Sexual Relationship With Servants and Slaves
Question
Various parts of the Quran talk about whom is it permissible to have sexual contact with. What is your opinion on the term "whom your right hands possess?" My understanding is that it refers to slaves and servants. I am not happy with this because then it means that Muslim men can have sex out of marriage. Please clarify.
Response
The phrase that you have mentioned refers specifically to slave-concubines (as in the concept of slavery) and not any ordinary servants. It would be incorrect to take this verse to imply that Muslim men can indulge in such activities with their servants. The fundamental difference between a slave and a servant is that a slave is one’s property that they can sell or exchange for something else, while a servant provides services, for a payment in return, to someone without becoming their legal property. At the time of emergence of Islam, slavery was well-established in Arabian society and it was not possible to abolish it at once. Consequently, Quran tolerated the established norm for a while and, at the same time, it stressed freeing of slaves. The verse that you quoted indeed is a ‘toleration’ of slavery and nothing more.
Some of the directives of Quran that talked about qualities of Muslims clearly spelt out setting slaves free. For instance, consider the following verse:
During the early days of Islam, freeing of a slave was stressed as a quality of good Muslims. Not only that, expiation of many wrongdoings in Islam too was set as freeing of slaves. Overtime as slaves were constantly set free, their number decreased, and a time came when Quran finally issued that all the remaining slaves be set free, if they willed, by their owners:
The phrase that you quoted tolerated sexual relationships with slave-concubines only because slavery was rampant in the society, and because it would not have been feasible to free all the slaves at once. After the above quoted verdict of the Quran, it seems that most forms of slavery just vanished from the society. Therefore, the phrase that you quoted is not to be deemed as allowing Muslim men to take slave-concubines and engage in sexual relationship with them. Even in the verses where such relationship is accepted, the verses do not contain any indication whatsoever that slave-concubines can be taken by Muslims. In fact, once Quran has asked slaves to be set free, it automatically implies that slavery cannot be established and slaves cannot be acquired or bought anymore by Muslims, whether for sexual relationships or otherwise.