Islamic views on concubinage
Muslim perspectives on retaining concubines / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In classical Islamic law, a concubine was an unmarried slave-woman with whom her master engaged in sexual relations with her consent.[1] Concubinage was widely accepted by Muslim scholars in pre-modern times. Most[2] modern Muslims, both scholars and laypersons,[3] believe that Islam no longer permits concubinage and that sexual relations are religiously permissible only within marriage.
Concubinage was a custom practiced in both pre-Islamic Arabia and the wider Near East and Mediterranean.[4] The Quran allowed this custom by requiring that a man not have sexual relations with anyone except for his wife or concubine. Muhammad had a concubine Maria the Copt who had been given to him as a gift by al-Muqawqis with whom he had a son. Some sources say he later freed and married her,[1] while others dispute this. Classical Islamic jurists did not place any limits on how many concubines a man could have. Prostitution of concubines was prohibited. A concubine who gave birth to a child was given the special status of an umm al-walad;[5] she could not be sold and was automatically free after her master's death.[6] The children of a concubine were considered free, legitimate and equal in status to the children from a man's wife.
With abolition of slavery in the Muslim world, the practice of concubinage came to an end.[1] Many modern Muslims see slavery as contrary to Islamic principles of justice and equality, however, it is worth to note that Islam had a different system of slavery, that involved much intricate rules and regulations on how to handle slaves.[3][7]