Islam and Slavery — Page 34
34 beneficial in its results-the system pursued by Islam 1,350 years ago or the system adopted by modern reformers of. Europe and America. . We cannot go here into details, but our readers would concede that the relative value of these systems can best be judged from two points of view. . . Firstly, we should see which of the two systems led to the establishment of greater liberty in real sense of the word. . Secondly, we should see under which of the two systems the emancipated slaves made greater advancement. . When we test the two systems by these two criteria, we are forced to the conclusion that in both these respects the system introduced by the Holy Prophet of Islam was far superior to the one adopted by western reformers in modern times. to. It is evident that the mere giving of a nominal freedom. a slave without destroying the real spirit of slavery cannot be called an act of emancipation in the true sense of the word. When we carefully consider facts, we cannot resist the conclusion that the reform effected by the western reformers was no better than a nominal one. It is true that they caused hundreds of thousands of slaves to be set free and that also immediately, but they absolutely failed to crush the spirit of slavery. Even after the so-called emancipation, both among the enslavers and the enslaved the spirit of slavery continued to live as before. The result