Concubinage, Rape, and ‘Sexual Slavery’ in Islam with Justin Parrott (2022-11-03) ​

0:00:02 hello everyone and welcome to blogging
0:00:05 theology today I'm delighted to talk
0:00:07 again to Justin Parrott you're most
0:00:09 welcome sir
0:00:11 assalamualaikum thank you I'm happy to
0:00:13 be here as always welcome assalam and
0:00:15 for those who don't know uh Justin is
0:00:17 currently research librarian for Middle
0:00:20 East studies at New York University in
0:00:23 Abu Dhabi and research fellow for the
0:00:25 yakin institute for Islamic Research
0:00:29 he embraced Islam in 2004 at the age of
0:00:32 20 and he studied Islam from a
0:00:35 traditional perspective with local
0:00:36 Scholars and imams
0:00:39 now he's the author of a highly
0:00:42 significant article with a long title
0:00:44 that goes like this custodianship of the
0:00:47 right hand
0:00:49 concubineage rape and sexual slavery in
0:00:52 inverted commas in Islam and I'll link
0:00:56 to it in the description below and I do
0:00:58 recommend you have a look uh at this in
0:01:00 detail
0:01:01 but uh Justin would you like to
0:01:03 introduce us to the main themes of your
0:01:06 article please
0:01:07 uh yeah
0:01:09 um
0:01:17 um so the the impetus or the reason that
0:01:21 I wrote the article is because I get
0:01:22 this question all the time uh about
0:01:25 concubines and rape and that's something
0:01:28 that
0:01:29 the anti-islam crowd often accuses us of
0:01:34 of legitimizing rape and everything like
0:01:36 that and I started researching this
0:01:39 topic uh at the height of Isis when they
0:01:43 declared their caliphate in Iraq in
0:01:47 Syria and they were taking
0:01:50 um the yazidis I think as slaves and
0:01:53 then you know abusing them in very
0:01:55 horrible ways and then uh there were
0:01:58 people saying this is what Islam teaches
0:02:00 and there was there was even an Israeli
0:02:02 academic who sat there following Islamic
0:02:04 law exactly and all of that was just
0:02:07 completely untrue and it was it it was
0:02:09 uh atrocious it was a tragedy that that
0:02:13 they were doing that
0:02:15 um so I started at that time collecting
0:02:18 sources to
0:02:20 um refute that notion and
0:02:24 um eventually I wanted to write it into
0:02:25 a longer academic article and I I wrote
0:02:29 the article I did most of the research
0:02:31 but a lot of my colleagues did review it
0:02:35 um but we ended up not publishing it for
0:02:37 whatever reason
0:02:39 um so it's on my website and it's on my
0:02:41 faculty archive and you can find it
0:02:44 there uh but that was that was the
0:02:47 reason why I wrote the article
0:02:49 and
0:02:51 um basically I set out to prove uh that
0:02:56 rape is Haram in Islam and
0:03:00 um abusing
0:03:02 women is Haram and abusing even abusing
0:03:06 slaves is Haram
0:03:08 and all of those things and there's uh
0:03:10 according to the principles of Islamic
0:03:12 law they establish established
0:03:14 principles like
0:03:16 there's no harm or reciprocating harm
0:03:20 um for all those reasons you know it
0:03:22 it's just
0:03:24 is absurd to me that that people could
0:03:28 claim that rape is permissible at Islam
0:03:32 um so that was the reason why I wrote it
0:03:35 and that was the main thing and then we
0:03:36 had to go and to get to that
0:03:41 uh the center of that argument had to go
0:03:43 through several things first I did first
0:03:45 talk about slavery and conceptualize
0:03:47 that and then we had to talk about
0:03:51 um what is the legal punishment for rape
0:03:53 and Islam and what are the sources for
0:03:55 that
0:03:57 um and then uh how are slaves supposed
0:04:00 to be treated
0:04:02 um and then what what is the nature of
0:04:05 a concubine is she a piece of property
0:04:08 no uh is she similar to a wife yes not
0:04:13 entirely but yes there's a lot of
0:04:16 similarities between a concubine and a
0:04:19 wife legal legally and the jurists made
0:04:22 that point
0:04:24 um
0:04:25 and that a concubine was the exclusive
0:04:28 partner of a single man so he couldn't
0:04:30 share his concubine with others and even
0:04:34 even a wife if she owned a female slave
0:04:37 she couldn't share her with
0:04:39 her husband because that would that
0:04:42 would be considered adultery and that
0:04:45 prostitution was illegal forcing women
0:04:47 into prostitution is illegal
0:04:50 um the prophet salallahu he encouraged
0:04:52 us to free slaves the quranists and the
0:04:55 free the pr the free praise the freeing
0:04:58 of slaves and never praises the
0:05:01 acquisition of slaves and that slavery
0:05:05 uh slave New Slaves could only be
0:05:07 acquired as prisoners of war or if they
0:05:10 were already slaves they could be
0:05:12 purchased
0:05:15 so those are the only way that
0:05:17 um slaves could be acquired and then
0:05:19 there were a lot of incentives to free
0:05:21 slaves
0:05:23 um and
0:05:26 the Quran itself but these incentives
0:05:28 and encouragements to for emancipation
0:05:31 of slaves is a frequent quranic uh
0:05:35 injunction and and some beautiful verses
0:05:37 to that effect
0:05:39 yes absolutely
0:05:40 so um so that's like the whole breadth
0:05:43 of the whole article
0:05:45 um and then we can go through the the
0:05:49 different sections piece by piece if
0:05:51 you'd like please okay so I started out
0:05:55 by saying first that slavery is
0:05:58 functionally abolished in the Muslim
0:06:00 world and what I mean by that is that
0:06:02 all of the Muslim countries have signed
0:06:07 the UN slavery convention right and
0:06:11 slaves cannot be acquired as individuals
0:06:15 like if slaves were going to be acquired
0:06:17 they would be prisoners of war and then
0:06:20 the commander or the ruler would assign
0:06:22 a slave to this family this family this
0:06:25 family and now there's no Muslim country
0:06:27 in the world that will do that for you
0:06:30 so there's no way to acquire acquire
0:06:32 slaves legally
0:06:33 in Islam anymore right and there's this
0:06:38 is consistent with a principle
0:06:41 in Islamic law called
0:06:45 uh which is the Restriction of what is
0:06:47 permissible
0:06:49 um for the sake of a greater benefit so
0:06:51 that's the legal principle
0:06:54 um at play here because as as we said uh
0:06:57 freeing slaves is a good deed it's
0:07:00 recommended it's even obligatory in some
0:07:02 cases and the acquisition of slaves was
0:07:05 always a permissible thing because even
0:07:07 if you had prisoners of War you didn't
0:07:09 have to keep them as prisoners of War
0:07:12 you had the option to send them free if
0:07:15 the ruler determined that that was the
0:07:17 best course of action
0:07:19 um but this is what I mean when I say
0:07:21 slavery is functionally abolished
0:07:23 because there's just no way to legally
0:07:25 acquire slaves uh in Islam anymore
0:07:30 not only because of the UN treaty but
0:07:32 also because of the the the the
0:07:34 classical framework of Islamic law
0:07:37 there's no conditions for which slaves
0:07:40 could be acquired anymore
0:07:42 and if there can be no if functional if
0:07:45 slavery is functionally abolished then
0:07:48 concubineage is also functionally
0:07:50 abolished and just so
0:07:53 the listeners understand a concubine was
0:07:57 a female slave who had a sexual
0:08:00 relationship with the the master
0:08:02 and she can have children for him and
0:08:05 then she would become um and he couldn't
0:08:07 sell her off she couldn't be separated
0:08:09 from her child uh like that and then
0:08:12 when the master died she would be set
0:08:15 free
0:08:16 so it was kind of a way to raise her
0:08:18 status if she was taken as a concubine
0:08:21 like that
0:08:23 um
0:08:24 and I got in a lot of trouble with some
0:08:26 Muslims because I was I was making the
0:08:28 argument that slavery is functionally
0:08:30 abolished and they say how could you say
0:08:32 that you know slavery exists in the
0:08:36 classical Islamic law how can you come
0:08:38 and say it's Haram I'm saying that
0:08:41 there's no there's no Halal way to
0:08:43 acquire slaves anymore so it's
0:08:45 functionally abolished right
0:08:48 so that was my argument
0:08:51 um then I talked a little bit about the
0:08:53 uh concubineage like throughout the
0:08:56 world so slavery as we know it was a
0:09:00 virtually Universal institution until
0:09:04 the last 200 years or so when the
0:09:07 abolition abolition movement succeeded
0:09:09 so every nation had slaves uh and then
0:09:13 if they had slaves then they had
0:09:15 concubines right so slavery and
0:09:17 concubineage it was the universal
0:09:20 institution or virtually Universal
0:09:22 institution all over the world
0:09:25 um and even uh as recently as the
0:09:28 founding of the United States Thomas
0:09:30 Jefferson who was the third president of
0:09:32 the United States he had a concubine
0:09:35 himself her name was Sally Hemmings so
0:09:38 um Islam didn't invent slavery and Islam
0:09:41 didn't invent concubineage Islam was
0:09:44 revealed in a context where these things
0:09:46 were ubiquitous and were everywhere and
0:09:50 then Islam instituted rules that
0:09:52 mitigated the harms of slavery and then
0:09:55 kind of set us toward a path towards
0:09:57 abolition because there were many many
0:09:59 ways to free slaves and there are very
0:10:01 few ways to acquire slaves and I'm not
0:10:04 saying that Muslims lived up to that
0:10:06 ideal because in history we know they
0:10:09 didn't right but I'm saying the ideal
0:10:12 was if you are really following the
0:10:14 teachings of the prophet salallahu
0:10:15 alaihi wasallam and what the Quran says
0:10:17 you know in in your freeing slaves and
0:10:21 freeing slaves and freeing slaves as you
0:10:23 should and then you're acquiring slaves
0:10:25 in in this very narrow sense uh that
0:10:28 would that would lead to the weakening
0:10:30 and eventually an eventual abolition of
0:10:33 the institution of slavery
