What we should learn from Islam’s Eradication of Slavery

Juneteenth commemorates a declaration that emancipated slaves in America by President Lincoln. A game changer indeed, yet today, we’re still uncovering mounting subliminal racism. Let’s face it, even after the sacrifices of the civil right’s movement, racism is cunningly interwoven into the fabric of our society and upbringing from our education systems to our prisons. Indeed, it’s in our professions, social media, press, TV, advertisements, and more. It’s toxic and suffocating. We’re in desperate need of reevaluating what our children are being indoctrinated with, and how far it actually reaches in society.

It’s no surprise then that the original sin according to the Holy Qur’an was arrogance. Entitlement and supremacy lie at the root of slavery and still manifests it’s ugly face today.

Islam effectively abolished slavery and racism fourteen centuries ago, yet we rarely hear about it. Within the remarkable twenty three years of Muhammad’s revolutionary Prophethood, more than thirty thousand souls were liberated from centuries of slavery and shackles of inequity. Any slave that came into Prophet Muhammad’s possession was immediately freed while ensuring their equal rights were upheld. His Muslim Disciples followed suit, setting in motion the greatest mass deliverances from bondage since the time of Prophet Moses.

Bilal ibn Rabah, a Black slave bought and freed by Prophet Muhammad and his Disciples, was elevated to Discipleship himself. Bilal had the unique honor of being hand chosen by the Prophet to become the first Muezzin, caller to prayer, whose melodious Ethiopian voice beckoned the Prophet and Muslims to worship five times a day. Islam introduced true diversity in leadership 1400 years ago and you can still see it in and out of our Mosques today.

Zaid bin Haritha was a slave gifted to and freed by Prophet Muhammad whom he also adopted as a son. They loved each other so much that when Zaid’s biological father found him and asked him to return home, Zaid freely chose to stay with Prophet Muhammad instead whom he felt loved him more than any biological father could. This was the treatment of slaves by the Prophet Muhammad over a millennia before Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. Just one of the reasons why historians regard Prophet Muhammad among the most influential people in History as well as one of the world’s greatest lawgivers.

The Holy Qur’an prescribes the freeing of slaves as atonement for major sins (4:93) and minor sins (58:4), as a portion of Zakat Alms (2:178, 9:60), and as “the steep ascent” that leads to divine nearness (90:13,14). It sets the global precedent of encouraging marriage with slaves to help alleviate the latter from hardships (2:222, 24:33). This inspired Muslims not only to free their own slaves but to also purchase the freedom of others held in bondage as well as to marry them and afford them their due rights such as freedom, dowry, inheritance, the option of divorce, and leadership positions in the community, among others. This is how Islam systemically eradicated slavery and racism at their core and en masse.

It’s not preference that advocates of justice are fighting for, it’s simply equal opportunity. Our Black siblings deserve the same dignity, like the basic rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that Our white siblings have been privileged with for centuries.

Until we slaughter the egoic arrogance lurking inside us, until we reappropriate our privilege to empower the marginalized, until we prioritize fighting for the rights of the underprivileged over our own, we’ll lamentably keep losing sacred lives, and keep concocting novel forms of slavery and excuses for racism.

It’s time to administer true Islam’s transformative prescription for our societal ailments.