In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving

All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon His Messenger Muhammad.

We need first to discuss the issue of slavery from Islamic perspective:

With regard to slavery, Islam did not bring it out. It was an established system in the whole world and Islam made serious many changes to this system. Islam prohibited all ways of enslaving people except as a consequence of war with non-Muslims.

One of the options that the Muslim ruler has to deal with the prisoners of such a war is to enslave them. This enslavement aims, on the one hand, to deprive the enemy of such manpower and, on the other hand, to give these slaves the chance to live among the Muslim community.

As history proved, such prisoners of war became gradually assimilated in the Muslim society and became familiar with Islam, which encouraged so many of these slaves to accept Islam. From the Islamic perspective, to be a Muslim slave (who may also get his/her freedom in a way or another) is better than to be a non-Muslim free person; the former will enter the Paradise and the latter the Hellfire. Besides, Islam has prescribed so many ways for slaves to get their freedom as mentioned in the Quran and the Sunnah.

Slave women lived in the houses of their masters. The sexual relationship between the slave girl and her master strengthened her position in the household and granted her additional rights, on the one side, and satisfied her sexual desire, on the other side. The Quran and the Sunnah urged Muslims to treat their slaves kindly and not to overburden or abuse them. Usually the sexual relationship took place in a normal way. Of course, forcing a slave girl to have sex is a kind of abuse against her, but she is still her master’s slave girl and this is his right. It is not proper for a man to force his wife to have sex with him, yet she is his wife and this is his right. Sometimes a woman gets married under certain social or economic pressures and she does not like the man she is married to, but still he has rights on her including to have sex. A slave woman could also get married to a slave or even- under certain conditions- to a free man, in which case her master cannot approach her sexually.

Nowadays, slavery has been abolished in all the world and all Muslim countries have signed treaties to the banishment of slavery. It is not now an option for Muslim armies to enslave people.

Almighty Allah knows best.