Islam and Slavery — Page 2
2 masters, who could treat them in any way they liked, could exact from them any work they pleased, inflict on them any punishment they desired, and could sell them to others whenever they chose to do so. Eventually the system became so extended that even the children of the slaves were treated as the property of their masters, and thus a permanent system of slavery was established. When people found this system to be so lucrative, they no longer confined themselves to the enslavement of only the prisoners of war, but devised other cruel ways of enslaving free men. For instance, they made unprovoked raids on weaker tribes, and reduced their men and women to a condition of bondage. In certain countries even civil debtors became liable to be converted into slaves. . At the advent of Islam; more than 1350 years back, the practice prevailed more or less in all countries. . Hundreds of thousands of slaves were leading lives of extreme misery and pain in Rome, Greece, Egypt, Persia and other countries. Their lot was hardly better than that of dumb driven cattle. In Arabia too there were thousands of slaves in those days, and they formed an essential part of the wealth of the rich. Perhaps nowhere in the world were they more despised than in Arabia. They were treated with the utmost cruelty and heartlessness. . When the Holy Founder of Islam began his preachings, which was roughly in 611 A. D. , his teachings included the injunction that slaves should be treated with leniency and kindness, and his earliest revelations declared the emancipation of slaves as an act of great virtue. The Quran, in