0:10:41 just to illustrate uh one of one of the
0:10:44 points you're making
0:10:46 um and it is titled here the challenging
0:10:48 path of good you know it's quite
0:10:49 challenging to be a good person and do
0:10:51 right actions and verse 11 of chapter 90
0:10:54 says If Only They had attempted the
0:10:57 challenging path of goodness instead and
0:11:00 what will make you realize what
0:11:02 attempting in the challenging path is so
0:11:04 what is this changing path that we
0:11:06 should have we should do and the first
0:11:08 thing it says it is to free a slave it's
0:11:12 right at the top there and it goes on or
0:11:14 to give food in times of famine to an
0:11:16 orphan relative or to a poor person in
0:11:19 distress and above all to be one of
0:11:21 those who have faith and urge each other
0:11:23 to the perseverance and urge each other
0:11:26 to compassion these are the people of
0:11:30 the right you know of the right action
0:11:32 so we're at the top of the list of good
0:11:34 actions and is challenging no one's
0:11:36 saying it's easy to do is to be a slave
0:11:39 is that important and this is a really
0:11:41 early meccan chapter it says right at
0:11:44 the beginning of the prophet's Ministry
0:11:45 and this is what he was preaching to uh
0:11:47 the meccans obviously right at the
0:11:49 beginning so I just wanted to share that
0:11:50 yep absolutely that's a wonderful verse
0:11:54 I think I cited that I don't remember
0:11:55 yeah
0:11:57 link to in the description below folks
0:11:59 so do click on it have a read
0:12:01 I I should have cited it because that's
0:12:03 a wonderful verse and what a wonderful
0:12:04 Sora
0:12:06 um
0:12:07 so
0:12:08 yes so um and then
0:12:11 um I make the point that slavery in
0:12:14 Islam at least according to the ideal
0:12:16 was unlike the channel
0:12:19 American slavery which was based on race
0:12:22 and which was based on kidnapping
0:12:26 um and um you know uh John Dr Jonathan
0:12:29 Brown wrote that excellent book that you
0:12:32 showed me earlier slavery and Islam
0:12:34 that's a very good book
0:12:36 this is the standard text uh on the
0:12:40 subject written by an American academic
0:12:42 uh it's been highly praised by uh
0:12:44 historians for uh its accuracy and so on
0:12:47 I do recommend that it's it's very
0:12:49 exhaustive uh as a reference to Justin
0:12:51 Parra in there of course and it's like
0:12:53 it's like the article which is linked to
0:12:55 but a much more expanded version of all
0:12:57 the historical details included so I do
0:12:59 we both Justin I know told me he
0:13:01 recommends his book as well to do if
0:13:03 you're not got hold of you do get a copy
0:13:05 it's actually really readable it may
0:13:07 sound dry well it doesn't to me but if
0:13:09 it did it's actually very uh very
0:13:11 reading very compelling and he writes
0:13:13 very well does Jonathan
0:13:15 yes uh that that's an excellent book he
0:13:18 I did hand him a reference and he did
0:13:21 credit me in the back of the book so I'm
0:13:23 happy about that and then Dr Brown also
0:13:26 did uh review the paper that we're
0:13:28 talking about uh this paper on concubine
0:13:31 Edge so he helped me a lot a lot out
0:13:33 with uh this this article as well so I
0:13:36 want to thank him for that
0:13:39 um but uh but like as we said so slavery
0:13:43 in Islam
0:13:45 um according to the ideal was unlike the
0:13:47 chattel American slavery uh which is
0:13:50 based on race and which was very abusive
0:13:52 and
0:13:53 um things like that
0:13:56 um and and that's the experience that
0:13:59 Americans have with slavery is they have
0:14:01 this very very negative
0:14:03 uh view of it understandably but it you
0:14:06 know it didn't exist like that
0:14:08 everywhere in the world
0:14:10 and in Islam there were you know slaves
0:14:12 had rights they couldn't be abused they
0:14:14 were allowed to own property they were
0:14:16 allowed to marry
0:14:18 um and uh they they wouldn't be educated
0:14:22 um and and other things like that
0:14:25 um and I do I mentioned a quote by an
0:14:28 Imam uh
0:14:30 in the 11th century where he makes an
0:14:34 analogy between a free person and a
0:14:36 slave person and he says that they are
0:14:38 the same Gents and gents could mean the
0:14:42 legal category but we also use it to
0:14:44 mean species so he was saying that the
0:14:49 um the free person and the slave person
0:14:51 are of the same species and so the
0:14:53 ruling he was talking about applied both
0:14:55 to free people and enslaved people
0:15:00 um so there was this qualitative
0:15:02 difference
0:15:03 um
0:15:04 between how slavery was at least uh
0:15:07 practiced at the time of the prophet
0:15:09 sallam and how it was practiced in
0:15:12 America which is entirely different
0:15:16 um then I mentioned that uh consent is
0:15:21 the modern
0:15:22 uh legal
0:15:25 criteria for what makes sex illegal
0:15:30 um because you know in the past you know
0:15:32 you were married it was legally
0:15:34 recognized and therefore sexual
0:15:36 relations became legal
0:15:39 on the basis of that marriage contract
0:15:41 and uh for concubines and Islam
0:15:44 concubines also had this kind of
0:15:46 contractual recognition
0:15:49 as I said before a man couldn't just
0:15:51 share his concubine with whoever he
0:15:53 wanted he couldn't prostitute her even
0:15:55 force her in a prostitution
0:15:58 um and so they had this contractual
0:16:00 relationship kind of is similar to
0:16:03 um a marriage right
0:16:06 uh but the modern world in the last
0:16:09 hundred years or less uh since they've
0:16:12 gotten away with
0:16:13 uh they've decriminalized adultery and
0:16:16 they've decriminalized uh sex outside of
0:16:20 marriage and things like that well then
0:16:22 what makes sex illegal well it has to be
0:16:24 consent right
0:16:31 whether it be physical or or implied you
0:16:35 know threatening behavior and it didn't
0:16:37 actually be physically done it could be
0:16:39 you know unless you can unless you agree
0:16:42 to this I I will withhold something from
0:16:45 you or I will threaten you so even that
0:16:47 is considered uh uh absence of consent
0:16:50 and thus could be rape actually uh in in
0:16:54 is it is in Islam obviously and in the
0:16:56 west today says the absence of consent
0:16:58 is the key is the key indicator of of
0:17:02 something being illicited immoral or
0:17:04 criminal uh usually in sexual
0:17:06 relationships anyway yeah absolutely and
0:17:09 I have a point down here that there was
0:17:11 a woman who was um pressured into
0:17:15 uh intercourse because there was a
0:17:17 Shepherd who uh she came to a Shepherd
0:17:20 she was dying of thirst she said she
0:17:22 needed a drink of water and the shepherd
0:17:24 said I'll give you a drink of water but
0:17:26 you have to have sex with me so she had
0:17:28 sex with him and this was referred to
0:17:30 the uh caliph and it was
0:17:36 pleased with him he was the fourth Caleb
0:17:38 and he said this is coercion and he
0:17:40 considered it rape and then he didn't he
0:17:42 didn't punish the woman so even in very
0:17:46 very early Islam we had this idea that
0:17:48 rape isn't just a physical thing it
0:17:52 could be done by means of pressure like
0:17:55 that yeah
0:17:57 um but back back to consent
0:18:00 um it's problematic
0:18:01 in the sense that
0:18:04 um it's subjective so you know a
0:18:07 marriage contract or the recognition of
0:18:10 a concubine relationship those were
0:18:13 concrete
0:18:14 uh written document you know documented
0:18:18 relationships that made sex legal
0:18:21 between a man and a woman but now
0:18:24 consent it's it's it's a subjective and
0:18:27 you know now we're running into the
0:18:29 problem where
0:18:30 two people get drunk and then they have
0:18:32 sex and then somebody wakes up later and
0:18:36 says oh I didn't really want to do that
0:18:38 and you know that was again that was
0:18:40 against my consent and now I think
0:18:41 that's rape you know and then you know
0:18:44 there were a lot of when the me too
0:18:46 thing was all happening there were a lot
0:18:48 of
0:18:49 stories like that where it was like okay
0:18:51 well what you know what what
0:18:54 there was consent beforehand but then
0:18:57 consent was drawn with during the ACT
0:19:00 our consent was uh
0:19:02 retracted after the act and you know
0:19:04 it's it's all a very subjective thing
0:19:06 and so it's it's illegally problematic
0:19:09 category and because it's this new
0:19:12 category uh in law
0:19:16 you won't find it in the past right and
0:19:19 and in all types of legal cultures you
0:19:21 won't you won't find it in the way that
0:19:23 it is now you won't find it in the past
0:19:25 the only
0:19:27 um
0:19:28 way that consent mattered with this
0:19:30 respect to sexual relations in Islamic
0:19:33 law is that if a man had sex with a
0:19:37 woman and uh they weren't married and
0:19:39 they had sex and they both consented to
0:19:41 it then they were both guilty of
0:19:43 adultery or legal fornification uh but
0:19:46 if the woman
0:19:48 um did not consent and the man just
0:19:51 forced himself on her then the fact that
0:19:53 she didn't consent would save her for
0:19:55 many punishment because a woman that is
0:19:57 raped not punished
0:19:59 um and that's another thing that the
0:20:01 anti-islam folks will claim that uh
0:20:05 Islam punishes a rape victim which is
0:20:07 absolutely not true yeah I mean I I've
0:20:10 heard people say this and I mean you
0:20:11 provide a lot of detailed historical
0:20:13 evidence from the earliest sources from
0:20:15 impeccable sources uh from the sahaba
0:20:18 from the prophets from the caliphs and
0:20:19 so on of course it was uh uh you know
0:20:22 rape was condemned and the rapist was
0:20:25 punished
0:20:26 um and the person who was raped the
0:20:28 victim wasn't uh and uh there's such
0:20:31 abundance of mainstream uh clear
