time someone asks you, you know, what's going on in the Middle East? And what's going on over there with these people, and you're talking about the rape of these Yazidi girls and so on so forth. Is that something that's
permissible? Absolutely not. It's impermissible on so many fronts, but here in particular, consent was established. And it's probably the only system which actually explicitly said that a woman even in that situation, would have to consent. Now, if you became intimate with this woman, someone who was meant to mean someone who came into the house as a captain, she now enjoys the privileges and the rights of a wife.
She's promoted to a situation where she's now in the state of a wife. What does that mean? She can't be touched by anyone else. She can't be sold. She can't be she, she is treated as a member of the household and she has all of the rights of a wife, if she has a child. And then that child number one is not born into slavery. You know, one of the tragedies of human history is that usually when people had concubines and they became and they had children from those concubines, their children were not considered their children, they were considered their slaves. Can you imagine they were fathers of their, you know, their children, but their children were not considered their children.
They were considered their slaves. So if a child is born, as a result of that interaction, then the child is born free. The woman is called unwell at the mother of his child. And when he dies, when when that person passes away, she goes free by default. And in most situations, she goes for even before that, so the child would would end up freeing her anyway, or she goes free when the man passes away, anyway, and this was the first time in history that the child
Have a concubine would by standard practice be recognized as a legitimate child for the first time in history. Okay, up until just to give you guys some frame of reference up until the 20th century.
You know, you have what's known as morganatic marriage morganatic marriage morganatic marriage is a practice from the Romans if continued into Europe, up until the 20th century, and up until now, and some customs Morgan attic marriage Morgan attic literally means the morning gift. And so Pamela, you know, I'm probably going to have Norman work on this snowman work on this or someone in tough seat, because it's really interesting because Morgan attic marriages, the way that you would signify it basically what it means is the only thing you give is a morning gift and that person has no other right upon you. This concubine has no other right upon you. And it's not just limited to a prisoner
of war. By the way, this is just a woman in general extra marital relationship. And the way that you would signify that this was not a wife is that you would hold her by the left hands.
When was the last time I say malakut? a monocle, what the right hands possess. And so by holding they're literally magnetic marriages were called in slang left hand marriages. Because you hold by the left hand, which means you have no right upon me. If you have children, they're illegitimate children, they're slaves as well, you all remain slaves. The only thing you get is a morning gift. Okay, I'm from Louisiana. So there was a if you read about the history of free people of color, and, and, you know, the Creoles and so on so forth, you had a system called plicata. And the pecans, it's spelled p L, a CAG. But it's French. So pokoj was a woman that was from a lower social status was
meant that she was a people, she was a person of color. And if a white man wanted to marry a woman of color, then she couldn't actually be his wife. So instead, she was in this state of scotch. So she's not actually a wife, because she's relegated to a lower social status. So it's, you know, and this is something somehow law historically speaking, if you look at Augustus, the third of Poland, for example, and this is interesting, Augustus, the third of Poland, and this is in the 18th century, he had over 300 children that were considered his slaves. We're not talking about ISIS in the Middle East, here, we're talking about, you know, a few 100 years ago, in Europe and what's
known as the civilized world. So this is a tragic system. And somehow Allah, Allah Subhana, WA, tada reversed it to that to that, to that situation where she's given the rights of a wife, the child is born free. And that child can free the mother, or when that man passes away, then then she goes free as well. And I know I'm running out of time. So Pamela, let me go through one of the major criticisms of this of multimedia as well. And this concept of my medicates a monochrome is that, you know, what does this mean for the man that the man is in a situation where the man can can be intimate with more than four wives in that situation? And this is something by the way, once again,
Islam is about solving real problems. It's not about idealism. The amount of qaddafi Rahim Allah to Allah, he said, society's welfare always takes precedence over the individual's welfare. Okay. And you know, what that means is the outrage over a man, having been able to be intimate with more than one woman or more than four women, unfortunately, you know, goes over the outrage, or it supersedes the outrage of a woman, the very realistic possibility that a woman in that situation had that option not been there would have most likely been put in a situation of prostitution, and most likely been relegated to a very, very disturbing status in society, as was the practice of the
world. Okay, so there's the individual welfare, and there's the society's welfare. And again, if it's a matter of, you know, if the if the outrage is over polygamy as a whole at that time, which again, that's also something that was universally practiced at that time, then what's the difference between four or five, or six or seven?
