Abraham Lincoln - Reformer, Not Vampire Slayer (Part 1 - full version )

Religion and Freedom – are they dichotomously opposed?

Part One a) – Islam’s legacy

Zaid Ibn Thabit said, who reported it is known, and I could reference it, (in the notes, or in revisions), before Islam, he was the only monotheist (alive at the time), “I am the only person (amongst you) on the religion of Abraham”. (Sahih Bukhari)

Muhammad had not been commissioned with his dawa at the time when Zaid was in search of a religion like that of Abraham. Nonetheless, there were some people in addition to Zaid, such as the Prophet, who used to worship Allah with sincere devotion. The Prophet Muhammad himself didn’t used to prostrate himself to idols. Zaid said of himself, he would not eat the meat (slaughtered on the nusuub of idols) of the Meccans (or pagans). Zaid excelled in Tawheed as one of the first of the monotheists in Arabia at that time. (Sahih Bukhari)

There were few people who did not commit sins like fornication or adultery (Al-Mubarakpuri, 2002).

Important lessons –

 

Allah’s wisdom can be discerned by people; Worship of the Creator (Allah) can be discerned, furthermore, it is an innate desire to worship God as one, who is without partner or son or any need.

In this present age, an “Islamic revival” is the hope of many Muslims. They hope for better things –health, happiness, livelihood, for their children and children’s children. But they are a “minority” in a wider society often hostile to Islam and their dearly held beliefs.

It has become very important that each Muslim should know his religion and the Ummah (community) must strive harder to defend its religion and community of believers. This means a proper Islamic education, as well. Of course, they should be foremost in morals and manners.

Allah’s knowledge is all encompassing.

Islam is a complete way of life. Also, it is complete and perfect since the time of Muhammad, pbuh. Therefore, one must seek answers in the past to questions or problems of the present and future.

Specific questions:

1 – Why was slavery not finally forbidden in Islam?

2 – Why was marriage to “minors” (as people today see the situation of marriage to a girl of 9 or 10) permitted before and not forbidden in Islam? Why was it permitted for the former peoples and how should we understand this in terms of the practice of Muslims forever? E.g. Can Muslims marry young girls or not?

An anecdote -

The fact is that many Muslims today still live in societies which are “cut off” from the world in terms of their ways/beliefs. After Islam’s “Golden Age”, it regressed. Allah as the Lord of the Universe knew that in some Muslim-majority states, Muslims would largely remain poor, until the end of time, when wealth will become so abundant that no poor will be found to accept the Zakat. (We assume this will be a worldwide event or phenomenon, but it could just be a regional one (e.g. like the flood of Noah.) Assuming it is a worldwide happening, it will be difficult to find anyone to receive charity. Muslims will not be able to expiate sins by charity, as a result of this spread of wealth to all corners. However, knowledge will remain, until finally before the Day of Judgment is near, it will be removed from the hearts. Then many sinful people will prevail. The good will die by a “cool wind” (or “cold wind”). (Sahih Bukhari) Qur’an will be removed in one night from the hearts and all books or other forms of written material (or storage) (Sahih Bukhari).

It appears to be a blemish on Islam that Allah, the ‘author’ of the Quran did not abolish slavery outright.

I have stated before that slavery is not a race issue but a “justice” issue.

As for Islam, it is about justice of a supreme nature. Compared to other religions and some belief systems, such as communism, Islam is just and gave minorities rights. Communism or socialism seeks to limit people’s creative purpose, by restricting the ownership of personal wealth and the use of personal wealth to make more wealth. It insists on communal holdings and community sharing of everything materially valuable. This is the reason Capitalists are the furthest from Communism.

How did Islam encourage “freedom” and “justice” for slaves?

Complete Freedom is dichotomously opposed to Islam, because Islam can never accept that there is more justice (and it is right) in people choosing their government, laws, based on personal preferences, the times, etc. than that a system revealed by God and its implementation according to the Prophet Muhammad and early generations of Muslims, should be the only law; Islamic sharia doesn’t change, even as time passes and situations change, it is a bedrock of constancy.

