The issue of slavery is completely different when discussed from the angles of Christianity and Islam, and when compared with the situation that prevailed at the advent of Islam.

Many lies and accusations have been fabricated about Islam on this topic, at a time when criminals with lengthy track records are safe and nobody points a finger at them.

Slavery in Islam

Islam affirms that Allah, the Almighty, created man fully accountable, and enjoined duties upon him, to which reward and punishment are connected on the basis of man’s free will and choice.

No human being has the right to restrict this freedom or take away that choice unlawfully; whoever dares to do that is a wrongdoer and oppressor. 

Why does Islam permit slavery?

This is one of the basic principles of Islam. When the question is asked:

“Why does Islam permit slavery?”

We reply emphatically and without shame that slavery is permitted in Islam, but we should examine the matter with fairness and with the aim of seeking the truth, and we should examine the details of the rulings on slavery in Islam, with regard to the sources and reasons for it, and how to deal with the slave and how his rights and duties are equal to those of the free man, and the ways in which he may earn his freedom, of which there are many in shari’ah, whilst also taking into consideration the new types of slavery in this world which is pretending to be civilized, modern and progressive.

Slavery before Islam

When Islam came, there were many causes of slavery, such as warfare, debt (where if the debtor could not pay off his debt, he became a slave), kidnapping and raids, and poverty and need.

Slavery did not spread in this appalling manner throughout all continents except by means of kidnapping; rather the main source of slaves in Europe and America in later centuries was this method.

The texts of Islam took a strong stance against this. It is mentioned in a Hadith Qudsi:

عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ ـ رضى الله عنه ـ عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ ‏ “‏ قَالَ اللَّهُ ثَلاَثَةٌ أَنَا خَصْمُهُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ، رَجُلٌ أَعْطَى بِي ثُمَّ غَدَرَ، وَرَجُلٌ بَاعَ حُرًّا فَأَكَلَ ثَمَنَهُ، وَرَجُلٌ اسْتَأْجَرَ أَجِيرًا فَاسْتَوْفَى مِنْهُ، وَلَمْ يُعْطِ أَجْرَهُ

Hadhrat Abu Huraira RA narrates that the Prophet (ﷺ) said, “Allah says, ‘I will be against three persons on the Day of Resurrection:

-1. One who makes a covenant in My Name, but he proves treacherous.

-2. One who sells a free person (as a slave) and eats the price,

-3. And one who employs a labourer and gets the full work done by him but does not pay him his wages.” [al-Bukhari 2227]

It is worth pointing out that you do not find any text in the Quran or Sunnah which enjoins taking others as slaves, whereas there are dozens of texts in the Quran and the Ahaadith of the Messenger ﷺ which call for manumitting slaves and freeing them.