رق
Riqq
Topic
The Quran regulated an existing institution and urged freeing slaves; Muslim scholars today hold that slavery is forbidden.
What it means
The Quran speaks of “those whom your right hands possess” (4:3, 23:6) and allowed relations with slave-women within limits. At the same time it made freeing slaves an act of atonement for killing by mistake (4:92), for broken oaths (5:89) and for a type of divorce oath (58:3); it counts it among the righteous deeds (2:177, 90:13), and sets aside a share of zakat for it (9:60). It tells owners to grant a contract of manumission to slaves who ask for it (24:33). The Prophet freed his own slaves and told Muslims that the one who frees a believing slave will be freed from Hell (Sahih al-Bukhari).
Often misunderstood as
That Islam endorses slavery and the sexual use of captives today.
What the sources say
Slavery was found throughout the world, and Islam’s legal rules limited and then closed its sources. In 2014 over a hundred Muslim scholars wrote to the leader of ISIS that slavery has been abolished by consensus, and cannot be reinstated. Saudi Arabia and Mauritania were among the last states to end it, in 1962 and 1981.