Allah didn’t permit people to decide against the sharia, decisions must reflect the basic principles of sharia.

These basic principles are sufficient for Muslims to discern the best course of action in a situation. By Ijtihad or Ijma, cases without clear examples and references to the past, verdicts may be “agreed” by scholars (which is consensus), or “inferred” (logically deduced by “conjecture”) from the available evidence, but nothing circumstantial is permitted to enter as evidence.

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Abraham Lincoln – Reformer, Not Vampire Slayer

Religion and Freedom – are they dichotomously opposed?

Part One b) – Justice for All

“Allah didn’t permit people to decide against the sharia, decisions must reflect the basic principles of sharia.”

These basic principles are sufficient for Muslims to discern the best course of action in a situation. By Ijma or Ijtihad, cases without clear examples and references to the past, verdicts may be “agreed” by scholars (which is consensus), or “inferred” (logically deduced by “conjecture”) from the available evidence, but nothing circumstantial is permitted to enter as evidence.

Principles of fairness

Not all slaves were black in Arabia. Slavery was viewed as a social necessity (and that’s what it likely was to some extent, after Islam arrived). Women and slaves could however own property in early Islam, unlike in Christian and English or European law. Slaves were permitted to buy their freedom, which gave them more rights than women in Europe had, to force the hand of another to free them; women in Europe could not seek divorce. Someone could buy the slave’s freedom. This made it easier for strong slaves to buy their freedom, than weak or old slaves, or female slaves. The person, who buys the slave his freedom, receives the inheritance of that slave when he dies. This would be an additional incentive to buy and release good slaves who would work hard to earn wealth for themselves. Female slaves and others of less value would be freed by the generosity of their owner or another wealthy person (e.g. a philanthropist).

A slave with intelligence and talent, or brute strength, and who was resourceful would be the most capable of returning the best wealth (inheritance right of the person who buys his freedom), in the future, and would be the most sought after slave, in any case. The price of slaves varied greatly, but it was not a factor in whether or not people would release them from bondage, in fact, as I’ve delineated, the facts suggest otherwise, and perceive that most of the free slaves were men who were at the proper age for starting families, who’s owners or other generous people look upon with generosity and even admiration (if it wasn’t mere pity), therefore released them as an act of goodness.

(A book I can highly recommend here, for the story of how to create wealth, referred to interchangeably as “gold” or “wealth”, etc. is the well-known one, who’s ‘imagined’ authors are ‘unknown narrators of the story’, published by Penguin books, USA, “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason, which has had a new heyday in this part of the world.)

The situation for women in Islam was much better than for slaves in any country and better than women’s lives in Europe during the same era. Women and slaves could own property. Muslim women had the right to make contracts. For slaves, there were several ways out of slavery, some of which I have already explained.

Additional reasons of release:

People often released their slave to expiate sins.

People also released slaves to seek the pleasure of Allah, His Mercy and Forgiveness, as well as reward in the Hereafter; the Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, said, “any person who released a slave form the descendants of the Prophet Ishmael, will be forgiven his sins (revise – direct quote needs to be referenced for accuracy).

If Heaven wasn’t enough of a motivating factor inheritance money could be. This was also dependent on some level of altruism.

Female slaves who bore children for their "sayyid" or master were released automatically from bondage at the death of their master, and their children could not be taken as slaves or inheritance; this is in contrast to the extraordinary lenghts the slavemasters in America had in the legal system to take slaves of the children or even grandchildren of their slaves. Whole families lived as slaves in a common household, farmland as free labor with no recourse to emancipation except if they were permitted to buy their freedom. It was a level of bondage much more inhumane and permanent-seeming than that of slavery as practiced in Arabia during Muhammad's time.

Towards Abolition:

As I believe that slavery is almost “irrelevant” today, it is on the way out, but it is still an important topic and very controversial in some settings; e.g. debates, women’s rights discussions, and so on.

Like anything which is a potential call for suspicion or sense of mortification, slavery is a topic of much debate when we speak specifically about Islam. No one believes that Christians today own slaves, but it could well be that there are Christians in some African countries who like their Muslim brothers, own slaves until this day.

