Islam and Slavery — Page 73
CONCLUSION. TO sum up, the teachings of Islam about slavery fall under two main heads :Firstly, the teachings whitch relate to that class of people who had already been fettered in the shackles of slavery, and whose manners and habits had consequently become degraded in the extreme. They were leading servile lives. and had wholly lost that spirit of freedom which enables a man to lead an independent life in this world. The programme adopted by Islam with regard to these people was that they should first be uplifted morally and socially, and as their condition improved, they should be set at liberty; and Islam so arranged that when these slaves were liberated their liberty was true and real and not merely nominal and spectacular. This programme was carried into effect under State supervision so that there could be no laxity or negligence in this respect. . Secondly, those fundamental teachings which Islam gave with regard to slavery as such. According to these teachings the enslavement of any free man or woman was strictly forbidden. It is true that in certain cases the prisoners of war were deprived of their liberty, but that was only a retaliatory and a temporary step, and when we go into the details of this system, we find that it was not slavery in the true sense of the term but was really a sort of imprisonment, and even this practice is not allowed by. Islam in the present times, for now the system of State