0:20:34 evidence uh Sunni from the Sunni Squad I
0:20:37 don't know about the sheer evidence but
0:20:38 there's only evidence to to be it's
0:20:40 beyond dispute that this is clear-cut
0:20:43 and yet as you say Justin uh there's a
0:20:46 lie because it is a lie because it's
0:20:47 based on a falsehood
0:20:50 um it is continues to to circulate and
0:20:52 uh and I I do wonder sometimes why
0:20:55 people do that you know disagree with
0:20:57 Islam if you must but don't lie about it
0:20:59 you know that represent it truthfully
0:21:01 objectively
0:21:03 yeah I agree I think they just throw all
0:21:05 the mud at the wall and hope something
0:21:06 sticks yes I think that's what they do
0:21:10 uh but on that point I did mention I
0:21:13 cited Imam attitude who was the early
0:21:16 Hadith scholar so he's one of the
0:21:18 earliest Scholars there is and uh also
0:21:23 even abdulbar who is an authority in the
0:21:27 Maliki school also a classical scholar
0:21:29 very early and they both reported a
0:21:32 consensus on the fact that the woman is
0:21:34 not punished if she's raped
0:21:37 um so that and that's and and I'm sure
0:21:40 there's a lot of other Scholars who have
0:21:41 said that but that there's a consensus
0:21:43 on that legally that a a rape victim is
0:21:46 not is not punished uh for what happened
0:21:49 to her
0:21:51 um so
0:21:52 consent being a problematic issue and I
0:21:55 did cite two books modern books where uh
0:21:59 lawyers were were pointing out the fact
0:22:01 that consent is a problematic issue
0:22:04 um and it just doesn't exist in
0:22:05 classical Islamic law Islamic law uh
0:22:09 because it it's kind of an uncoherent
0:22:11 category it's it's too subjective
0:22:14 and um
0:22:16 even the West hasn't figured out
0:22:20 all the details of it there's just
0:22:22 there's just there's just problems with
0:22:24 that so so that that's the problem with
0:22:27 the consent only like the consent is
0:22:30 only is what makes sex legal uh that's a
0:22:34 problem because it's subjective and and
0:22:36 uh it can be withdrawn and at any point
0:22:39 and
0:22:40 you know there's a lot of problems with
0:22:42 that
0:22:43 uh but anyway as we were saying and then
0:22:46 I talked about and I have to talk a
0:22:47 little bit about uh slavery
0:22:51 um and as we said that the freeing of
0:22:53 slaves is always praised in the Quran
0:22:55 and Sunnah
0:22:57 uh by the prophet sallallahu alaihi
0:22:59 wasallam himself and that the
0:23:01 acquisition of slaves could only be done
0:23:03 as a result of War so these were
0:23:07 prisoners of war and then so they were
0:23:09 taken as slaves because
0:23:11 you know what else are you going to do
0:23:12 with them you're going to kill them all
0:23:13 I mean
0:23:15 that would be barbaric right so what are
0:23:19 you going to do yeah you have to do
0:23:21 something with them so they would be
0:23:22 taken as slaves
0:23:25 um
0:23:26 so you know many ways to free slaves
0:23:29 very few ways to acquire slaves and then
0:23:33 the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
0:23:35 he elevated the status of slaves so he
0:23:39 said that
0:23:41 um the only uh the only thing that makes
0:23:45 somebody better than another is the
0:23:48 Tuple of Allah Their Fear of Allah their
0:23:50 mindfulness of Allah and not any kind of
0:23:53 worldly status or anything like that he
0:23:55 referred to slaves as your brothers and
0:23:57 sisters
0:23:59 and he encouraged uh the masters of
0:24:03 slaves to eat
0:24:05 and uh for their slaves to eat the same
0:24:09 food they eat and to wear the same
0:24:10 clothes that they wear as the master so
0:24:14 there wouldn't be a distinguished there
0:24:16 wouldn't be a way to distinguish between
0:24:18 the master and the slave because they're
0:24:20 eating the same things they're they're
0:24:22 wearing the same things
0:24:24 um and so you know that's kind of
0:24:27 raising them to a level of equality that
0:24:29 they wouldn't have had uh otherwise
0:24:33 you you quote uh the prophet upon him
0:24:36 your peace uh saying this is a quote
0:24:38 from uh Hadith in Muslim let not one of
0:24:41 you say my slave boy and my slave girl
0:24:45 all of you are slaves of Allah and all
0:24:49 of your women are slaves of Allah rather
0:24:52 let him say my young man and my young
0:24:55 woman end of quote so there's attempt
0:24:58 there to uh get away from uh you know
0:25:00 this degrading language and you you you
0:25:03 then comment by this description in
0:25:05 Slave people were no longer conceived of
0:25:07 as merely dehumanized property to be
0:25:10 used as they are in Aristotle for
0:25:12 example where they're not even human
0:25:15 to be abused and discarded at whim but
0:25:18 rather they were now brothers and
0:25:20 sisters in faith like family members
0:25:23 entitled as you as you say to equal food
0:25:25 and clothing
0:25:26 um as their custodian and protection
0:25:29 from harm
0:25:31 um and I I do question really I mean
0:25:33 it's just I'm not historian thing but
0:25:34 whether or not the word slavery is
0:25:36 really the right word in English Rick in
0:25:38 Arabic is the right word to use because
0:25:40 it has as you said earlier all the
0:25:42 connotations of a particularly brutal
0:25:44 racial uh institution of slavery in the
0:25:48 United States before the Civil War and
0:25:50 it kind of caused the Civil War in
0:25:52 America I want it really it is so
0:25:55 different from that what we're talking
0:25:57 about in Islam I'm wondering if it's
0:25:59 really appropriate to use the same word
0:26:01 because all it does today is trigger
0:26:03 people to think in terms of the North
0:26:05 American Experience of racial slavery
0:26:08 rather than the much more humanized uh
0:26:11 realities we see in Islam and even that
0:26:14 as you said earlier has now effectively
0:26:17 or functionally ceased to exist because
0:26:19 of the the agreements that Muslim
0:26:21 nations have made uh with the United
0:26:23 Nations on this so I I don't know do you
0:26:26 think we should use this word anymore
0:26:27 um or other words sometimes a bondsman
0:26:31 or uh those other kind of euphemisms
0:26:34 that are used anyway
0:26:36 yeah I I I I I don't like to use the
0:26:39 word slave
0:26:40 um I just haven't thought of a better
0:26:42 word to to say uh bondsman maybe sir I
0:26:46 always say servant maybe
0:26:50 um but on that point uh the Quran
0:26:54 doesn't refer to it only refers to
0:26:57 slaves in the sense of everybody's a
0:27:00 slave of Allah
0:27:01 the term that the Quran uses those
0:27:08 who are in the custodianship of your
0:27:12 right hand and I and I use the in people
0:27:15 will translate this as the ownership of
0:27:17 your right hand but that would imply
0:27:20 that their property and I don't think
0:27:22 and that's not the the the the the the
0:27:26 that's not the meaning of why that term
0:27:28 was used so
0:27:30 um uh when mammalak had a manukum is
0:27:33 mentioned in the Quran uh there was the
0:27:37 scholar El portavi who's a classical
0:27:40 scholar 13th century I think uh I have a
0:27:44 quote from him and he was talking about
0:27:46 how the right hand was used because the
0:27:49 right hand is The Honorable hand the
0:27:52 right hand is what you use to shake
0:27:53 hands it's what you use to uh do
0:27:57 honorable clean things like that and the
0:27:59 left hand is kind of the dirty hand that
0:28:01 you use to clean your backside and
0:28:04 everything like that so in uh Arab
0:28:06 culture the right hand is like the
0:28:08 honored hands so these are so slaves
0:28:12 I'll just say slaves quote unquote are
0:28:15 those who are in your right hand right
0:28:18 and you and this the ma the master
0:28:23 of the slave I'm slave I'm just gonna
0:28:26 use that term
0:28:28 yeah the the slaves
0:28:32 um are in the right hand so they're in
0:28:34 an honorable position and that's why I
0:28:37 thought it was most appropriate to
0:28:39 transfer uh to translate that phrase as
0:28:42 custodianship of the right hand because
0:28:45 of Portuguese he mentions the fact that
0:28:48 the right hand is The Honorable hand and
0:28:50 then he talks about how you have to be
0:28:52 just and fair with your slaves and you
0:28:54 have to treat them gently uh there's a
0:28:57 Hadith the prophet sallam was asked how
0:29:01 many excuses should I give my slave or
0:29:04 servant in a day in the Pro the prophet
0:29:06 said 70 times a day right so they make a
0:29:10 mistake 70 times a day you give them
0:29:12 excuse 70 times a day so being gentle
0:29:15 with them and not let mistreating them
0:29:17 and not giving them more work than
0:29:19 they're capable of doing
0:29:21 and even the servants that the prophet
0:29:23 salallahu alaihi wasallam had if there
0:29:25 was something very difficult they
0:29:26 couldn't do by themselves he would go
0:29:28 out and help them
0:29:30 do whatever the task was and isn't it
0:29:32 isn't there in a verse in the Quran
0:29:34 talks about a contract and a um a slave
0:29:37 as you call it uh with the uh the
0:29:40 custodian
0:29:41 um what could you explain a bit more
0:29:42 about this because when I first came
0:29:44 across it I've never come across
0:29:45 anything like it before and I thought
0:29:46 certainly not in the Bible anyway
0:29:48 Music
0:29:49 yeah so there is a verse in the Quran
0:29:52 that if the slave wants to have their
0:29:55 freedom
0:29:57 um and and just as a side point if if a
0:30:00 slave was in a very nice rich household
0:30:03 they might kind of want to just stay
0:30:04 there if they're being treated really
0:30:05 well and everything that that's just a
0:30:08 side point but uh the Quran says that if
0:30:11 there's a slave who would like their
0:30:13 freedom then the the master has to make
0:30:16 a contract with conditions that after
0:30:21 such and such time they're going to
0:30:22 become free so then it can they kind of
