Mohammed Hijab – Slavery
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The discussion centers on the definition of slavery in the current age and its political and psychological importance. The speakers discuss the history and political context of slavery and its negative consequences in Islam, including its political and psychological significance and its political and psychological implications. They also mention the use of definition and the importance of understanding the definition of "ultimately enjoying" Islam.
AI: Summary ©
Salam Alaikum, warahmatullahi wabarakatu How are you guys doing? Now this is gonna be a very important session today we're going to be talking about slavery.
And of course, when they say the word slavery in English language has its connotations. It has its historical, kind of denotations, and connotations. And it also has its definitions. And this is where we're going to start to jump straight into, and I've said everyone here, a PowerPoint, which is on the group.
Because the question is, of course, some people ask this very straightforward question. They say,
What Why does Islam allow slavery? What is slavery? Or how do you define? And this is actually a very difficult thing to answer. What is slavery in the first place? In popular culture, for example, this there was a new film in Hollywood that was released, relatively new called Django Unchained. You know, I'm not sure if many of you have seen it, awesome. I don't recommend, you know, to watch these kinds of things in particular, but this is just a popular culture. The reason why I'm referencing it is because in this film, you had these kinds of images, which are horrific images. And when someone says slavery, you think of these horrific images, I think Will Smith made a film
recently as well, I'm not sure if it's out yet or not, I haven't haven't watched. I haven't seen anything of it. But I know that it's out there.
And so when people say slavery in the western imagination, these are the kinds of images that come to mind, the represent the popular representations in Hollywood, have what you see in Django Unchained, and with Will Smith in the new movie, and this kind of whipping and racism, and transatlantic slave trade. And if that is what is being referenced, I think we should just start off by saying, if that's what people mean, does Islam allow this kind of thing? No, it doesn't, of course, this I mean, there should be no controversy here. It does Islam and all this kind of thing, what whatever existed in the West for 400 years, where they were bringing people for racial reasons,
supremacy, reasons, and whipping them and hurting them and harming them, and * them and assimilating them, then there's no way Islam allows any of these things, actually. And in fact, I think, especially in the in the dour, we have to be, we have to be cognizant of who we're talking to. Like, for example, a lot of Tanabata Lyle, most students have knowledge. They know they understand that somebody could Rick, Phyllis Lambert or somebody could like, you know, indentured servitude, or how, however you want to translate it. Of course, there was buying and selling human beings. And that was allowed at one point in time, of course, that is part of the Islamic law. Now,
yes, we're gonna go into that. And that's what this session is about. But that's not what people imagine when we're talking about slavery in the current age. When we have black history month, I used to be a history teacher, myself, Black History Month, and we talk about the plight of slaves. We talk about individuals that will take you take, we see pictures of people that were taking on, on the ships, you know, from Africa, West Africa, to different parts of the world, and put into cotton fields and forced to do all kinds of things. That's not what we're talking about. So clearly,
and I think a lot of it is people, they know that this is a very embarrassing part of their history. In fact, I could even say, this is the most embarrassing thing of Western history. And you're seeing different psychological responses across the political spectrum of how people are responding to this, for example, people on the kind of right wing alt right, they're responding with a little bit of deflection and a little bit of almost
kind of indifference to the matter, but that was them. And this is us, and who cares? This kind of thing. People on the left may be sometimes overcompensating in a sense that, oh, I want to apologize to these people, as if they have committed the crime themselves. So we see extremes, almost psychological extremes on all sides of the political spectrum, on how to deal with this issue, because it is a very serious issue. And the question is, of course, if Western superiority is true, moral Western superiority, liberalism is true. And liberalism says that equality for all, then how could you have this kind of thing happening in the American empire, if you want to call it that, or
the British Empire, when you also had liberalism? And you also had all these other things? How could you have those two things coexist? How could you have the founding fathers of the United States of America? How could you have those people actually own slaves, in fact,
and not just own slaves, but then using abused them in the ways that we know
on racial grounds? So this is the question that people are asking. But then equally, a question that people then ask is they're trying to deflect the matter and they say, Well, what about Islam? Islam allows it, doesn't it? I was actually reading a book recently. It was very interesting, was from a guy called guys Geils. Milton, who I'm not sure if you've ever seen or read the book is his I think his alt right kind of guy. I would call him an Orientalist. And the book is called white gold, actually,
and it's
about a person in the Alaouite dynasty of Morocco it's not the Hallo is Eisen che che Allah we meaning it has the you know they have the the lineage goes back to Ali Raja Allah and they claim, you know that
and this man is called Nola Ismail, I'm not sure of you, has anyone heard of him? Anyway, the point is this is that he also had slaves.
