"Why didn't the Quran openly abolish slavery in one stroke?" is one of the hardest questions for the modern reader. Today, slavery is rightly seen as a morally intolerable injustice. Yet to understand this matter, one has to recognise that Islam did not invent slavery - it encountered it at the very centre of the world's social order, and set out to dismantle it gradually.
The DuaMio Wisdom approach does the following here: first it clarifies the ruling, then it shows the context, and then it carries the wisdom into a language the modern reader can hear.
Short answer: Not an invention, but a phasing-out
When Islam came, slavery was everywhere. Slaves were bought and sold in markets, forced into heavy labour, stripped of their human rights, and in most societies treated as property. In such a world, a unilateral, sudden abolition would have caused a crisis affecting not only existing slaves but prisoners of war, the economy, and international balances of power. For this reason, rather than shouting a slogan overnight, Islam followed a realistic and humane path that melted slavery towards freedom.
The ruling layer: Narrowing the source, multiplying manumission
Islam severely restricted the ways a person could be enslaved. Enslaving a free human being was declared forbidden; slavery was reduced to a temporary status confined to prisoners taken in a lawful war. In parallel, the manumission of slaves was strongly encouraged: freeing a slave was written into law as an act of purification in expiations for breaking an oath, for unintentional killing (Al-Nisa 4:92), and in the kaffara for zihar (Al-Mujadila 58:3).
When the Quran describes the deed that lifts the human being towards God - the "steep incline" (aqaba) - it places this at the very top:
"It is the freeing of a slave"
- From Surah Al-Balad, verse 13 (Sahih International - quran.com)
That is, the Quran counts the freeing of a human being as the first step of the steep incline that leads a person to Paradise. One of the eight designated recipients of zakat funds is also explicitly named as "riqab" - the share allocated to the freedom of slaves (Al-Tawba 9:60). In this way, manumission was lifted from being a private act of mercy and became an institutional objective.
Slaves were given human dignity
Islam defined slaves not as property but as human beings and brothers. Addressing Abu Dharr, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
"They (your servants and slaves) are your brothers. Allah has placed them under your authority. Whoever has his brother under his authority, let him feed him from what he eats and clothe him from what he wears. Do not burden them with work they cannot bear; and if you do, help them with it."
- Bukhari, Iman 22; Muslim, Ayman 40 (agreed upon, sahih)
For the world of that era, this was a profound moral revolution. The slave was no longer a piece of property left to the master's whim, but a trust whose human dignity had to be protected.
What concubinage was - and what it was not
Concubinage should not be understood, as the modern imagination assumes, as an unlimited licence for exploitation. It must be read as a historical institution concerned with the protection and integration into society of women taken captive after war. In the aftermath of war, unattached women faced the very real dangers of rotting in prisoner camps, being pushed into prostitution, or being left to starve. Islam brought these women inside the family structure, establishing a system of protection, care, and opened routes towards freedom.
A concubine who bore a child by her master gained the status of umm al-walad - she could no longer be sold, and she became free upon her master's death. Through mukataba, a slave also had the right to purchase his or her own freedom by paying an agreed sum. The Quran commands the master to respond favourably to any slave who requests this path (Al-Nur 24:33).
The contextual layer: Integration within a family instead of a prisoner camp
In the modern era, prisoners of war are held in camps. But the ancient world had no large, safe, human-rights-based system of captivity. Killing captives was barbaric; releasing them could rearm the enemy; leaving them to starve was cruelty. Islam distributed these people among Muslim families, opening a path of education, care, and participation in society. Many former slaves in time rose to lofty positions in scholarship, culture, and public life - Bilal al-Habashi, Salman al-Farisi, Salim mawla Abi Hudhayfa, and Zayd b. Haritha are among the foremost of the sahaba.
The wisdom layer: Why was gradualism important?
An institution as deeply interwoven into the entire world economy as slavery, if lifted overnight by a single sentence, does not always yield justice as its outcome. Questions of livelihood, security, shelter, and the reciprocity of the laws of war were all at stake. Islam first changed the mindset: the slave is a human brother. Then it dried up the sources. Then it turned manumission into a reward, an expiation, and a social virtue. In this way the institution was hollowed out from within, towards freedom. This method was not a legitimisation of slavery; it was its sustainable dismantling.
Mistreatment, mukataba, and pathways to freedom
Islam did not stop at saying "treat your slaves well"; it opened legal pathways to freedom. Through mukataba, a slave could claim their freedom by paying an agreed price. Allocating a share of zakat funds for the freedom of slaves tied liberty not to private mercy but to institutional social responsibility. Mistreatment, too, was not sanctioned; treating a slave in a way that broke human dignity ran contrary to the measure of brotherhood that Islam had set. The fact that a concubine who bore her master's child became umm al-walad - unsaleable, and freed at his death - is another important part of this line of phased dismantling.
Is concubinage valid today?
The answer is clear: today, slavery has been abolished by international treaties, and Muslim states have accepted this. Slavery was an institution produced by the laws of war between states; that status no longer applies today. Therefore, the practice of concubinage or slavery is not something to be revived in the name of Islam in the modern world. The law of war has changed, and the institution of slavery has passed into history. What groups like ISIS have done under the claim of "concubinage" is a deviation openly rejected by both the mainstream body of scholars and contemporary Islamic institutions.
Recognising the direction
One has to look at the direction in which Islam moved on slavery. The source was narrowed. Manumission was multiplied. The slave was defined not as "property" but as "brother". The path of purification through expiation became the freeing of a slave. One of the eight categories of zakat was set aside for the freedom of slaves. The first step of the steep incline was reckoned to be the freeing of a human being. And in time, former slaves became the leaders of society. This is not the legitimisation of an institution; it is a long line of wisdom melting it in a single direction. The Quran did not prohibit slavery with a "word" - it prohibited it with an "incline": an incline towards freedom.
Summary
Islam did not create slavery; it found it as a bitter reality of human history. Rather than producing chaos overnight, it narrowed slavery's sources, gave the slave human dignity, and made manumission an act of worship. Today, slavery and concubinage are not valid. Islam's ultimate direction is freedom, human dignity, and justice.
The question is not: "Why didn't Islam abolish slavery overnight?"
The real question is:
"Is justice done by removing an institution woven into the entire world economy with a single slogan - or by drying up its sources, making manumission an act of worship, and melting it from within into freedom?"
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Image note: The images in this article are license-cleared stock images chosen to suit the subject. Each image's source and license are noted in its media description.
Content note: This article was compiled with AI assistance based on reliable sources; Quran verses are quoted verbatim from the approved translation (Sahih International for English), and the article was reviewed editorially and for religious sensitivity before publication.
