Mauao Man

Islam and Slavery

The Moral Gap No One Wants to Talk About

Why Neither Muhammad Nor the Quran Ever Abolished Slavery — And Why That Matters

“But Islam set the stage for abolition!”
No, it didn’t. It institutionalized slavery — permanently, theologically, and unapologetically.

📜 The Premise: What You’re Told vs What the Sources Actually Say

Modern Muslims often assure critics that Islam was “ahead of its time” on slavery. That Muhammad “discouraged” it. That the Quran “planted seeds of abolition.”

But this claim crumbles when you actually read the sources — the Quran, the Hadith, and early Islamic law — without modern spin.

🚫 The Quran Never Abolishes Slavery — Ever

Let’s be direct.

The Quran does not contain a single verse abolishing slavery. Instead, it:

Regulates it.
Permits sexual slavery (e.g. “those whom your right hands possess”).
Suggests manumission (freeing slaves) as a form of atonement, not as a moral imperative.

Example:

“And [also prohibited to you are] married women except those your right hands possess.” — Qur’an 4:24

This explicitly permits sex with enslaved women, even if they are married to someone else. That’s not abolition. That’s enslavement with divine approval.

🧔🏼 Muhammad Owned, Bought, Sold, and Gifted Slaves

There is no serious dispute among Islamic historians that Muhammad:

Owned dozens of slaves (including Bilal, Zayd, Mariyah).
Bought and sold them.
Distributed slaves as war booty.

Example:

“The Prophet took a female slave as a share from the fifth (of the booty)...” — Sahih Muslim 4345

And this isn’t incidental. These were religiously justified actions, not reluctant cultural compromises.

💰 Muhammad Reversed a Manumission (Freeing a Slave)

This hadith seals the argument:

Sahih al-Bukhari 2415:
A man manumitted a slave, having no other property. The Prophet cancelled the manumission and sold the slave.

This is the opposite of “setting the stage for abolition.” It’s economic pragmatism overriding any moral concern.

❌ Common Rebuttal: “It was part of the culture, it couldn't be abolished.”

Then why did Allah:

Ban alcohol?
Destroy idols at the Kaaba (killing religious tourism)?
Split the moon (allegedly)?
Invent new inheritance laws, dietary restrictions, and rules of warfare?

If Allah can legislate anything — even micromanage how to wash for prayer — why didn’t he abolish slavery if he truly opposed it?

This excuse collapses under its own logic.

⚖️ The Real-World Timeline

If Islam “planted the seeds” of abolition, they took over 1,200 years to sprout.

Country	Year Slavery Abolished
Tunisia	1846
Ottoman Empire	1908
Saudi Arabia	1962
UAE	1965
Mauritania	1981 (criminalized in 2007)

And in many cases, only due to Western pressure.

There was no internal abolition movement in Islamic theology. None.

🔁 Contrast With Other Traditions

While the Bible does contain slavery, it is important to note:

The New Testament undermines it (Galatians 3:28, Philemon).
Christian abolitionists explicitly used Christian theology to oppose slavery.
Slavery was widely abolished in Christian-majority countries centuries before Muslim ones.

Islam, in contrast:

Lacks a verse or Hadith opposing slavery outright.
Treats slavery as a permanent feature of society.
Has no reform movement rooted in the Quran or Sunnah.

🧠 Final Verdict

Islam didn't “set the stage” for abolition. It:

Normalized slavery.
Codified it in religious law.
Approved sexual slavery.
And left no mechanism for its end.

Muhammad’s example and the Quranic verses sanction slavery permanently. That’s not moral evolution — that’s moral stagnation under divine branding.

If a religion cannot even condemn slavery outright, what moral authority can it claim?

📚 Sources:

Quran 4:3, 4:24, 23:5–6, 33:50
Sahih Bukhari 2415, 2346, 2234
Sahih Muslim 4345, 3432
M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur’an: A New Translation
Jonathan A.C. Brown, Slavery and Islam
Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East