Article 4

Yet perhaps the most flagrant departure from the teachings of Islam and their spirit was in respect of slavery and the slave trade.

As has been explained, restriction of freedom—and that subject to safeguards which rendered it least irksome—was permitted only in the case of such prisoners of war, captured on the field of battle in a war made obligatory in the cause of freedom of conscience, who were not exchanged or ransomed, or set at liberty as a matter of grace (47:5), or could not obtain release in pursuance of a deed of manumission (24:34).

Raiding for the purpose of taking captives was prohibited (8:68). The Prophet said that a person who sold a free man into slavery would incur the severe displeasure of Allah and would be liable to condign chastisement.1 Under these regulations, once freedom of conscience was established and fighting for that purpose ceased to be obligatory, all such restrictions should have come to an end; but this is not what in fact happened. The institution of slavery became firmly established in certain parts of Muslim lands and the Arabs earned notoriety in slave raiding and slave driving.