But is slavery a purely or more obviously Islamic cultural and religious practice?

To know this, let’s examine some positive statements which prove that Islam is not “in favor” of slavery; Islam doesn’t approve of slavery more than it approves of putting people in prison for life.

The Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, said: “a man, who educates his slave girl, then frees and marries her…” [To the end] (Ref. is found in Sahih Bukhari, among others.)

Fadel Solaiman is a popular modern Muslim speaker, founder of Bridges foundation (website url http://www.bridgesfoundation.org/) he tours primarily in Muslim circles and religious/ educational workshops, who speaks also to the rights of Muslims, the relevance of Quran in Muslims’ life and proofs of the existence of God and other topics.

He has successfully taught many Muslims about the Islamic teachings regarding slavery and emancipation. Some of his material, specifically the kind of emancipation (or roads to freedom) advocated by Islam, which were implemented and successful on a grand scale in ancient Muslim civilization, and continued, until the fall of the Caliphate; again we see the free people enslaved by their enemies in religious wars and as well pogroms, even many Muslims, were again made slaves in large numbers, during the religious wars between the Muslims and the Christian Crusaders. One famous slave from Africa was Prince Abdurrahman, who was captured on a desolate beach and shipped to America. Another more famous, was the royal son-in-law of the Emir al Moumineen, who became known as Qutuz after his enslavement in Egypt. His father was a Prince, the cousin of the powerful Emir; Qutuz and his wife Jolanar had both been enslaved and eventually were lost from each other, until they matured and finally were able to be reunited and married. She died in a battle against the some of the barbarous Tartars under Hulago at the time.

Muslims today are still derided for past ‘iniquities’; the slave trade is often cited by ignorant (on the internet or in books, which are sold unfortunately in a free market which doesn’t account for tastes, books written by Westerners, or Europeans, who openly declare their hate for Islam and Muslims’ beliefs)while they may even accuse Islam of promoting slavery; slavery was in fact an ages old practice before Islam in the Arabian peninsula was revived by the message of Muhammad and Quranic revelation.

In the anecdote at the start, I find several lessons or opportunity for reflection; reflection will not solve problems, alone, but is a step toward resolution. In any case, these are what I thought about –

Zakat will be taken but no one will benefit from it; then it will be wise for people to think of other ways in which they will benefit humanity, so that they can expiate for their sins, or at the end of time, there will be greater trials than ever before, and that will expiate their sins E.g. natural disaster or other.

People will probably be living in luxury, and that will mean they are heedless of Allah, and so He, azawajal, spreads wealth among all of the people, and they forget Allah, so He will forget them, too. He will test them with wealth and children, and their blessings, but will not forgive them, but a little.

People will later return to Allah, azawajal, and He will perhaps test their (new) resolve (again) with new trials, possibly loss of children and poverty, they will remain steadfast, and the majority will remain poor, while a few will give charity, and the institution of Zakat will save those poor from utter mental collapse and destitution.

In disastrous wars many men will die, leaving women and children without fathers. Nonetheless, some women will be so desperate they will seek to give their children away; they allow them to marry at a younger age, a custom which previously they had not experienced. People will be afraid that the enemy will molest their women and children, so permit the girls to marry at an earlier age.

Eventually the situation will come full circle, so that there will be no poor to accept the zakat money. Then this will mark the end of Days.

This is merely a fantastical story with some grounding in the knowledge we have about the coming Judgment. Whether wealthy Muslims will increase or decrease is a matter for Allah; but as oil production increases so do profitability and consumption; if Muslims can hold onto their natural treasure, oil production will continue to benefit Muslims. But if they do not share the wealth by even distribution to poorer Muslims, then Allah may punish them for their lack of judgment and fairness in a critical matter; the wealth of Muslim lands, especially if there is a caliphate, is for all the Muslim Ummah. There should not be any poor who have nothing while others hoard the wealth and even refuse to give zakat, which is an issue of concern to some scholars who speak about these matters; when they hear that there are rich Muslims or business owners who do not pay the yearly zakat, nor do they even believe in its compulsory nature it is proof of the sinner’s dangerous disregard for the basic teachings and pillars of Islam.