Exposing Islam

⛓️ Sanctioned by Sharia: How Slavery Endured in Islamic Lands into the Modern Era

📜 Part I: Slavery Never Ended in the Islamic World

🔹 Slavery = Permanent Legal Fixture

Unlike Christianity, which had no canonical legal system that perpetuated slavery, Islam embedded slavery into the very structure of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). For over 1,200 years:

Slaves were classified as property (milk al-yamin).
Concubinage was permitted.
Slave markets were state-regulated.
Emancipation was voluntary, not obligatory.

There was no abolitionist movement from within Islam — no Islamic Wilberforce or Harriet Tubman. Why? Because sharia never condemned the institution. On the contrary, it protected it.

🕌 Part II: Persistence into the 19th–20th Centuries

🔸 1. Ottoman Empire (1299–1924)

Slavery was integral to Ottoman society until the 19th century.
Harem concubines, African eunuchs, and Christian slaves filled the imperial court.
Even after Tanzimat reforms (1839–1876), which Westernized some laws, slavery remained legal and widespread.
Full abolition came only after European pressure, especially from Britain.

📘 “The Ottomans resisted banning the slave trade until coerced by Western powers, especially Britain. The Islamic legal framework never internalized abolition.” — Ehud Toledano, The Ottoman Slave Trade

🔸 2. Arabian Peninsula

The Najd and Hijaz regions, home to Wahhabi Islam, were notorious for importing African slaves well into the 20th century.
Under Ibn Saud, slavery was practiced openly, with African men as laborers and women as concubines.

Saudi Arabia only abolished slavery in 1962 — under extreme pressure from:

The United Nations,
The United States (Kennedy administration),
Cold War geopolitical optics.

It was not due to ijtihad (legal reasoning) or tajdid (renewal) within Islam.

🔍 According to the U.S. Department of State: “Saudi Arabia agreed to abolish slavery only after American diplomatic pressure and the threat of international embarrassment.”

🔸 3. North and West Africa

Muslim states in Mauritania, Sudan, and Mali continued chattel slavery long after Western colonies outlawed it.
In Mauritania, slavery persisted de facto until the early 2000s, and criminal penalties were only introduced in 2007.

Slavery was practiced by Muslim elites who justified it with Qur’an 4:24, 8:69, and classical fiqh manuals.

🧠 Part III: Why Didn’t Islamic Scholars Abolish It Themselves?

🔹 1. Legal Obstacle: Sharia Endorses Slavery

Slavery is permitted explicitly in the Qur'an and normalized in the Sunnah.
Classical jurists unanimously accepted slavery as a permanent part of Islamic civilization until the Day of Judgment.
Therefore, any abolitionist position is an innovation (bid‘ah) — which Islamic tradition condemns.

🔹 2. Absence of Ethical Reformation

Unlike Christianity, where abolitionist movements used Biblical principles of equality (e.g. Galatians 3:28), Islam lacks any theological mandate to abolish slavery. The Qur'an never says "set the slaves free" as a moral imperative. Instead:

Emancipation is an expiation for sin, not a call for justice.
Concubinage is still considered valid by modern fatwas.

📚 Case Studies in Denial and Delay

🟥 Al-Azhar University (Egypt)

Egypt formally abolished slavery under British rule (1897).
Yet Al-Azhar scholars continued to defend the legality of slavery well into the 20th century.
No formal religious renunciation of slavery from the clerical establishment ever occurred.

🟥 Mauritania

Slavery banned in 1981 — but criminalized only in 2007.
As of 2024, activists report thousands of Black Africans still living under hereditary servitude.
Islamic authorities resist calls to declare slavery haram (forbidden), citing Qur’anic and juristic precedent.

🤐 Silence or Evasion in Modern Apologetics

Today, Muslim apologists usually take one of four evasive routes:

“It was regulated, not like Western slavery.”
→ Regulation of ownership and rape doesn't make slavery moral.
“It was part of history, not Islam.”
→ Qur’an and Sunnah explicitly regulate it — it’s core to the religion.
“Slavery was gradually phased out.”
→ False. No abolition happened until non-Muslim colonial powers forced it.
“Islam encouraged freeing slaves.”
→ Emancipation was optional and never prohibited the institution itself.

🔍 Summary of Facts

Region	Abolition Year	Trigger
Ottoman Empire	1880s–1909	British pressure
Egypt	1897	British colonial mandate
Saudi Arabia	1962	U.S. & UN pressure
Mauritania	1981 (banned), 2007 (criminalized)	International pressure

✅ Conclusion: Abolition came from the outside, not from Islamic reform.

🔚 Conclusion: A System Never Repented, Only Retired

Slavery in Islam was never abolished from within, never condemned theologically, and remains a latent legality in traditional jurisprudence.

Modern bans are political, not religious. No Qur’anic abrogation occurred. No reformed fiqh movement declared slavery haram. And in many Islamic circles, classical slavery is still defended in principle, even if politically inconvenient.

Slavery didn’t end in Islam. It was only paused — under threat.