home may be a haven of peace for the husband, the wife and the children.
Slavery was an institution recognized by all people before Islām. To Islām belongs the credit of laying down principles which, if developed on the right lines, would have brought about its ultimate extinction. But it was not the work of a day, and therefore, as long as the institution remained, provision had to be made for slaves which should make them as good citizens as the free men. Before Islām, slave-girls served the purpose of either satisfying the master’s carnal passions or earning money for him through prostitution. To both these evil practices an end was put immediately, and order was given that both free men and slaves, males as well as females, should remain in a married state: “And marry those among you who are single and those who are fit among your male slaves and your female slaves; … and compel not your slave-girls to prostitution when42 they desire to keep chaste, in order to seek the frail goods of this world’s life” (24:32,33). The order to keep the male as well as female slaves in a married state is here combined with the order which puts an end to prostitution, and thus the two evil practices of pre-Islamic Arabia, which were the result of keeping slave-girls in an unmarried state, were put an end to by the one clear injunction that they shall be married. To this order there is no exception either in the Holy Qur’ān or in Ḥadīth. The injunction could be carried out in one of the three ways: by marriage, 1. between two slaves; 2. between a free person and a slave; and 3. between the master and the slave. There is no fourth alternative. At the present day, when the institution of slavery has been abolished in the whole of the civilized world, there is no need of going into the details of the marriages of the first two classes. The third class of marrying may however be dealt with briefly, as there exists a great misunderstanding to the effect that Islām allows concubinage.
42 The Arabic word for when is in, which is generally translated as meaning if, but in in Arabic conveys both senses, if as well as when. The rendering if here is not allowed by the context, for the significance would then be that if the slave-girls desire to keep chaste, they may not be compelled to prostitution. This would lead to the evident conclusion that if they do not desire to keep chaste, they may be compelled to prostitution which is self-contradictory. Hence the rendering adopted here, the meaning being that, as it is the nature of woman, whether free or slave, that she would remain chaste, slave-girls who are under the control of their masters, should not be compelled to prostitution by not allowing them to marry. A modern writer is of opinion that in Arabia “prostitution was too firmly established to be at once removed” (Sociology of Islam by Levy, vol. I). This opinion is due to a misinterpretation of the Quranic words. The significance of this verse is further clarified by ḥadīth as there is a very large number of these stating that prostitution and its wages were expressly forbidden by the Holy Prophet (Bu. 34:113; 37:20; 68:51; AD. 22:39, etc.).