But they were white slaves. And a lot of them were from England in a kingdom.
And that's why the book was called white gold. And the book goes through this whole idea of like, you know,
you know, the the efforts of the United Kingdom, try and get them to release the white slaves. And you can, you can kind of sense the disdain of the writer, as he has to admit that, you know, this, our guys were made into slaves as well. Or it's be clear, our women are miniature slaves.
In fact, at one point in the book, he talks about the pleasure palaces, the quality, he says, This man has pleasure palaces. Apparently, they have called him over here in the United Kingdom. And they were saying to him, like,
you know, they had some parties and had some, you know, some things going on. And he didn't even you know, it says he didn't even look that way. This man or smile has the most children in human history over 800 children. Absolutely. Absolutely. 100 more. I don't know. But they say he there's there is a dispute who has more children him again, this con, but he's over 800 children of his own children, because he had so many white slaves. Now, why am I mentioning this? The point is, is that
Islam doesn't discriminate on the racial aspect. Okay, the racial aspect, both historically. And legalistically, has never said, We need to get black slaves or slaves from Hillsdale somewhere else. And where's Morocco? Strategically located is located in a place where it's in reaching distance to European isn't reaching distance to Africa. Obviously, not everywhere, is strategically located like that. I mean, you can swim to to Spain from Morocco. I'm not sure if you guys, I mean, I wouldn't try it myself. But you can't miss. You know, this from Spain, you can you can probably assume that yourself. I don't have the ability, I'd probably die, you know, on the way.
But if I was on a boat, I mean, many people take the boat nowadays, I'm sure you did.
On your way to this country, before you sought asylum.
Anyway, the point is, is that when we talk about the Western experience of slavery, it's a very unique
it's a very unique experience.
It's a very, it's a very unique experience, the Western experience was with slavery. So when a Western person who's gone through Black History Month, and watched Django Unchained, and see all these things, and he's asking you to slavery exists in Islam, you gotta remember that is historical memory. This is collective memory, that is his his consciousness, what he believes he understands the word slavery. So if you say, Yes, it does in such a, you know, open way.
I think that's dangerous action. And I think that's harmful. I think that's wrong. Why? Because his understanding culturally, is not the, our understanding of indentured servitude, and, and this is allowed, and I will go through the Hadith today, what kind of thing the process I'm allowed, or the Islam allowed.
Me and don't forget, and I'll start with this, in fact, because people think of what you're talking about. The Prophet Muhammad wa salam, and I remember this in university, well, I remember this very vividly, there was a man Shouting, shouting, he was at one of our lectures, we do history, actually, this was one of my first master's degree, and the guy was shouting said there was no one in history that wasn't racist or something, you know, something like this, you know, and no one before this time, that wasn't racist of some sorts.
The fact that Islam is a religion,
and is the only ancient religion of his kind, is the only religion in the medieval period or the antiquity period. That the, let's say, the leader of the religion, actually made it clear that there is equality between races. There's no other religion like that. I mean, imagine that for a second, where I challenge any Christian to get me one verse from the Bible, which tells us that black people and white people, Arabs and non Arabs or Jews and non Jews are equal. What we find is actually the opposite. We find that Jesus is calling a woman because she's a she's a Gentile, not a Jew. In the New Testament, it's not even the Old Testament. You don't find the same kind of attitude that you
found with the Prophet Muhammad Rasul. Allah father, Hadith, very famous, there's no virtue of a black man or a white man, a white man or a black man, Arab over non Arab, non Arab. This is
the most inclusive, racially inclusive religion in the world. And you can't really argue against that. And so this is the point I'm making the point and this is why it's one of the most multi core if not the most multicultural region in the world.
