Concubinage is regular sexual connection with a female who does not hold the legal status of a wife; in other words, keeping a woman in the position of a wife without marrying her. There is a general impression that Islām gives an unlimited license to have as many concubines as one likes, so long as the concubine is a slave or a prisoner of war and not a free woman. Concubinage was undoubtedly practised in Arabia before Islām, and it may have been practised by some Muslims until the revelation of the verse quoted above. By this revelation, however, concubinage was ended. A plain injunction had been received that all male and female slaves must be married. If any master of a female slave kept her as a concubine after that, it was against the Quranic injunction. The Holy Qur’ān does not make any exception in favour of the master; on the other hand, it lays the responsibility, of having the slaves married, on the masters. No master of a slave-girl could keep her as a concubine when the Holy Qur’ān enjoined him to have her married, and if he did so keep her, his deed, whether due to his ignorance of the Quranic injunction or to intentional violation of it, had no validity in law.
The legality of concubinage has been inferred from certain expressions used in the Holy Qur’ān. The most important of these are the following words: “And who restrain their sexual passions except in the presence of their mates or those whom their right hands possess, for such surely are not blamable” (23:5, 6; 70:29, 30). These verses are a part of a detailed description of true believers, and are preceded and followed by other verses describing the many attributes of true believers. They apply equally to men as well as women, the latter being clearly described as possessing all the good and great qualities which are possessed by men (33:35). If therefore the above description of the faithful, which occurs twice in the Holy Qur’ān, and no more, can justify a man having sexual relations with his female slaves, it can also justify similar relations of a woman with her male slaves. But no one has ever drawn such an absurd conclusion from these words. The Arabic word for sexual passions as used here, is furūj, (pl. of farj) which means the part of a person which it is indecent