0:30:25 enter this indentured servant
0:30:28 uh period and then at the end of that
0:30:31 they uh they're set free wow so again
0:30:35 another way for slaves to kind of earn
0:30:38 their freedom and and and and and get
0:30:40 out of the situation I'm also supposed
0:30:42 to give of their wealth I think the
0:30:43 Quran says isn't it it's supposed to
0:30:44 give all their wealth to facilitate this
0:30:46 so it just cost the uh the the custodian
0:30:49 or whatever uh it does cost them and
0:30:51 this is commanded in the Quran this is
0:30:53 not a legal opinion
0:30:56 exactly so
0:30:58 um so yet again another Avenue for for
0:31:03 slaves my new mission is I'm just going
0:31:05 to keep using that word I'm really sorry
0:31:07 but like okay so I don't I didn't mean
0:31:10 to introduce a complicated in fact I was
0:31:12 I was just uh it's just a triggering you
0:31:14 know the way that connotations are
0:31:16 certain words today create false
0:31:18 understandings and impressions of
0:31:20 people's minds when it comes to
0:31:21 discussing Islam as if as if the
0:31:23 institution of slavery was universally
0:31:25 the same throughout history and
0:31:28 throughout cultures and it's something
0:31:30 that Jonathan Brown labors some
0:31:32 brilliant effect in his book uh slavery
0:31:33 in Islam where he looks at many
0:31:35 different kinds of institutions of
0:31:37 slavery throughout history from the very
0:31:39 very brutal uh examples we see
0:31:41 unfortunately in North America
0:31:42 to the American Civil War to very benign
0:31:45 forms which we see uh in Islam which are
0:31:49 almost unrecognizable uh you know you
0:31:51 think wow you know and the way that some
0:31:54 rulers of Muslim empires
0:31:56 you know people of great power and
0:31:59 Status were slaves in the Muslim world I
0:32:02 mean the most extraordinary range in
0:32:04 diversity uh and spectrum of experiences
0:32:08 if you think of a slave as a downtrodden
0:32:10 uh victim think again because as I say
0:32:13 in I forget if it's the mom look I
0:32:15 forget the exact Empire I'm sure you
0:32:17 know uh slaves were rulers of Empires
0:32:21 and they had concubines believe it or
0:32:24 not they commanded armies
0:32:27 um so you know we have to abandon I
0:32:30 think this language in these categories
0:32:31 uh before we begin to think about Islam
0:32:34 and slavery uh otherwise we would just
0:32:36 fail to uh under understand what's
0:32:39 really going on and the experience of
0:32:40 slaves in history was so diverse and so
0:32:43 radically different uh unrecognizable as
0:32:47 a as a unitary uh concept it really kind
0:32:51 of breaks down I think after a while
0:32:53 yep it does the the mamluk Dynasty uh
0:32:57 ma'am Luke is another word for slave
0:33:00 right and so they they became a dynasty
0:33:03 because they were um
0:33:05 uh soldiers that were slaves and then
0:33:09 they ended up having their own Dynasty
0:33:11 so yeah it's been totally different it
0:33:14 was totally different all throughout
0:33:15 history than just the American
0:33:17 experience and uh the uh prophet
0:33:21 sallallahu alaihi wasallam he actually
0:33:23 has a Hadith that he says you have to
0:33:24 obey Your Leader even if a slave is
0:33:27 appointed over you
0:33:29 um and so slaves could have positions of
0:33:33 authority you know which is
0:33:35 counterintuitive to us in the west how
0:33:37 can maybe you know because you're a
0:33:38 victim you're an oppressed victim but
0:33:40 because sometimes of course they were as
0:33:43 we have said but sometimes they weren't
0:33:44 so sometimes they had great power
0:33:47 yeah yeah it was it was a it was an
0:33:51 economic
0:33:53 um relationship uh it had to do with the
0:33:56 economy of how the world
0:33:59 organically developed into that
0:34:02 system but
0:34:04 uh anyway so
0:34:07 uh so we talked you know the prophet
0:34:09 saws
0:34:12 made slaves equal to the Believers
0:34:16 um
0:34:16 call them brothers and sisters
0:34:19 um and there is a Hadith I mentioned
0:34:21 here that the prophet sallam he
0:34:23 condemned the kidnapping of Free People
0:34:26 Into Slavery so uh it's a Hadith kudzi
0:34:31 so he's he said that Allah said Iola
0:34:33 pose the one who enslaves a free person
0:34:37 and consumes their price
0:34:39 and I I tried to go find the book where
0:34:42 I found that cited but the scholar who
0:34:45 cited it it was a western scholar and he
0:34:48 said that effectively cut off the the
0:34:50 the kidnapping slave trade uh as a means
0:34:55 of of acquiring slaves and as we know
0:34:58 you know a lot of the
0:34:59 maybe all of the slaves that were
0:35:01 shipped to America they were all
0:35:03 kidnapped right you know they were they
0:35:05 were taken from their lands against
0:35:07 their will
0:35:09 um and many it was interesting that has
0:35:11 now come out and many of these slaves
0:35:12 that ended up in in what became America
0:35:15 in the United States were Muslims
0:35:16 actually and the numbers very wildly but
0:35:19 we could be talking about millions of
0:35:21 enslaved black Africans from Africa who
0:35:25 were Muslims taken to what became the
0:35:27 United States to be owned by Christian
0:35:29 owners and so the the some of the the
0:35:32 earliest inhabitants uh albeit as slaves
0:35:35 in what became America were Muslims
0:35:38 actually in huge numbers and they were
0:35:41 enslaved by Christians and they were
0:35:43 owned by Christians so here we have a
0:35:45 phenomena of a Christian civilization
0:35:47 owning Muslim slaves
0:35:50 um also known as the United States of
0:35:52 America I mean you couldn't make this up
0:35:53 it's so extraordinary and this story has
0:35:56 been lost historically recently
0:35:59 recovered hasn't it the uh the the sheer
0:36:01 number of Muslim slaves that were
0:36:02 forcibly captured and kidnapped from
0:36:06 Africa and taken to Christian the
0:36:09 Christian West
0:36:10 um well of course they were not free uh
0:36:13 uh to practice their faith and and they
0:36:15 had to do so in secret
0:36:18 um because obviously the Christian
0:36:20 owners uh unfortunately uh you know uh
0:36:23 prohibited them have beat them if they
0:36:25 practice their faith as Muslims well
0:36:27 there's other way around in Islam of
0:36:28 course Christians are uh uh free in in
0:36:32 the Sharia uh to have their own faith
0:36:34 and practice their faith freely it's
0:36:36 part of what it says that in the Quran
0:36:38 and the Sunnah so it's a terrible story
0:36:40 that Muslims have been in what is as
0:36:42 people are saying what became America
0:36:43 because America didn't exist then it was
0:36:45 a British colony but uh Christian owned
0:36:47 a Christian's own slave owners own
0:36:49 Muslim slaves in huge numbers right at
0:36:51 the early years
0:36:53 yeah that's right
0:36:55 um
0:36:56 so this kidnapping against slaves this
0:36:58 is
0:36:59 Big Time Haram in Islam Allah Allah uh
0:37:03 through the prophet salallahu made big
0:37:05 warning about that Allah will oppose him
0:37:07 on the day of Resurrection
0:37:09 um and then uh I mentioned here that the
0:37:13 uh there was a slave I'm sorry uh
0:37:16 servant let's just say servant okay
0:37:18 seven from now on yeah there is a a bond
0:37:23 servant okay there was a bond servant in
0:37:26 the presence of the prophet sallam and
0:37:29 the owner slapped him across the face
0:37:31 and it's Haram to slap anybody in the
0:37:33 face in Islam and uh the prophet
0:37:37 salallahu ordered that man to free that
0:37:41 slave just because he had been slapped
0:37:42 on the face right so you even that was
0:37:45 comparatively mild form of abuse was it
0:37:48 was enough for that slave to be set free
0:37:52 and to be fair the jurist said that that
0:37:54 was recommended but you know if we want
0:37:57 to follow the prophet salallahu that's
0:37:59 what he ordered us to do
0:38:01 um there was another incident where
0:38:04 um in the time of armor the second
0:38:07 caliphon may Allah be pleased with him
0:38:09 uh there was a female slave a concubine
0:38:12 Bond servant Justin I'm sorry Bond
0:38:16 servants made servant
0:38:18 um she uh she was a concubine and the
0:38:22 owner had hit her with a hot iron so he
0:38:24 heated up the iron stick and he hit her
0:38:26 with it and Omar ordered her to be set
0:38:30 free because of that
0:38:33 um so you know we have those examples
0:38:35 and then the prophet sallallahu alaihi
0:38:37 wasallam said in another tradition that
0:38:40 the evil slave master will not go to
0:38:42 paradise the evil slave master will not
0:38:45 go to paradise so again that's a huge
0:38:48 warning uh to anyone who had people
0:38:52 under their custodianship right that uh
0:38:56 they would not go to paradise if they
0:38:58 were evil to their slaves right
0:39:01 or they would have to go
0:39:03 uh if they had some redeeming qualities
0:39:06 they would have to go to Hellfire for a
0:39:08 long time and then they might go to
0:39:09 paradise but that that's a whole other
0:39:11 theological question but the warning
0:39:14 here is that the evil Master will not go
0:39:16 to paradise if he's evil to the people
0:39:18 who are under his authority
0:39:21 um
0:39:22 so now we move to concubineage and uh
0:39:27 concubines they had rice just as slaves
0:39:30 had rights as I said they were not
0:39:32 allowed to be harmed they could own
0:39:34 property
0:39:36 um they would be educated you know they
0:39:39 would have they would have to learn the
0:39:40 Quran and they would learn Islamic
0:39:42 knowledge and and other other types of
0:39:45 knowledge so they had rights so they
0:39:48 weren't just like pieces of property
0:39:49 that you would just hand around and
0:39:51 everything and it was an exclusive
0:39:53 relationship as I said with the
0:39:56 custodian I guess I wouldn't say master
0:39:58 the custodian of the concubine
0:40:02 um
0:40:02 uh
0:40:04 uh he had an exclusive relationship with