Right. So this was to solve a real problem, it was not a desirable situation. It was not something that was introduced by Islam. And it was something that was reformed to an extent that a woman had rights in that situation that she would not have had in any other situation, even in modern history as a concubine. Number two here, by the way, a woman could stipulate in her marriage contract, that a man could not be intimate with monogamy. So it could actually be stipulated in a marriage contract that if a prisoner of war was to come in, if a woman was to come in, in that situation, that you could not be intimate with her. Number three, due to the new restrictions of Islam as far as the
source was concerned, as far as how many women could come in as concubines, as prisoners as captives, it wasn't like people were able to have 10s of concubines anymore. So you know, your you know, a lot of people start going to all sorts of places and they were thinking that again, due to the the modern day deviations and due to you know, what we what just comes to
Head, we start to think of all of these hundreds of women, and so on so forth. And you start thinking about Hollywood and all these different things. And that's not the way that it was. Islam did not encourage intimacy with concubines, with prisoners of war in any single idea, any Hadith, any understanding of the scholars, and with all of that, just to show you the justice of Islam, because that woman is still vulnerable in many situations, right? With all of that, with the fact that she was given consent with the fact that she could only be married or she could only be in that situation with one person in the household with the fact that she would have to be dressed the same
way and fed the same way and clothed the same way, and that her children would be free and that they would inherit and she had all of those rights, still due to the vulnerability that a woman is in in that situation. Allah Subhana Allah says in Surah Nisa that the punishment if they resort to Zina is half the punishment of a free woman.
Now, usually, in slave societies, when a slave commits a crime is their punishment less or more than a free person? It's more right. The Prophet slicin says in the time of Benny Islam, if a weak person was to steal, then they would happily you know, punish them. Whereas if a royal person was to steal, then they would easily make an excuse for them. A loss of 100 Tada is legislating that if a woman found herself due to her vulnerability, because that was the norm of society at that time. If she committed Zinner her punishment would be half the punishment of a free woman. And you know, I think insalata just to sort of summarize moving on on on from here the profit slice and I'm even as he was
passing away, what did the profit slice I'm say a salatu salam allocates a monocle. That whole take guard your prayers and take care of those that were placed under your possession. Be kind to them, take care of them. And so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam puts these these mechanisms in place for these people to eventually gain absolute freedom, whether they were men, or women or children. And there is no doubt that Islam sought that. And what I wanted, you know, what's really important to point out here, Will Durant, he actually he, in his book, The story of civilization will direct he says about Muhammad's life, and then he says, he handled them with such a genuine
human humanity that made their lot no worse, perhaps better and more secure than that of a factory worker in 19th century Europe, the way that slaves were treated. This is again, in the words of a non Muslim historian the way that slaves were treated by the prophet slice on them. And by the Muslims. Okay, in the early generations of Islam, were more were better conditions than a 19th century factory worker in Europe. Why is that important? Because you don't find slavery to being a part of Islam within the first few 100 years of Islam. Yes, you find in the 15th century, you find the Arab slave trade, you find that the Mongols, who by the way, before becoming Muslim, the Mongols
also ravaged the Muslim world and wreaked havoc on the Muslim world but also unprecedented history. The Conqueror accepted the religion of the concrete. So the Mongols became Muslim, but they carried out their pot they carried out their destruction and their havoc in the world. So yes, the Mongols continued to wreak havoc on the world despite being Muslim now. And yes, they took European and Christian slaves and yes, the Arab slave trade was brutal and disgusting. And it was very far from the Sunnah of the Prophet slice Allah. And as Muslims, we don't have to answer for the ethics of the Arab slave trade, they practice castration, they practice all kinds of brutal practices that are not
found in the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet, slice Allah. But when you look at the Atlantic slave trade, and what happens after that, and this is I think, probably the most important point here with the transatlantic slave trade, and I plan inshallah Tada, hopefully, to get a chance to actually address some of the Muslims that came to North America. In the transatlantic slave trade, Christian abolitionists, when Christians argued against slavery here in North America. They could not argue based on specific injunctions in the Bible, because they knew that that was against them. So instead, the first abolitionists were the Quakers because the Quakers were a mystical sect and
they said, the general compassion the light of Jesus peace be upon him supersedes the specific laws of the Bible. So the Quakers were the ones that led the abolitionist movement in this country. Because the pastors and the priests and the Christian scholars, by and large, were writing for slavery, they actually considered it to be religiously sanctioned. The practices of North American slavery, European slavery were actually religiously sanctioned, the brutality was because these were the doom children of ham and they deserve to be treated that way and they deserve to be subjugated because they were a subjugated race. This is actually something that was religiously sanctioned and
validated. And what you find is that Muslims on the other hand, Muslims were a part of the slave rebellions that took place around the world. So you'll find the FICO of Earth man den folio, is Mandan folio, wrote an article which was basically you know, a call
For the slaves to rebel and to revolt in the caribbeans, particularly in Jamaica, and again, when you look at the the Mandingo, Muslims of Trinidad, right they were known for revolting and you know some of you might have seen the movie Prince amongst leaves. It's a beautiful movie, you should watch that, right? It's a documentary you read about a new urban said a man. The Muslim slaves were notorious for rebellion. Okay, they were notorious for revolting because Islam is empowering. And Islam. You know, we have specific texts that we can quote, against slavery, as opposed to Christian abolitionists that can only refer to the general precepts that the foundations of Christianity which
are compassion and mercy, and so on, so forth. Now, modern day slavery and conclusion. Unfortunately, yes, the Muslim world was the last to abolish slavery in our time. That's not from the son of the prophets license. Saudi Arabia didn't abolish slavery until 1962. Mauritania in 1980, the catholic church did not issue an official verdict against slavery until 1965.
