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Quran 4:24 And Sahih Muslim Book 8, Hadith Number 3432
Asselamu aleyküm,
Chapter: It is permissible to have sexual intercourse with a captive woman after she is purified (of menses or delivery) in case she has a husband; her marriage is abrogated after she becomes captive.
Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that at the Battle of Hanain Allah’s Messenger (May peace be upon him) sent an army to Autas and encountered the enemy and fought with them. Having overcome them and taken them captives, the Companions of Allah’s Messenger (May peace be upon him) seemed to refrain from having intercourse with captive women because of their husbands being polytheists. Then Allah, Most High, sent down regarding that: “And women already married, except those whom your right hands possess (iv. 24)” (i.e. they were lawful for them when their ‘Idda period came to an end).
Isn’t this some kind of degradation of women rights. Kindly clarify.
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Quran 4:24 And Sahih Muslim Book 8, Hadith Number 3432
updated 1 year, 9 months ago
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I don’t see how you see it as a degradation. The idea is explained in Qur’an that a captive woman doesn’t need to wait for her husband to divorce her (who is way far away and is on the enemy side). They will become lawful for Muslims once their idda period is over (i.e it is clear that they are not pregnant with their current husband’s child in which case there is an issue of who will support the child).
Generally if the captives that can’t be freed (no one ransoms them nor can they support themselves) then either they do end up as slave until they can free themselves through proving their financial capability or if they have converted to Islam and willing to marry, they can be married off without worrying about divorce from their polytheist husbands.
36:40 – 38:10
https://youtu.be/U2OQNmPtVcI?t=2201 -
Quran 4:24 relates to women prisoners (‘Jangi Qaidi’) who chose to marry Muslim men out of their freewill. This has nothing to do with slaves, it relates to the situation where already married women were captured during war, in that case, if they chose to marry any other man, they were given exception that they can if they chose to do so, in accordance with the already held custom of Arabs where previous Nikah was considered ineffective, as soon as a married woman became a war captive. There is a difference between a prisoner of war and a Slave.
Islam closed all doors to slavery and forbid making of new slaves in Quran 47:4, so there was no question of turning prisioners of wars to slaves. As for current slaves, a gradual approach was adopted where current slaves were given an option to choose between slavery and freedom as per their own circumstances.
There were only three exceptions to this rule:
i) Captives who were slaves prior to their capture and, at certain instances, were distributed among people as slaves were an exception and the directive stated in the verse (47:4) never related to them.
ii) Brutal adversaries, as per the dictates of the law of ‘اتمام الحجة’ (itmam-ul-hujjah), were required to be slain wherever found.
iii) The captives of the Banu Qurayzah who met a fate decided by an arbitrator appointed by themselves: their men were slain and their women and children were sold as slaves.
Please also refer to the video below from 12:02 to 13:40
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