0:40:07 her as if it was a marriage and what's
0:40:09 interesting if you go to Lisa and Arab
0:40:12 by even manler which is the the
0:40:14 preeminent classical Arabic lexicon uh
0:40:19 the word for concubine it Surya is
0:40:23 linguistically related to Nika which is
0:40:26 marriage right so the word for
0:40:28 concubineage is linguistically related
0:40:31 to marriage and because there's a
0:40:33 similarity there right
0:40:35 and then I mentioned some examples of
0:40:38 the classical jurists that they made
0:40:40 legal analogies so this is PS this is
0:40:43 part of the usula the principles and the
0:40:47 sources of Islamic laws to make analogy
0:40:49 between cases if it applies to this case
0:40:52 and in this case is similar then the
0:40:54 ruling is the same so they made the same
0:40:57 ruling between
0:41:00 um
0:41:00 uh
0:41:02 uh a married woman and a concubine and
0:41:05 one of those for example was that
0:41:08 uh you know Muslims are not allowed to
0:41:11 marry idolaters right but they're
0:41:13 allowed to marry Jews and Christians uh
0:41:16 but Muslims are not allowed to have
0:41:19 concubines who are idolaters but they
0:41:22 can have concubines who are Jews and
0:41:24 Christians and the reason for that is
0:41:25 because they made this analogy between
0:41:27 marriage and it concubine there's a
0:41:31 spiritual compatibility if uh perhaps
0:41:33 you know if you have a Jewish concubine
0:41:35 there's a compatibility there in terms
0:41:37 of World Views and spirituality but if
0:41:39 you if a conqueria is an idolater he
0:41:41 worships Idol that you know how can
0:41:43 there be this
0:41:44 but not marriage but you know have those
0:41:47 qualities of relationship there's
0:41:49 something I didn't know until I read
0:41:50 your your paper that concubine you I
0:41:51 thought the concubines was just
0:41:52 unrestricted but actually it's not you
0:41:54 couldn't uh you were never allowed to
0:41:56 have a concubine uh as you say he was
0:41:59 not of the people of the book uh so that
0:42:01 really restricts it uh quite quite quite
0:42:04 radically
0:42:05 yeah absolutely and that also goes to
0:42:08 show you the way it's more like marriage
0:42:11 because uh Muslim manner I'm allowed to
0:42:14 marry Jews and Christians because
0:42:16 they're they're they do have that
0:42:17 spiritual compatibility and then they
0:42:19 can have an intimate relationship you
0:42:22 know that is supposed to be based on
0:42:24 Love and Affection as the Quran says
0:42:26 that marriage is based on Love and
0:42:29 Affection so a similar type of
0:42:31 relationship uh would happen between the
0:42:35 custodian and the concubine because it's
0:42:38 not
0:42:38 um because again they're not property
0:42:40 they're not
0:42:42 um just things that I can use and
0:42:45 discard you know they're they're like a
0:42:47 wife like you have an intimate
0:42:48 relationship with them right you love
0:42:50 them that's that's how it was uh that's
0:42:54 how it was supposed to be right like a
0:42:56 marriage right
0:42:57 uh and then I talked about how is sexual
0:43:01 relations viewed in Islam in general
0:43:04 and I have some quotes here that there
0:43:07 the scholars have said that you know the
0:43:09 purpose of sexual intercourse is mutual
0:43:12 pleasurability right both parties are
0:43:15 supposed to enjoy it it's not just
0:43:17 something that the man enjoys the woman
0:43:19 is supposed to also enjoy it as well
0:43:23 um and the handbally scholars I I
0:43:26 believe it's 10 Billy Scholars they even
0:43:28 say it's an obligation for a man to have
0:43:31 intercourse with his wife on a regular
0:43:34 basis because she has the right to
0:43:36 sexual pleasure right so
0:43:40 um they didn't what my point when
0:43:42 mentioning all that is that they
0:43:44 understood that sex is a mutually
0:43:47 pleasurable activity it's not male
0:43:49 Conquest you know I had sex with so many
0:43:52 women I can do whatever I want you know
0:43:55 I can you know uh I'm not I'm you know
0:43:57 they're not pick up you know men aren't
0:43:59 supposed to be pickup artists you know
0:44:00 they go and have sex here they're
0:44:02 they're there it didn't work like that
0:44:04 you know it's not like a sexual Conquest
0:44:06 type of uh view that they had so they
0:44:10 understood that sex is a mutually
0:44:12 pleasurable activity and you know that
0:44:16 would uh seem to contradict the idea
0:44:18 that a custodian is going to be raping
0:44:21 his concubine
0:44:22 so um
0:44:25 you have a lovely paragraph in your
0:44:27 articles I've linked to in the
0:44:29 description below on masculinity in
0:44:31 Islam which is actually incredibly
0:44:34 um pertinent considering what's what's
0:44:35 been going on in social media uh
0:44:38 recently you you just quotient you say
0:44:39 our shafi's sensitivity to the concerns
0:44:42 of women were likely influenced by his
0:44:44 understanding of traditional Islamic
0:44:46 masculinity
0:44:49 the eponymous founder of the the Shafi
0:44:52 legal School the Mad Hub so incredibly
0:44:54 important scholar in early Islam and he
0:44:56 said manhood is based on four pillars a
0:44:59 good character generosity humility and
0:45:02 devotion uh and then you say uh the
0:45:06 righteous predecessors did not conceive
0:45:08 of masculinity as involving alpha male
0:45:11 or pickup artist behaviors a true man in
0:45:14 Islam isn't is Honorable to women
0:45:16 selfless humble and gentle not
0:45:20 domineering or abusive and then you
0:45:23 quote another scholar what is and
0:45:25 there's a uh who died in 687 uh one of
0:45:28 the very earliest Scholars what is
0:45:30 manhood uh this poster scholar was asked
0:45:33 forbearance he said in a time of anger
0:45:35 and forgiveness in a time of power and
0:45:40 then you quote other Scholars as well so
0:45:42 uh very relevant today where many of us
0:45:44 think that masculinity is like an of an
0:45:47 alpha male kind of character where you
0:45:50 know picking up women and so on and this
0:45:51 is not the Islamic model of masculinity
0:45:53 at all which is a very elevated I think
0:45:55 very honorable uh um conception of what
0:45:58 it is to be a man
0:46:01 yeah in in fact those quotes are from uh
0:46:04 kitab al-muro uh muru uh is the
0:46:08 uh the classical name for
0:46:12 um masculinity or manhood
0:46:15 um and he has all the I forget the
0:46:18 author's name escapes me right now but
0:46:20 he has all of these
0:46:22 sayings about what
0:46:26 like what does the true man like
0:46:29 um and so uh that that has already been
0:46:32 defined in classical Islamic law you
0:46:35 know and and it and and it can be worlds
0:46:37 away from how
0:46:39 different cultures or our own culture
0:46:41 today conceives of Mass Community
0:46:44 um but I I would uh unfortunately it's
0:46:47 not translated but any man who is
0:46:50 struggling with this
0:46:52 topic I I believe Imam dawood Walid
0:46:56 wrote a book
0:46:58 is uh means chivalry
0:47:02 um and he brought a lot of these
0:47:04 narrations as well so that's the that's
0:47:07 the big book in English
0:47:11 different subject in Thai but this is
0:47:13 something that was is associated with uh
0:47:16 you know medieval knights in the west
0:47:18 they have a chivalrous night but this
0:47:19 actually comes from Islam this predates
0:47:22 it by many centuries uh this was this uh
0:47:25 when Islam was a dominant civilization
0:47:26 in the world that these Noble
0:47:28 characteristics were then picked up in
0:47:31 uh non the non-muslim Christian Europe
0:47:33 uh and followed by the knights the
0:47:36 medieval knights and then it became
0:47:37 indigenous to Europe of course
0:47:40 yep
0:47:41 so um
0:47:43 yeah so so that was how manhood
0:47:47 masculinity was conceived by early
0:47:50 Muslims include the included things like
0:47:52 gentleness and and honorableness good
0:47:55 character all those kinds of things
0:47:58 um and then I move to the section on the
0:48:02 prohibition of sexual harm
0:48:05 um and I'm uh put here that Islamic law
0:48:10 prohibits harm and principle
0:48:14 so there's a saying of the Prophet
0:48:16 sallallahu alaihi wasallam
0:48:18 there's no harm or reciprocating harm
0:48:22 so my my mentor explained it as as
0:48:26 there's no harm coming to you there's no
0:48:28 harm coming from you that's the way he
0:48:30 explained it to me so you're not allowed
0:48:32 to harm yourself you're not allowed to
0:48:33 harm others and the only exception to
0:48:36 that is if you have to harm somebody
0:48:38 else that's to avoid a greater harm so
0:48:40 and I I believe I cited uh those
0:48:44 principles and that exact Hadith became
0:48:46 the exact legal Maxim just verbatim
0:48:50 interesting um so that's the that's the
0:48:53 legal principle that animates all of the
0:48:56 rules in Islam you know that you're
0:48:58 allowed to harm yourself you're not
0:48:59 allowed to harm others and the only
0:49:01 exception to that is if you have to uh
0:49:04 do some harm in order to avoid a greater
0:49:07 harm so you know that how does that
0:49:10 apply to uh rape and concubine right and
0:49:14 then I uh I put some quotes of some
0:49:17 jurists I believe
0:49:19 and they said that it's not permissible
0:49:21 to have
0:49:22 uh intercourse with your wife and by
0:49:26 extension your concubine if that's going
0:49:28 to harm her
0:49:30 and
0:49:31 um what they meant uh part of what what
0:49:35 they meant is that you know if it's a
0:49:36 really big man and a really small woman
0:49:38 and he's going to crush her if he gets
0:49:40 on top of her you know you know that's
0:49:41 you're not allowed to have sex
0:49:44 because a petite woman a little woman
0:49:46 yeah yeah a petite woman
0:49:49 um but the by extension you know like
0:49:53 say you have a concubine you're a
0:49:55 custodian you have a concubine and you
0:49:58 wanted to have sex with her and she says
0:50:00 no and then the only way you can have
