the best of education, it is not sufficient; he must set her free and raise her to the status of a wife, if he desires to have sexual relations with her.
The Holy Qur’ān, the Holy Prophet’s practice and Ḥadīth are thus all agreed that slave-girls must be married: there is no exception to that rule whether her husband is a slave or a free man or the master himself. It is only in Jurisprudence (fiqh) that the rule has been laid down that a master may have sexual relations with his slave-girl simply because of the right of ownership which he has in her. But even fiqh maintains that cohabitation with a slave-girl is only allowed if all those conditions are fulfilled which must be fulfilled if she were to be taken in marriage as a wife. For instance, it is necessary that such a slave-girl should be either a Muslim or one following a revealed religion, and that she is not already married. Both these are also necessary conditions of marriage. Again, just as a man cannot have two sisters as wives at one and the same time, a master, according to fiqh, cannot cohabit with two slave-girls who are sisters or who stand to each other in such relationship that their being taken as wives together is prohibited. This shows that even the fiqh, though allowing cohabitation on the ground of ownership, recognizes such cohabitation as the equivalent of marriage.
Though marriage, according to Islām, is only a civil contract, yet the rights and responsibilities consequent upon it are of such importance to the welfare of humanity that a high degree of sanctity is attached to it. But in spite of the sacredness of the character of the marriage tie, Islām recognizes the necessity, in exceptional circumstances of keeping the way open for its dissolution. With the exception, perhaps, of the Hindu law, the necessity of divorce has been recognized by all people. The right of divorce according to the Jewish law belongs to the husband who can exercise it at his will. The Roman Catholic law recognizes the right of divorce only when there is faithlessness on the part of either of the parties but the divorced parties are precluded from