And, you know, we find that slavery was not made a statutory offence in the UK until 2010.
Mississippi,
you know, when I'm from Louisiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, we always compete over number 50, number 49. In education and in all kinds of stuff, right? It's always between Louisiana and Mississippi, in Mississippi, Mississippi, did not ratify the 13th Amendment of the Constitution, which abolished slavery until 2013.
Okay, so, yes, it's disgusting. Yes, there are still hints of slavery and there are still, you know, the racism and the inequality that festers till today, that that caused for racialized slavery to be practiced, it still exists. But now I want to address Islamic slavery, what makes ISIS is called particularly uniquely deviance, and I'm going to use those words uniquely deviant, when it comes to slavery, is that not a single one of the revival movements, political Islamic movements, and the last 100 years has ever called for returns of slavery? Okay, so say it puts a who gets blamed for everything bad that happens in the Muslim world. All right, say it's clipped up, he wrote an article
and he said, and concerning slavery, he says, That was when slavery was a worldwide structure, which was conducted amongst Muslims and their enemies in the form of enslaving prisoners of war. And it was necessary for Islam to adopt a similar line of practice, until the world devised a new code of practice during war other than enslavement, then slavery is abolished in Islam. So the Muslim Brotherhood and the political strands of Islam that are like the Muslim Brotherhood, they call it against they, you know, they did not call for a return to slavery. In fact, even though the Lofa movements has been studied, right, which is a an explicit khilafah movement, a call to the
restoration of khilafah in the earliest texts, right? So it doesn't matter what form of Orthodoxy any of these groups are on. Right? It doesn't matter where in the mainstream they fall, anyone that was calling for, you know, a political, a politicized form of Islam and a restoration of Islam. From the earliest texts of his mentality, they said slavery would never be restored. So what makes ISIS is call and Boko Haram is called uniquely deviant, as they're calling for something literally, that has not been called for, by any Islamic movement, in any level of Orthodoxy in history. And as we said, in conclusion, modern day slavery to your brothers and sisters.
We have more slaves today than we've ever had in history. You know, Nike has slaves to not just ISIS, alright, sweatshops are also slavery. They don't need to be brutalized in that fashion. So that you see in called slaves to actually be slaves. And so when we talk about an estimated 30 million people in modern slavery today, and you know, the amount of human trafficking that takes place, and India, particularly By the way, which is the world's largest democracy, technically speaking, has 14 million people that fall under the definition of slavery today.
Right? So the world has not solved these problems of slavery. And when you talk about trafficking, and you talk about over 20 million adults and children that are sold, particularly into sex trafficking, then these are things that we also need to counter. And these are things that we also need to work against. And so we should as Muslims be at the forefront of talking about human rights, not just eliminating, not just defending ourselves from ISIS is deviant calls and things of that sort, and saying, that's not us. But we also should be talking about sweatshops. And we should be talking about ethical consumerism, and we should be at the forefront of the war against trafficking
and so on so forth. And actually you could search there's actually a group called Muslims against human trafficking, you could search them up in sha Allah to Allah. And, you know, this is something that's also part of our call. You know, we find the Burmese Muslims one of the recent videos that came out was by Sheikh Hassan Husseini. You could
Look it up on the YouTube, it's called humans for sale, where he talks about the Burmese citizens that are being subjected to slavery and trafficking. Now, when a country eventually lets them in in Thailand, the way the Burmese are being treated, is almost unprecedented. Right? They're literally being subjugated to the worst forms of conditions and the worst forms of slavery. So these are also things that we have to take into consideration, whether it's something that's called slavery or not, these are all conditions that the prophets lysozyme fought against, and that Islam sought to combat. Some of this discussion today was academic value. Some of it was absolutely necessary for us to
understand obviously, where we stand today as Muslims in regards to the fight against slavery, I asked the last panel of data to support the oppressed wherever they are, and to place us on a path of justice and compassion and to make us a people that always strive for the protection of people and not the exploitation of people, whether they're Muslims or non Muslims ask Allah to place us in the cause of the cause of the weak and the downtrodden and to allow us to continue in that message of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and in that call, and in that spirit of the messenger, sallAllahu, wasallam, and all of the profits before llama, I mean, I'm going to go through just the
questions really quick that were sent here, inshallah some of them were already answered. So number one, how do we respond to non Muslims when they say Islam allows married men to have intercourse with their slave woman? We already answered that. Number two, how can the average person carry the conversation outside this platform? How can I free a slave today? Again, when you when you fight against improper labor conditions, when you fight for the people that are being oppressed, when you try to help refugees, people that are in practical slavery, though it's not technical slavery, then you are in the cause of your brother in law is in your costs. So there are different manifestations
of it and you don't have to think of where can I go today and actually purchase the freedom of asleep. You don't have to go to the Ivory Coast and ask where the slaves are, so you can free them. Right? Just work for people and be a part of these movements inshallah tada for good. How does the average person carry the conversation outside this platform? I'm pretty sure you guys probably shut off your minds probably shut off about 30 minutes before the end of the discussion. But seriously, try to try to understand all you know, I wanted to make this as comprehensive as possible so that whatever aspect you're asked about, you're able to answer inshallah, Tada.