0:50:01 sex with her is by beating her up and
0:50:04 forcing it upon her well you're harming
0:50:06 her and the only way to have set
0:50:07 intercourse with her is by harming her
0:50:09 and therefore it's unlawful right so
0:50:13 that same principle I think applies like
0:50:16 it you know she says no and you and the
0:50:20 only way to have intercourse with her is
0:50:23 to beat her up slap her
0:50:26 kick her whatever you know that that
0:50:29 that kicking and slapping all that is
0:50:32 Haram right and slaves aren't allowed to
0:50:34 be armed that way
0:50:37 um
0:50:37 so that that's the uh prohibition of
0:50:42 sexual harm
0:50:44 um and then I have a quote from
0:50:45 evantemia and he says that intimate
0:50:47 intimacy and intercourse must be done
0:50:49 according to what is customarily good so
0:50:52 what's my roof so what is well known to
0:50:56 be good in society and custom so
0:51:00 um you know and that might change over
0:51:02 time but the point is
0:51:05 um that uh we know that like forcing a
0:51:09 woman into intercourse when she doesn't
0:51:12 want to have it
0:51:14 even if like they're married or or they
0:51:16 have a legally valid reason for doing
0:51:19 that that's that's not customarily good
0:51:21 right that's that's
0:51:23 not uh According to Islamic masculinity
0:51:26 for example so I had that quote
0:51:30 um and then I have several quotes of the
0:51:32 prophet and joining us to be good to
0:51:35 women
0:51:36 The Best of You are those who are the
0:51:37 best to their women
0:51:39 right so and uh the Quran says
0:51:44 and live with them honorably live with
0:51:47 them in kindness live with them in Good
0:51:49 Conduct that is a command in the Quran
0:51:51 right that's not a recommendation you
0:51:53 know Allah commands us to live with
0:51:56 women
0:51:57 in according to Good Conduct according
0:52:00 to kindness according to the best
0:52:02 treatment right
0:52:04 and again how does you know rape doesn't
0:52:06 it obviously is it a part of that
0:52:08 uh so we talked about uh Islamic manhood
0:52:12 Music
0:52:13 um now let's talk about rape just rape
0:52:16 uh in general just not not with wives or
0:52:21 concubines but just rape in general what
0:52:24 is the ruling on that what are the
0:52:26 caliphs or the jurists
0:52:29 tell you about that so the Juris
0:52:32 classified rape
0:52:34 asina so uh compulsion to commit
0:52:38 adultery compulsion to commit illegal
0:52:40 for fornication
0:52:42 and I have put the whole chain there
0:52:46 that this is an unbroken rule that has
0:52:50 come from the prophet sallallahu alaihi
0:52:53 wasallam to today right because you're
0:52:55 not allowed to rape women today in
0:52:57 Muslim countries and that goes all the
0:52:59 way back to the prophet salallahu
0:53:01 so I uh cited there was an example in
0:53:05 the life of the Prophet salallahu or a
0:53:08 woman's rape and he punished the rapist
0:53:10 uh all four caliphs uh had uh cases of
0:53:15 rape that were brought to them and they
0:53:17 punished the rapists and um and then as
0:53:20 I mentioned before uh that there was the
0:53:23 woman who was not physically harmed but
0:53:25 she was coerced into having sex with
0:53:27 this man because he was withholding
0:53:30 water from her and she had no choice and
0:53:33 that was considered rape uh according to
0:53:35 alib so rape isn't even necessarily a
0:53:39 physical act if it it it it could be
0:53:41 coerced in other ways and lectured in
0:53:45 other ways right and that goes back to
0:53:46 the caliphs the four calips that's yeah
0:53:48 Ali was the fourth vacation the
0:53:50 son-in-law the prophet himself in early
0:53:53 Islam so yeah this is a extremely
0:53:56 serious ruling and and binding you know
0:53:59 yep
0:54:00 uh we mentioned that there's a legal
0:54:02 consensus that though that the woman who
0:54:05 is the victim of rape is not punished so
0:54:07 we we cited that
0:54:09 um
0:54:09 and then I showed that concubineage has
0:54:13 to be authorized by the ruler yeah in
0:54:17 the same way that a marriage has to be
0:54:19 authorized yeah so the marriage has to
0:54:22 be public you know there's there's
0:54:24 usually a written contract that's called
0:54:26 right which is related to the word for
0:54:30 concubine it yeah yeah
0:54:33 and I gave the story of uh
0:54:38 I don't believe he was a companion but
0:54:40 he was in the time of Ahmad the second
0:54:43 Caleb his name was durarar imminent
0:54:46 and he was you know out on the front
0:54:50 lines and they had a battle and they you
0:54:53 know they won the battle and they had
0:54:54 taken some prisoners and there was a
0:54:56 woman there that was very beautiful and
0:54:58 he was very
0:54:59 very Smitten by her and uh he just
0:55:03 couldn't help himself and then he had
0:55:04 intercourse with her right and it
0:55:07 doesn't say that he raped her or he
0:55:09 forced her but he said he had
0:55:10 intercourse with her maybe she she you
0:55:12 know she uh
0:55:14 volunteered for it that narration
0:55:17 doesn't say but then it they wrote back
0:55:20 to Amar and they said
0:55:22 you know he
0:55:24 uh had sex with this uh
0:55:27 prisoner of war who was a woman right
0:55:29 and so Omar wrote back and said he's
0:55:31 going to punish him for adultery right
0:55:34 wow which is it could be a death uh yeah
0:55:37 yeah
0:55:38 and and I guess for his own sake he died
0:55:41 before that that ruling yeah natural
0:55:45 causes uh which was a relief
0:55:49 so
0:55:50 um the point of that story was because
0:55:53 you know the anti-islam crowd they say
0:55:56 oh the Muslims come in and then they
0:55:58 kill everybody and they rape all the
0:56:00 women and it's just out of it's just
0:56:02 Mayhem and they just rape whoever they
0:56:04 want and that wasn't the case at all
0:56:07 right they they took prisoners right but
0:56:11 then they didn't just have sex with
0:56:12 whoever they wanted to right the the
0:56:15 caliph or the commander had to authorize
0:56:18 the relationship
0:56:19 because it had to be a documented thing
0:56:21 like a marriage right so he the problem
0:56:25 that durar had is that he had this
0:56:28 relationship with a slave woman and he
0:56:30 or prisoner of war who was a woman
0:56:33 and he had it without authorization and
0:56:35 so then that was considered adultery
0:56:38 wow so I have that story
0:56:41 um I mentioned that the concubine who
0:56:44 gives birth
0:56:46 uh her custodian uh gives birth to a
0:56:51 child from her custodian then she's
0:56:53 called um the mother of the child and
0:56:58 um if and when her custodian dies then
0:57:01 she becomes free and
0:57:04 um it is also not permissible to
0:57:06 separate her from her children
0:57:08 because I know in American slavery they
0:57:10 did they did this and it was very
0:57:12 heartbreaking where they would sell the
0:57:13 mother here and the child there and the
0:57:15 father there and they just didn't give
0:57:17 regard to breaking up the families of
0:57:20 slaves because they were treated like
0:57:22 property uh but they're our jurists
0:57:26 uh they prohibited that so you know a
0:57:29 mother and a child and uh the husband or
0:57:34 or
0:57:35 slaves
0:57:37 could marry by the way you know so there
0:57:40 was a family and they were they were
0:57:42 slave they were
0:57:44 bonds people
0:57:45 they couldn't be separated right our
0:57:48 jurists prohibited that and and there's
0:57:50 a Hadith from the prophet who prohibited
0:57:54 that exactly separating the the family
0:57:56 from their children yep okay
0:58:01 um
0:58:04 there was a point
0:58:06 that I had but it just escaped me so
0:58:10 anyway we'll move on
0:58:12 um so there are classical texts uh they
0:58:15 they actually don't speak about consent
0:58:19 uh for intercourse with concubines
0:58:24 uh
0:58:25 for the first three four centuries of a
0:58:28 slap right it just doesn't exist right
0:58:33 um and I actually quoted Kesha Ali
0:58:36 uh who's a feminist Muslim academic and
0:58:38 she
0:58:40 disagrees with me on some things but I
0:58:44 did quote her because she was correct
0:58:45 when she said that right so
0:58:48 um
0:58:49 and that's why I was saying uh we don't
0:58:51 have a legal text from before the 11th
0:58:55 or 10th Century that deals with this
0:58:57 exact issue and I said you have to look
0:59:00 at other things right we have to look at
0:59:02 how are the prophet salallahu talk about
0:59:04 treating women talked about reading
0:59:07 people under the custodianship of a
0:59:10 master
0:59:11 um and all of these other things and you
0:59:14 have to take all of that into account
0:59:15 and if you if you take all that into
0:59:17 account do you think the God-fearing
0:59:19 Muslims the Companions and there's
0:59:22 students that they that they would rape
0:59:24 a woman and then if they thought that
0:59:26 this was like corporate Behavior I mean
0:59:28 that's just that's just kind of crazy
0:59:30 and I think that
0:59:32 um they don't talk about it in those
0:59:34 early texts because it was just kind of
0:59:36 understood that that would that was like
0:59:38 terrible Behavior yeah you know
0:59:42 um and and and it did violate the
0:59:44 principle of not harming like anyone
0:59:48 um so but that's that's why
0:59:50 um
0:59:51 uh you won't you won't see it uh in in
0:59:54 those very early writings and one point
0:59:57 I want to make about this is that um
1:00:00 there's actually nothing
1:00:04 in in the Quran or the Sunnah or in
1:00:07 these early works that says you are
1:00:09 allowed to rape your slave right it does
1:00:12 not say anywhere that you are allowed to
1:00:14 rape your slave right so that people
1:00:16 making this claim the burden on the
1:00:19 burden of proof is on them to prove that
1:00:22 rape is permissible
1:00:24 and I don't think they have that proof
1:00:26 and and that's why I wrote the article
1:00:28 and I cited so much
1:00:30 you know some of my colleagues thought
