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Inspired by this question Can slave woman show herself to her master? and although freeing a slave is better(Qur'an 90:13), we all know that slavery is allowed in Islam. And this could be one of the reasons of so many rapes going on by Muslims(I feel). And from Is a woman required to have sex with her husband whenever he requests it?, we get an answer "Yes that's true. But men shouldn't take it literally. There must be kindness and understanding. Islam ordered the husband to be nice and gentle and understanding."

So, here are my questions,

1. Is forced slavery allowed in Islam?

2. Is forced sex with slaves allowed in Islam?

In the first question, I believe that, we should enslave women only from wars and not just go cherry pick a woman(non Muslim) you like from your region and enslave her, what if the woman/girl(after war) being enslaved refuses to be enslaved? and hence the question Is forced slavery allowed in Islam?

Next, now if the woman/girl agrees to be enslaved but what if she refuses to have sex with the master at all and hence the question Is forced sex with slaves allowed in Islam?.

Answers expected from all views supporting claims with authentic Hadith and verses of Qur'an.

Instead of asking in two separate questions, I asked very closely related questions at one place which had closely related small answers

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  • Again, I don't get it why people just down vote and go, without commenting, that's totally unfair, I've asked this because a lot of people wonder how slavery is justified in Islam!
    – servant-of-Wiser
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 12:26
  • Where are these rapes taking place in the name of slavery? We have to look at how these people are understanding the situation.
    – Sayyid
    Commented Mar 19, 2015 at 0:58
  • @servantofWiser no matter what, rape is totally not allowed. I have asked my imam your question, and In Sha Allah he will reply with an answer, as i do have my own opinion, but i would rather not give it in case it is wrong (i would be misleading then)
    – Tash C
    Commented Mar 19, 2015 at 7:48
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    @Artus Does any of that take into account what rulings about rape there are in different countries (e.g. rape in marriage didn't exist as crime until 1997 in Germany)? How high the number of unreported cases may be? The reasons why in some countries the number of reported crimes may be lower? If not then these numbers are meaningless. A high number of reported cases could just mean that women have more support when they make them, not that there are more cases overall. A low number could mean that the women fear punishment or humiliation by the police or their own family.
    – The Raven Queen
    Commented Mar 27, 2017 at 9:46
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    @Artus Just providing numbers without proper context is indeed not how statistics work. I gave several reasons why the number of reported rape cases alone doesn't tell you anything. If a country has 0 reported cases, what does that mean? Is rape not a crime? Are there no cases? Are there cases but they are not reported? No one knows. nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Violent-crime/Rapes Look at the definition. Reported cases in South Africa: 66.000, estimated number of cases 500.000
    – The Raven Queen
    Commented Mar 27, 2017 at 10:00

1 Answer 1

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  1. Is forced slavery allowed in Islam?

Only source of slaves is prisoners of war distributed among fighters and further sold/bought by others. There are number of other options for prisoners of war, like prisoner exchange, freeing them, ransom etc. If the leader of Muslims decide on enslaving, of course it is forced upon them.

Answer to question is yes. But after international agreement for abolition of slavery including Muslim countries, shouldn't Muslims abide by it ?

  1. Is forced sex with slaves allowed in Islam?

NO. As I explained in my answer, it is a misconception that sex with slave girls is allowed without marriage. See Are Muslim men allowed to take "sex slaves?" Forced marriage cannot be considered as marriage.

For those who say sex with slave girls is a right of owner, there are number of issues. if the slave girl is non believer, it goes against Quran 24:26 which says

"Women impure are for men impure, and men impure for women impure and women of purity are for men of purity, and men of purity are for women of purity" .

According to this fatwa, majority of scholars held that sex relation with polytheist slaves are forbidden http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=showfatwa&Option=FatwaId&Id=272452 .

But then the question is whether a slave who have converted to Islam can have sex with her master. Now this will contradict verse 24:31 because a Muslim woman can show herself to only the groups listed in this verse and her master is not in the list.

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  • I think you're also aware of this Hadith i.e. when a slave becomes a believer, one has to set her free. If she is 'free', then she is no more a slave, then she would be, if at all married, treated like a 'wife' but not a slave (and not sex slave but a wife). So, to whom are those verses referring to? A 'believer' i.e. a pure slave (who is no more a slave)?
    – servant-of-Wiser
    Commented Jun 29, 2015 at 0:12
  • Quran asks to those who don't find means to marry free woman to marry believing slaves. From this it can be understood that slaves who believed need not be freed or else there will be no believing slave. In the hadith you mentioned, freeing her become must because of slapping her. If all captives need to be freed on believing, then captives of war just need to act as believing to become free and escape.
    – Shafeek
    Commented Jun 29, 2015 at 8:52
  • >> "So, to whom are those verses referring to? " This refers to believing slaves and they should be married as specified in 4:24
    – Shafeek
    Commented Jun 29, 2015 at 8:52
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    @servant-of-Wiser That hadith does not say a slave becoming Muslim must be freed, it says a Muslim slave must be freed if you beat her. You would have to substantiate that the schools of law actually consider this binding too, but it certainly doesn't say what you claimed here.
    – G. Bach
    Commented Jun 3, 2017 at 8:30
  • @AbuZiyad Maria Al Qubtia and her cousin Sireen were not prisoners of war. The prophet pbuh gave one to his companion Thabit and kept the other for himself. This means a slave could be taken as a gift without a war.
    – Qaisar Khan
    Commented Aug 1, 2017 at 20:28

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