Please shed some light on the slavery of debts for college students, and how can we stay away from it, but still be able to get an education to benefit the woman who chose that question?
Well, you can't there's no such thing as debt slavery anymore in the technical sense, but it does exist, especially for med students, right.
That's the whole discussion of, of why a lot in the profit slice I'm hated debt so much, and how as Muslims, we should try to stay away from debt as much as we can, and not placed ourselves in those vulnerable situations. And the profit slice, I'm used to seek refuge in Allah from Dutton, he used to seek refuge in a law from being at the mercy of the human being. The simple answer to that is that it's not black and white. And you need to ask someone for your unique situation to see what's necessary for you to achieve a reasonable education. And what that what that area of necessity will open up for you. Why didn't the law end slavery completely? Why wasn't slavery why slavery wasn't
forbidden as alcohol and pork? How can people buy and sell human beings? I think we already answered that. It would have been you know, if, number one, there was no such thing as a call for abolition number two, if that one source of slavery, captives of war prisoners of war, if that was to be eliminated. At that time, then, you know, what would end up happening? What's the alternative, and again, it's grounded in realism, not an idealism, it's grounded in a sense of realism. This was the most ideal solution to a real situation, however, a last panel to again put legislation in place and the messengers by some put legislation in place to eventually end the institution altogether, the
institution is depleted, and that's also a form of ending slavery. As we said, sometimes technically ending things doesn't add anything, just like we're in North America. And I, you know, and the technical call to end slavery and racism did not necessarily do so. Number five, with servants in the Gulf whose passports are held or abused and subjugated be considered as slaves. How do we help them? Yes, they are. That is slavery, that's probably worse than slavery. And I tell people this all the time institutionalized racism, whether it's in a Muslim country or a non Muslim country, those are forms of slavery, where a person is subjugated to that extent where they are literally at the
mercy of their owner, okay, where if they make a single mistake, their rights are taken away from them, they're barely paid, they're overworked, all of that. These are all conditions of slavery. And we should be at the forefront of trying to end those as well.
Well, some verses have seem to show that female slaves are at the mercy of their masters and endure all kinds of exploits exploitation. I think we already answered that as well.
One thing I want to end with here inshallah hamdu lillahi, Rabbil aalameen. Some of you might have seen
a class called Black and noble. So I actually taught this class black and noble. For the first time, some of you might have seen it on YouTube result on their own flicks. And it has a lot of black when we talk about not only, you know, the way that the profit slice some ended racism, but the way that the profit slice alum, you know, treated, you know, black people in particular, and the way that Islam treated it when it came to the NBA when it came to profits when it came to role in society when it came to countering anti black racism, the black companions of the Prophet slice of the black tambourine and so on, so forth. And that class is one of my favorite classes to teach and a lot of I
mean, we recently rerecorded it for being a TV and it's an HD quality and it has some new kicks who inshallah tada it has some updated information, and it's been released now on being a TV inshallah. And that class is truly enlightening. And if you've if you enjoy today in sha Allah to Allah then you would you would definitely enjoy that class a lot more. There's a lot more stories there and a lot more to keep you you know, engaged and shut lots out of but it really shows you the way the profit slice and encountered attitudes and how the religion was put in place to counter the very root causes of slavery, which were inequality and racism. So inshallah Tada. Please do if you're not
registered as well. You know, if you're not already registered, go ahead and register sign up for beta.tv and Chatelet, tada and you know, recommend it to people and make sure that you attend that class or you watch those recordings as soon as you can. Zach Lowe Hayden to everyone for attending today in person and online, as the last panel is added, to make this beneficial for all of us for Muslims and non Muslims and ask Allah Subhana Allah to forgive me if I said anything wrong and ask Allah subhanaw taala to place us on a path that is pleasing to Him and to gather us with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and Jonathan for those Lama amin articlehow faecal salaam aleikum wa
rahmatullah wa barakato.