1:00:32 your article's too long but I was like I
1:00:34 want to throw everything that we have
1:00:35 out there on them so just shut this
1:00:38 argument down you know
1:00:40 but there are I mean you do say at the
1:00:43 end of uh towards the end of your
1:00:44 article there's a section the
1:00:45 misinterpretation of texts mentioning
1:00:48 concubines what do you say uh you look
1:00:50 at the way some text about concubines
1:00:52 are actually cited uh on the internet
1:00:55 and presenting by ISIS you mentioned her
1:00:57 to prove an inverted commas that Islam
1:00:59 sanctions rape and there's a
1:01:02 um a particular Hadith uh found in sahih
1:01:04 uh Muslim which is commonly used uh by
1:01:08 some people to condemn Islam
1:01:11 um do you want to say a few words about
1:01:12 that and why you think that uh Hadith is
1:01:16 uh completely misinterpreted uh by
1:01:19 people who may be motivated by less than
1:01:22 honorable uh ideas when it comes to
1:01:24 Islam
1:01:25 uh yes let me pull it up exactly so the
1:01:30 Hadith is that email I'll be pleased
1:01:33 with him he was at the Battle of Hunan
1:01:36 um and they had taken some prisoners uh
1:01:39 but the companions they didn't have
1:01:41 intercourse with any of the women uh
1:01:45 because their husbands were idolaters
1:01:47 and then the wrestlers were revealed uh
1:01:50 that
1:01:51 um they could have intercourse with
1:01:54 malakats and manukum right and so if if
1:01:58 you just look at the text the text
1:02:00 doesn't say anything about forcing
1:02:02 people into sex right
1:02:05 um it's the fact that these women and
1:02:07 remember we're talking about an
1:02:08 idolatrous culture that buried baby
1:02:10 girls alive right that treated women
1:02:13 like dirt you know and so you know
1:02:16 Muslims have come and these Muslims are
1:02:19 much more well-behaved than the people
1:02:21 that they had
1:02:22 came from right so the marriages to the
1:02:27 the marriages of those women to their
1:02:29 idolatus husbands who were
1:02:32 likely mistreating them was nullified
1:02:36 and then you have to go to the
1:02:38 commentaries and the commentaries say
1:02:40 that these women converted to Islam okay
1:02:44 and so they weren't uh idolaters right
1:02:47 then so their conversion to Islam is
1:02:50 kind of a consent to this type of
1:02:52 relationship to to be a concubine right
1:02:56 and so I put that in the uh the
1:02:59 commentaries I tried to explain the um
1:03:03 context of that but that's a Hadith and
1:03:06 there are a lot of Hadith like that
1:03:08 where there are details that are
1:03:11 unstated
1:03:12 and those details are put out in the
1:03:16 commentaries which are in Arabic and
1:03:18 usually not translated
1:03:20 so
1:03:21 um we deal with a lot of problems like
1:03:23 that you know people will take this
1:03:25 Hadith and they just read into it
1:03:29 terrible things in in in their own
1:03:31 imagination
1:03:33 um but uh the details you would have to
1:03:37 know by looking at the commentaries and
1:03:38 what was the ruling that the jurist
1:03:42 uh derived from that tradition it wasn't
1:03:44 that they were allowed to rape women
1:03:46 and it wasn't that they were allowed to
1:03:48 have sex with uh prisoners of War who
1:03:52 were women who were following an
1:03:54 idolatry for religion you know because
1:03:56 all those things were prohibited so what
1:04:00 happened was that those women converted
1:04:02 to Islam right and they were still
1:04:05 prisoners at the time and so then they
1:04:08 became concubines and then they had this
1:04:10 intimate relationship with
1:04:13 uh the The Men Who
1:04:17 they were assigned to or who they chose
1:04:20 to be with right or how do you do that
1:04:23 it couldn't have been permissible to
1:04:25 have intercourse with the these women
1:04:27 because they were idolaters uh that they
1:04:29 were Muslims and there's clear
1:04:31 prohibition on that so it's it's as you
1:04:34 say in the Articles Isa Jesus uh yo
1:04:36 you're reading into the text some people
1:04:38 are reading into the text what they
1:04:39 believe to be the case rather than
1:04:41 exegesis which is a careful critical
1:04:43 understanding of what the text actually
1:04:45 says in its context as well
1:04:48 um so it is it east of Jesus versus
1:04:50 exegesis issue but motivated usually by
1:04:52 people under weaponize certain isolated
1:04:55 texts without a context to make Islam
1:04:59 look bad and that's the the agenda and
1:05:02 also you say to be fair there are some
1:05:05 individual Muslim men perhaps who also
1:05:08 have taken advantage of that
1:05:09 misinterpretation obviously to fulfill
1:05:12 their desires perhaps
1:05:14 yeah even Isis when they were uh
1:05:19 when they captured yazidi women and they
1:05:21 were having
1:05:22 uh
1:05:25 they were raping them okay and they were
1:05:28 taking them as slaves and concubines and
1:05:30 everything like that but the yazidis
1:05:32 were not
1:05:33 people of the book right so you know
1:05:37 they were they were twisting the
1:05:40 interpretation of Islam as well to do
1:05:42 those horrible things that they did
1:05:44 right but but this is what a lot of the
1:05:47 anti-islam crowd does because there's
1:05:49 there's there's thousands of Hadith
1:05:51 right and hadiths are snapshots of a
1:05:54 much broader picture right and they
1:05:57 don't
1:05:59 know the broader picture or they don't
1:06:00 care the broader picture so whenever we
1:06:03 have these little snapshots this city
1:06:05 this city this city you have to look at
1:06:08 the totality of like where does this
1:06:11 hadithi fit into The Narrative of the
1:06:13 prophet's life
1:06:15 uh peace be upon him right and you and
1:06:18 and the jurists they never just took
1:06:20 these isolated Hadith and made a ruling
1:06:22 out of it you know they they would look
1:06:24 at collections of Hadith and then try to
1:06:27 reconcile them all and then make rulings
1:06:30 that were consistent between all of them
1:06:32 right yeah Jonathan president is a
1:06:34 lovely modern analogy is as if we took a
1:06:37 a single statement from the president of
1:06:39 the United States could be Joe Biden
1:06:40 could be any any of the presidents and
1:06:42 just took that as an absolute statement
1:06:44 uh but that in any regards to all the
1:06:47 other things he may have said and the
1:06:48 occasion on which he said them so was
1:06:50 this statement said by the president in
1:06:52 private was it said to his wife was it
1:06:54 said in public to Congress was it said
1:06:57 on TV we've got to know the context for
1:06:58 and also what about all the other things
1:07:00 he might have said uh on on this issue
1:07:02 and what's the context how was it I mean
1:07:05 there's so many and it's like the Hadith
1:07:06 you know it's just an individual piece
1:07:08 of data uh you've gotta you've got to
1:07:10 find all the other bits of data that are
1:07:12 related to this subject and also
1:07:13 understand historical context and so on
1:07:15 so just like we would any seemingly
1:07:18 random statement of a president we don't
1:07:20 know you have to find out well when was
1:07:21 it said in what context to whom uh you
1:07:25 know how in what sense did he mean it
1:07:27 and these are things you have to look at
1:07:29 you can't just assume them because you
1:07:31 may have said this statement in a moment
1:07:33 of anger to his uh a member of his staff
1:07:36 in private I mean is this meant to be
1:07:38 taken as a public utterance for all time
1:07:40 no it was it was that particular context
1:07:43 so all of these caveats are are missing
1:07:46 I find when people who wish to weaponize
1:07:48 individual sayings uh people do that
1:07:52 with President Biden or any other
1:07:53 president they'll take an individual
1:07:54 statement of a president aha he said
1:07:56 this well actually in context it meant
1:07:58 something slightly different and I guess
1:08:00 this is what some people are like to
1:08:02 distort uh a religion or a faith that
1:08:05 they don't like anyway on other grounds
1:08:08 yeah and and and uh and and I maintain
1:08:13 that there is nothing in the Quran
1:08:14 Sunnah that explicitly allows you to
1:08:17 rape a concubine right there's nothing
1:08:19 that commands it or recommends it or
1:08:21 even permits it and the jurists when
1:08:24 they were formulating rules they
1:08:26 formulated rules on practical matters
1:08:29 they didn't do hypothetical matters
1:08:31 right and the fact that nobody ruled on
1:08:33 it for hundreds of years I think is
1:08:35 evidence that they just weren't doing
1:08:37 that you know they they had a they had a
1:08:39 concept of manhood that precluded them
1:08:42 from doing that they were trying to live
1:08:45 up to the ideals of the Prophet sallam
1:08:47 so they just weren't engaging in that
1:08:49 kind of behavior and that's why it just
1:08:51 doesn't appear in the legal text because
1:08:53 that just was not a common occurrence
1:08:55 and nobody asked about it so nobody made
1:08:58 a ruling about it
1:09:00 um and so so that's that's my opinion
1:09:03 for why there's a silence for this
1:09:05 period of time on this particular issue
1:09:10 um
1:09:11 so that's why the consent for concubines
1:09:14 doesn't exist in the early literature
1:09:17 um but we do know that the prophet
1:09:19 sallallahu alaihi wasallam he prohibited
1:09:22 forced prostitution so like I said a man
1:09:26 couldn't have a concubine and then go
1:09:28 share her with a bunch of different
1:09:29 people you know that's then then he
1:09:32 would be a pimp right and he's forcing
1:09:34 her to do all these things that that is
1:09:36 illegal that comes from uh the prophet
1:09:39 salallahu himself I believe I cited that
1:09:42 one
1:09:43 um and to be fair I just read not long
1:09:46 ago that there are in fact some jurists
1:09:49 who did uh allow that as a concession
