First of all, Islam closed all the doors of slavery, and it did so in a truly remarkable fashion. Because slavery was a real issue, then Islam had to have rules dealing with slaves at the time (after all, we say Islam is complete, which means that it has a solution for EVERY issue that humanity ever faced and will ever encounter until the Day of Judgment). When one looks to Islam, one can see that Islam treated even the slaves like human beings and ensured their just and fair treatment. At the same time, Islam created several avenues for freeing slaves. If a slave is beaten or abused, he is free. Anybody who is born from a slave is free; hence, nobody can be born as a slave. And once somebody is free, that individual can never again become a slave. Also, Islam made it a very commendable act to free slaves. And if somebody has sexual relations with his wife during the daytime in Ramadan, his Kaffarrah (compensation) is to free a slave.

Therefore, Islam essentially closed the doors for slavery, while at the same time dealing with slaves that existed in a manner that ensured justice and fairness to them. The ONLY door that Islam left open was the following: Women who were in an opposing army to make the army look bigger. These women did not include civilians, because civilians were treated as non-combatants. Also, they did not include women who were soldiers or those who served a function in the army (such as medical personnel, support staff). Even prostitutes or somebody like Marylin Monroe to ''sing for the boys'' would not be considered because such women serve a specific function. Once again, only women who were included in the enemy army for the function of making the army look bigger could be taken as slaves. Since this was a practice that was unique to the Arabs at the time, then essentially one can say that Islam abolished slavery altogether, and we should just leave it at that. No army nowadays will include women to make the army look larger. In fact, in modern warfare, numbers are becoming less and less significant.

If somebody wants to insist and ask ''but supposing that this practice does exist and women are taken as slaves'' then we state the following: Supposing that humanity once again regresses back to the time of Conan the Barbarian or Mad Max, and this practice (including women in the army for the purpose of making the army look bigger) is reinstated, then the decision is up to the Khalifah to take such women as slaves or not.The action of the Khaleefah in the question of enslaving (sabaya) proceeds according to what the war policy requires in dealing with the enemy.Its objective is not enslaving rather it is merely one of the war transactions whose matter is left to the Khaleefah who does what he sees and what the position in relation to the enemy requires. If he does, then such a woman will get the status of Sabi, which is translated in the Qur'an as ''those whom your right hands possess.'' Again, with such a woman, the rules of Islam apply, which means that she is considered a human being and she has to be treated fairly and justly. If she is abused or mistreated, then she is free. If she gives birth, then she is free, and the child will be automatically free. Moreover, the man who takes a woman as a Sabi has to provide for this woman as he provides for his wife, and he has to buy her a house of her own. And any children that he has with such a woman will be considered his children, with the same rights to him as a child born to a wife of his.

In conclusion, attempting to draw an analogy between the ''Sabi'' that is mentioned in Islam and the slaves that existed in the West and what our minds often think of when we hear the term ''slave,'' is a lost cause and is just one among many attempts at attacking or debasing Islam. Above all, let us remember that these are the rules of Allah (swt); some of them might make sense, and many other rules make no sense, but they are not our rules to pass judgment on. Why Allah (swt) left this one avenue open is not known. Our role is just to understand the rules, and then our attitude should be ''We listen and we obey,'' and we do not have to apologize for anything.

Comments

After clarification of the word ''sabi'' mentioned in the Quran,we can move on to deduce the meaning of ''slaves'' in western vocabulary.Although western intellectuals claim that slavery does not exist these days,the reality on the ground proves otherwise.

It has been estimated by some international agencies that there are at least 27 million people are currently in bondage - indeed more slaves in the world than ever before.

Take India, where between 200,000 and 300,000 children are involved in the handmade woolen carpet industry, one of the largest export earners for the country. Indeed many children are entrapped in a system of debt bondage still widespread in Asia and the subcontinent. Where families have pledged their own labour and that of family members as security against a loan taken in a time of crisis. Tragically, the original sum is hardly ever repaid: exorbitant interest rates ensure families will pass on their ever-mounting debt to their children for generations. People are thus born into slavery.

In Southeast Asia hundreds of thousands of Asia's children, mostly girls but also boys, have been taken from their homes and delivered to bordellos, where they fuel a sex industry that thrives in great part by servicing Western and Japanese men. Indeed, sex slaves are captured in much the same way as Haitian cane cutters, India's carpet weavers, and Persian Gulf camel jockeys. They are lured with false promises of decent employment, caught in debt bondage, kidnapped, or simply sold outright by parents, friends, or people they know.

It was the capitalist nations who institutionalised slavery to build their empires. Indeed the machines of industrialisation were lubricated with the blood of the African people and it continues to be so in the post-industrial age. Compare the millions of dollars paid to Michael Jordan by Nike over the years with the pittance paid to the South East Asians for producing these Nike goods. What is the cost of a pair of Air Jordans? The women and children of Nike sweatshops know them to be less than $2. After all, that is what they get paid to make the shoes on their 12 hour shifts for 6 days a week. Michael Jordan was at one stage the richest sportsman on the planet, even though basketball is not the most popular sport in any country except the US. His wealth is largely due to the generous salary provided by Nike. In the UK, parallels can be seen with the million pound agreements made between David Beckham and Adidas. Once again, the disproportionate wages paid to the Indonesians that stitch them, compared to the one who endorses them, are quite apparent. In Honduras, workers are injected with amphetamines to keep them going on long and dangerous shifts. In Sri Lanka a worker had his finger cut off by a machine, and tried to organise a union, but his dead and burning body was found on a pile of tyres by a nearby church.By setting up offshore factories in the third world,the western nations avoided the regulations like OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety) standards.It is indeed the height of hypocrisy on their part to implement strict regulations like OSHA in their countries and exploit the third world.

The third world work force has been exploited to produce US tennis shoes, US electronic goods, US computer components and that very American export, fast food chains. But now the force of globalisation is even draining love from poor countries. What more does the US want to extract from the poor countries of the world.A phenomenon emerged in America and Western Europe, during the late twentieth century known as the have-it-all woman. This woman is the very embodiment of success, happiness and tranquillity. She has managed to excel in her career, satisfied every whim and desire of her husband whilst bringing up balanced well mannered and well educated offspring. However, behind the powerful figure of an Armani suited women with Gucci briefcase on one arm and a baby tucked under the other, often lies a tale of the oppression of another woman. Domestic servitude has only been escaped by passing it down to another group of oppressed women. Armies of low-paid women, in America most of them foreign, have taken up the domestic duties along with the dirty washing, discarded by professional women who have fled the home for the workplace. Liberation for female high-fliers is only possible because battalions of unseen, unheard women care for their children, clean their homes and cook their meals.The economies of countries such as the Philippines have become dependent on remittances from female workers. However they usually leave behind husbands, their skills are less in demand in the West than the skills of their wives. These men become demoralised by unemployment, many turn to hard liquor and gambling. It is not uncommon for these men to gamble away or drink the money that their wives send. Thus leaving the children worse off than if their mothers had just stayed at home.

Capitalism has exploited every last drop of blood of the poor and weak. Now even a mother's love is subject to free market forces. A climate has been created of a long-hours culture in which women cannot compete and still be mothers. So in the post feminism period it is acceptable for some other woman to be exploited. The modern liberated have-it-all has it all at the expense of another.