Q. I find it difficult to understand two things in Islamic law. The first is the punishment of apostasy, which is death. I cannot reconcile this with the Qur’anic statement that there is no compulsion in religion. Surely people are free to believe what they want. How can this be reconciled with inflicting the death penalty on a person simply because he left Islam to some other religion? The second problem is the permission to have sex with female slaves. Is this done with permission from one’s wife, or with the slave’s consent? Are Muslim women allowed to have sex with male slaves? Please explain.
N.Y. Chundrigar
A. Certain offenses carry mandatory punishments in Islamic law, which means that when any of them is proven according to Islamic legal requirements, the punishment has to be enforced, and the offender cannot be pardoned. Many scholars consider these offenses to be 7 in number, and such scholars include apostasy as one of them. However, a number of highly reputable scholars have questioned this, and concluded that these offenses are only four. Apostasy is not among them. However, all scholars, past and contemporary, agree that no person is questioned about their faith, which means that a Muslim who converts to some other religion and keeps this to himself, or within his immediate contacts, no one will ever bother him. It is a person who publicizes the fact to encourage others to do likewise that commits a punishable offense. Here you should compare this action to someone who tries to undermine the constitution of the country he lives in. No country allows that. In fact, most countries prescribe very severe punishments for such offenders.
Besides, an apostate must be given a chance to reconsider his position. This is an important Islamic requirement agreed by all scholars, without exception. He is called upon to revert back to Islam, and his views are discussed, and his doubts cleared. If it is a question of beliefs only, this process may continue as long as necessary.
This means that the apostate should only keep his beliefs to himself in order not to incur any punishment. However, if he does not, the punishment is discretionary. What we know for certain is that neither the Prophet, nor his two immediate successors inflicted the death punishment on any apostate, although there were cases under each one of them.
As for slavery, Islam stands firmly in support of the abolition of slavery. Indeed, it did so from the very first day. But it could not abolish slavery right away because it was an international institution, imposing slavery on captives in war. Islam ordered that all slaves should be kindly treated. The Prophet described them as ‘your brethren’, and ordered that they should be fed and clothed as we feed and clothe our families.
If you consider that there were a large number of slaves in society, then you wonder what sort of family relation they would have. Of course, slaves may be married, but a man slave could not be married to a free woman, unless he obtained his freedom first. If two slaves got married, their marriage has the same status as marriage of free people. The woman could not have sex with anyone other than her husband, not even with her master. Needless to say, this applied to men slaves also in all situations, whether before or after their marriage.
The point you are asking about is that of sex between a free man and a woman slave. To start with, he must be her master. If he decides to take her to bed, then a new relationship is established. If she gives birth to a child, she has a new status, which is called ‘a child’s mother’, and she may no longer be sold. When her master dies, she becomes free.
As you see, this is a permanent relationship that imposes duties and obligations on both master and slave. Moreover, it was a way of freeing slaves, because Islam wanted slavery to be ended, but it could not end it unilaterally when it was an international institution.
People tend to think of slavery only in the darkest historical images drawn from Roman times or from more recent periods in American history. Under Islam, the situation was totally different.
The question suggests an image in which women slaves were like unpaid prostitutes. There was nothing of the sort. No woman, free or slave, could have more than one man at the same time.
If a slave woman was sold, her new master would have to make sure that she was not pregnant before he could have a relationship with her. If he wants such a relationship, he would be the only one, and then if she has a child, she would no longer be a slave in the strict sense of the word. She would be on her way to full freedom.
However, now that slavery is abolished, as Islam always wanted, there is no way it could return under Islamic law.