Because people realize that now this
So the first point, for that reason, if someone wants to come and say, I'm going to enslave this person because of their race, because they're black, and because we have a superior race, as what we read, not just from the proletariat, or from the lower classes, but from the bourgeoisie, from the elites, from the philosophers from Jas mill from those guys. Well, not to be fair, JS mill was actually quite racially inclusive. But people in the Victorian period period, for example, liberal philosophies, yes, they were making a racial, racial case,
you know, their book, many books talking about how even Darwin and scientific cases against the black man, and so on. And so it's a slam doesn't have this, this needs to be very, very clear. And you can't even make an argument against that point.
You can't even make an argument against it. You can't say no slam does value. What you know, what it does diminish,
you know, deprecate the black man or something?
Absolutely. How could you can make the argument, when in fact, Islam was the only religion, you know, which allowed people from literally you had some men that are roaming. i Sorry, so many fallacies. Yeah, you had Bilello Habashi. And not just build a habit, she had many others, like people.
You had people
from every place, and it wasn't like, Oh, you're better than him because of this. Yeah. And so that's, this needs to be very, very clear. There's no argument now.
But let's talk about slavery. Because the first thing we're gonna look at is, definitions. The problem with definitions.
And this is what Jonathan brown and the dour. He's the only one who actually wrote a book about slavery, and it's okay. I don't think the book is the best.
But it's not the worst. It's a good book, you know.
And he says that there's a problem with definitions. There's a problem with definitions
with an all encompassing definition. And he makes an interesting point, he said, just because there's a problem with definition, it doesn't mean that we can't talk about the issue. And this is something called the bald man fallacy. The bald man fallacy when you think that there's a problem with definition definitely canceled by the issue.
This is fallacious reasoning.
And the same issue applies with a look.
Because what do we mean by slavery? Now, if we look at the dictionary, like for example, the Cambridge dictionary, the activity of legally owning other people who are forced to work and obey it from this perspective, is what you mean. Of course, there was kind of indentured servitude, where people were bought and sold in Islam and this would apply, this would apply this kind of thing would apply, would what what is what would apply an ultimate obedience? Now, this is in some definitions, I mean, if you do an exhaustive search of all of definitions in the English language, the Webster this one that one Cambridge, Oxford, some definitions are more like ultimate obedience, to
ultimately obey, obey somebody. This is a kind of definition of slavery. From that perspective, from a theological perspective, of course, we can't say that you're allowed to do that, so human being.
Yanni,
the prophet Mahathir said later, Akima fluke, if you must settle frolic, there is no obedience to the creation, the disobedience to the Creator. So the question is that, can someone ultimately a human being ultimately obey another human being? No, because if those laws go against Allah's laws, that kind of slavery is prohibited? Islamically so there are forms of slavery which are unacceptable, Islamically definitional types of slavery, this type of slavery of ultimate obedience is totally unacceptable in Islam. In a fact is the thing that Islam tells us
which is a default the USP of Islam is that we want to unchained as I forget who said this which person the seller said that we have come to free you from the from the from the slavery of the creation and and coming to the bed of the ones who created this slaves. I can't remember who mentioned exactly that. That thing but Islam is telling us clearly that what's happening is everybody else and look at the AI for example, even better than Aloha, methylene and Nigel fish or fish or cat motor shaky sooner while I do what Julian Solomon luxury, yeah, * yes, that we only masala Alhamdulillah Luxan the animal
that Allah has put forward a method put forward a parable of two kinds of men. One man has mini slave masters, whereas another man has one slave master, are the two the same meaning.
The one who has one slave master is like the Walkman the Muslim
Muslim has one slave master, because that one slave master is Allah. Really and truly the ultimate one that deserves the worship deserves that kind of slavery.
