Islam and Slavery — Page 35
* 35 was that not only slavery was not abolished in the truc sense of the word, but the relations between the masters and the slaves became even more strained. . Take, for example, the case of America. Indeed, in the U. S. A. apparently hundreds of thousands of Negro slaves were set at liberty, but even ignoring the fact that as a result of this universal emancipation the whole country. was plunged into a terrible civil war, the question is, whether the Negro slave was really emancipated at that time. Nay, has any law of the land succeeded in securing true freedom for the Negro slave of America even up to the present day? Does not the white man of America practically treat his emancipated black slave as worse than even the meanest of slaves in the world? Does the emancipated "nigger" look upon himself as really free in. America? Certainly the relations between the white emancipators and the emancipated blacks in America are the worst specimen of inter-class relations found in the world. This state of affairs is due to the fact that the method adopted to emancipate the slaves was such that although the slaves obtained nominal freedom, yet they could not secure real liberty and the mentality of both the emancipators and the emancipated remained unchanged. . The slaves emancipated under the Islamic system, however, present a marked contrast. They were emancipated gradually indeed, but after their emancipation they were free in the real sense of the word. They were free in body, free in soul, free in thought and free in action, and such cordial relations were established between the emancipated slaves and their emancipators, that compared