1:09:52 okay but even they'll play him uh the
1:09:56 classical scholar he mentioned that as a
1:09:59 false and invalid opinion so you know if
1:10:03 you go into the juristic heritage
1:10:05 you are probably find some terrible
1:10:08 things out there right but those aren't
1:10:11 you know the a lot of those aren't
1:10:13 really the Mainstay of the scholars that
1:10:16 we rely upon today who have these kind
1:10:19 of
1:10:19 bad opinions like that
1:10:22 um so
1:10:23 um uh then there's this interesting
1:10:26 Hadith uh and um
1:10:30 uh incident where uh uh Abu Umama the
1:10:34 companion may Allah be pleased with him
1:10:36 uh he was asked about a wife who owned a
1:10:40 female maid servant right and then she
1:10:45 gave him to her husband and he had
1:10:48 sexual relationships with her
1:10:50 and then uh he the ruling that he he he
1:10:54 basically said this was adultery right
1:10:58 so even if so that that that throws that
1:11:01 other bad opinion we just mentioned out
1:11:03 the window right because there's this
1:11:04 Hadith about it
1:11:06 um so that you know even the wife she
1:11:08 couldn't give her her female
1:11:12 maidservant to her husband to have sex
1:11:14 with I mean that that was not allowed
1:11:17 um
1:11:18 um and uh even though claim he mentions
1:11:21 this uh incident and I think he has the
1:11:26 most explicit
1:11:27 statement about this issue
1:11:30 that I have found right and it comes at
1:11:34 the end of the article but I think it
1:11:35 really
1:11:37 concludes it very well so uh he talked
1:11:41 about like this uh slay this
1:11:45 female slave who was given to Who
1:11:48 belongs to a woman was given to the
1:11:51 husband and the husband had
1:11:53 relationships with her and he forced
1:11:55 himself onto he said that is this is uh
1:12:05 um compulsion to intercourse he didn't
1:12:08 say compulsion to adultery he said
1:12:10 compulsion to intercourse and he said it
1:12:13 is musla musla which is a a strong word
1:12:17 meaning like torture a type of
1:12:19 punishment so the forcing of this
1:12:24 concubine to have
1:12:27 intercourse uh was a a punishable crime
1:12:31 and he said it it would be punishable by
1:12:34 the ruler
1:12:35 so I think and it's interesting because
1:12:37 he said
1:12:40 what
1:12:41 uh not uh
1:12:44 which is what rape would normally have
1:12:47 but but into intercourse right and he
1:12:51 described it as a as a serious crime
1:12:54 um so
1:12:57 so there's that and I I think that
1:12:59 speaks most clearly to the issue of
1:13:02 raping the concubines like that you know
1:13:04 it's it's it's like a form of torture
1:13:06 uh it's a form of
1:13:09 punishment you know and it's a form of
1:13:13 harm and so it's forbidden I mean
1:13:15 there's no question about it
1:13:18 um a couple of points we're getting to
1:13:20 the end here but a couple of points is
1:13:22 that uh the Quran and the prophet saws
1:13:24 he encouraged uh slaves to get married
1:13:29 so he encouraged Muslim to marry slave
1:13:32 women and slave men to get married
1:13:35 um
1:13:36 there was a discussion about whether is
1:13:38 it suitable for a free person to marry a
1:13:40 slave that's you know Oklahoma talked
1:13:42 about that but the Quran does say it
1:13:45 encourages slaves to get married and uh
1:13:49 the prophet
1:13:50 he had a maidservant uh named Sophia and
1:13:55 he uh he freed her and he married her so
1:14:00 he encouraged that himself and then he
1:14:03 practiced that himself and he also said
1:14:05 in another Hadith that I mentioned in
1:14:07 the article that if there's a man who
1:14:10 has a maidservant like so he has a
1:14:13 concubine and he raises her he educates
1:14:16 her he treats her in the best Manner and
1:14:18 then he frees her he will have a double
1:14:19 reward
1:14:20 so he'll have the reward for treating
1:14:22 her well and then he will have the
1:14:25 reward for marrying her so again that's
1:14:28 strong encouragement for uh the female
1:14:32 maidservants to have their status and
1:14:34 Society elevated through marriage to be
1:14:37 freed and then to be married right and
1:14:40 so that's that's the trajectory of where
1:14:43 we would want to go like if you're if
1:14:46 you're following the prophet sallam then
1:14:49 you would treat your slaves
1:14:52 his servants you would treat your
1:14:54 servants well
1:14:55 and then if they're females you would
1:14:58 free them and marry them because he
1:14:59 himself did that right
1:15:02 and
1:15:04 um if there was a con so and then if a
1:15:06 if a master or a custodian owned a had a
1:15:10 concubine with whom he had a
1:15:12 relationship and then she married
1:15:14 another man
1:15:15 then he can no longer have sexual
1:15:18 relations with her right because that
1:15:20 that would be as if she married a
1:15:21 different person right so he he if the
1:15:26 concubine goes and marries another man
1:15:28 then the person who had her under his
1:15:32 custodianship to begin with can no
1:15:33 longer have relationship with her and so
1:15:37 that's another uh analogy that we can
1:15:40 make to marriage that these were the
1:15:41 these concubine relationships they're
1:15:45 not exactly equal to marriage but
1:15:47 they're like marriage in many many
1:15:49 respects and that their exclusive
1:15:50 relationships there's some rights
1:15:53 involved you know you're not allowed to
1:15:54 harm your wife you're not allowed to
1:15:56 harm your concubine
1:15:58 um and as a side point since uh I'll
1:16:01 just mention here about marital rape
1:16:03 just oh yeah because this would come up
1:16:06 um that marital rape wasn't a
1:16:10 uh uh legal it was only it's only been a
1:16:13 legal legal category for the last
1:16:15 hundred years or so it's also something
1:16:16 very new so obviously classical Islamic
1:16:19 law doesn't talk about it
1:16:22 um because like you're allowed to have
1:16:23 sex with your wife and so how is that
1:16:25 rape well we wouldn't call it marinore
1:16:28 we would call it abuse and harm you're
1:16:30 not allowed to abuse and harm your wife
1:16:32 and if you do that she can go to the
1:16:34 judge and get a divorce yeah right so so
1:16:38 this is covered in the law it's just
1:16:39 different languages here's this one
1:16:41 exactly yeah it's a different character
1:16:43 altogether
1:16:45 um
1:16:46 and then finally I put this at the end
1:16:49 uh the Hadith at the end which I think
1:16:51 kind of ties it all together very well
1:16:54 uh is that the prophet sallallahu said
1:16:57 that if you have a servant
1:17:00 who is not suitable for you
1:17:03 then sell him or her to someone else and
1:17:07 do not torture the creation of Allah so
1:17:10 he said that so if you so what that
1:17:13 means is if you have a concubine
1:17:15 you can't have a good relationship with
1:17:17 her
1:17:18 go give her to somebody else and don't
1:17:21 torture her so he said very explicitly
1:17:23 you explicitly do not torture
1:17:27 your servants right and as ibno clam
1:17:31 said like uh forcing someone to to
1:17:35 commit
1:17:36 um intercourse against the will as a
1:17:38 type of torture a different different
1:17:40 word but uh same idea altogether
1:17:44 so for all of those reasons I try to put
1:17:49 all of these things into context I know
1:17:51 it's a very difficult topic and a lot of
1:17:54 Muslims ask me about it still even now
1:17:58 you know a lot of Muslims are having
1:18:00 trouble with it they don't know the
1:18:02 historical context they don't know what
1:18:04 Islamic law says about it you know and
1:18:07 everything like that so I try to put as
1:18:08 much as I can in this article
1:18:10 and
1:18:12 um to kind of clear that doubt
1:18:15 um and
1:18:17 as we said and I think the last article
1:18:20 or last time I talked to you that you
1:18:22 know there were there were feminists who
1:18:25 were not pleased with me for writing
1:18:28 this because you know they're invested
1:18:30 in the Narrative of the patriarchy and
1:18:34 Islamic law needs to be done away with
1:18:36 because it's male dominated and
1:18:37 everything like that
1:18:39 um and I'm trying to show you that no
1:18:41 you're not allowed to rape women you're
1:18:43 not allowed to rape concubines you're
1:18:45 not even allowed to have slaves anymore
1:18:46 because of the there's no conditions in
1:18:49 which slaves can be acquired anymore and
1:18:53 I'm thinking that would be you know you
1:18:55 would welcome that argument
1:18:56 for whatever reason they
1:18:59 they didn't didn't take kindly to it so
1:19:04 um
1:19:05 so that that's that's that's it that's
1:19:08 just it covers just about everything
1:19:11 so thank you very much indeed uh I've
1:19:14 already mentioned uh if you want to read
1:19:16 more uh about this in much more detail
1:19:18 you do have a look at slavery and Islam
1:19:20 Jonathan AC Brown professor in the
1:19:22 states uh is historian
1:19:24 um it's been very well reviewed by
1:19:27 experts uh on the back
1:19:29 um as well
1:19:30 um it's very readable uh and shocking
1:19:33 and also very uh for Muslims
1:19:35 particularly to understand the correct
1:19:36 understanding of of the Sharia
1:19:39 um is also uh highly educational as well
1:19:42 um as I said numerous times I have
1:19:44 linked uh your article Justin in the
1:19:47 description below uh much shorter than
1:19:49 the book of course uh but I do commend
1:19:51 it for its uh Clarity and all the
1:19:54 historical evidence is there uh it's
1:19:56 definitely worth a read to get some
1:19:59 facts under your belt about what Islam
1:20:01 really teaches about concubineage rape
1:20:03 and so-called sexual slavery uh in Islam
1:20:07 um so thank you very much indeed Justin
1:20:09 again for your erudition and your
1:20:12 patients and you know informing us and
1:20:14 sharing your expertise uh with us
1:20:17 um thank you very much so thank you my
1:20:19 pleasure as always until next time
1:20:22 thank you
1:20:24 bye