That's why we call ourselves a bad man or I bet Allah because we worship Allah in a worship is slavery any this kind of worship, which is slavery only is acceptable to Allah subhanaw taala. So kind of worship, which are kind of slavery, Islam prohibits completely it's actually, if you think about, because if you if we're talking about slavery from the ultimate slavery perspective, then you're doing shoots with somebody.
So it's why it's very important to ask, What do you mean by slavery? You can't just say, Okay, we're Islam accepted? Yes.
Because the person has in their mind, slavery, maybe the person is * person. And they believe in you know, this kind of worship things. Now they have people that are worshipping a dog in the face of a dog, I don't know the the worship
assistants, and you don't know what the guy is thinking what they mean by the word slay, especially in the West, people have
completely different ideas. So when you understand when you ascertain buying and selling, yeah, so yeah, human beings existed.
allowed at some points? Yes, of course. Just like it was allowed in other parts of the world. And yes, pretty much every part of the world. In fact, some are out there. But are we talking about
ultimate obedience? Absolutely not. In fact, that's what Islam? That's how we should answer. If we're talking about ultimate obedience, that only belongs to Allah subhanaw taala. That is what Islam is that Islam? Because when you say yes, Islam allows a slavery to human beings. The person is thinking, why should I put myself in such a religion? That's what the thing gets themselves? Why would I want to be because think about it, they've been told to be liberal and free. You're telling them that your religion allows another person to be ultimately in control of you, you're going against every part of their inclination, you cannot package it in this way.
It's too dangerous to package it in this way, my opinion.
So the definitional problem is as an important one, is there any other any questions at this point?
So if someone asks you doesn't slam allow slavery, you must I think it's almost web Yanni. I don't see where you're from Africa perspective, but
from a perspective of understanding the conversation, you must say to them, What do you mean by you have to understand they define if they decide buying and selling Okay?
Working on DVS
having * with a slave as a okay, we can get a we can get into that. Then we'll talk about the gender differences. And these three things are basically the issues here. But if we're talking about ultimate obedience, then we're clearly not
okay, well go to the next
important to hear the Prophet Muhammad Salam said in the Hadith by a bada Raja lon, do not refer to anybody as my slave. For all of you are the slaves of Allah, rather, you should refer to him as my young man. Satya? Yeah, the servants should not refer to anyone as my Lord. But rather you should refer to him as my master.
Ask the question. So why do you think this is significant? Based on what you've just said? Other than that you haven't been in for a long time. So California is and why is it significant? I feel like the servitude that's mentioned in this particular Hadith distinguishes between ultimate servitude, and the servitude that was permitted by Islam, which is obviously being a slave to a certain extent, not ultimately obeying your master,
which is not what obviously existed in the West. Okay, fantastic. So
you can make that point. What else can you say? Ali? Would you say? I'll say it was with a hadith that you mentioned about who is the true owner, which is Allah, Allah shorn of all of us, and that in this dunya that this person is, like you said, and not slave what? Somebody that you own, but in the ultimate sense we all belong to Allah thing just makes that distinction with Allah definitely mentioned. Fantastic. There's there's the Quran, or Jana Baba, Kung Fu kebab, Linda Rajat and Leah tucky. They're about looking bad want to hear or suffering, there's too anyways.
I don't know. I just know that.
I just know that it's too close.
Now, which means Allah is saying that Allah has put some of you above others in degrees, so that some of you can take others as
workers listening.
Or that they can be above you.
Yeah, it's like the
it's like the concept of leadership. Some people are leaders, they're natural leaders, some people that they're just happy with following. I mean, it's the
From qualities that Allah has given, when it comes to now, for example, we know the men, the man in the household is the leader.
But generally, among other men, you might have an individual who might, that man who's a leader in his house might have to follow that other guy's lead because he's good in a specific field. So yeah, I think I don't see anything wrong. Then it goes with what you said. For example, maybe you can go to the issue of slave and his Muslim maybe.
Absolutely. So you will add to it Yeah.
Yeah.
I think this is an important point, because at the moment, there's a lot of