QUESTION : may Allaah bless you our great Scholar. There is in my community a class (of people) usually been referred to as slaves – that is how we were raised to know them -.

VERDICTS OF DR. MUHAMMAD AHMAD LUH

QUESTION : may Allaah bless you our great Scholar. There is in my community a class (of people) usually been referred to as slaves – that is how we were raised to know them -.Will the Islamic ruling on slave be applicable to them?

ANSWER : All praise is due to Allah. Slavery is an age long practice of human. It long supersedes the evolution of Islam. It is well known that slavery could only be caused in Shari’ah by a permissible Jihād and the availability of captive among the war spoils. Any one to whom a captive is given after the distribution of war spoils becomes the owner. Based on this, captive is different from prisoner for the latter is not allowed to be enslaved. This matter has much discussion that could be found in the works on Islamic battles, prophetic history and classical books of Jurisprudence. As for the prevalent practice of enslaving some (races) of human in our society and referring to them as slaves, this is not proper, it emanates from oppression, conquest, domination and over powering which both Islam and ethical culture condemn. Allah knows best!

Dr. Muhammad Ahmad Luh
Chairman, Verdicts and Guidance Committe of the Union