Reply to What does Islam say about concubines?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Here: 
"Slave rights to freedom

Islamic law allows slaves to get their freedom under certain circumstances. It divides slaves with the right to freedom into various classes:

The mukatab: a slave who has the contractual right to buy their freedom over time
The mudabbar: a slave who will be freed when their owner dies (this might not happen if the owner's estate was too small)
The umm walid, a female slave who had borne her owner a child" from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/slavery_1.shtml

Moreover, from this verse in the Quran below (in bold) we can extrapolate that tremendous justice and compassion were commanded by Allah toward an owner's concubines, unusual for that time:
Translation: Pickthall:
"And let those who cannot find a match keep chaste till Allah give them independence by His grace. [b]And such of your slaves as seek a writing (of emancipation), write it for them if ye are aware of aught of good in them[/b], and [b]bestow upon them of the wealth of Allah which He hath bestowed upon you[/b]. [b]Force not your slave-girls to whoredom that ye may seek enjoyment of the life of the world, if they would preserve their chastity[/b]. And if one force them, then (unto them), after their compulsion, lo! Allah will be Forgiving, Merciful. (The Noble Quran, 24:33)"

So if a concubine gave birth to the owner's child, and the child was free, would keeping the mother of the free child in bondage be in accordance with the degree of compassion and justice commanded in the verse above? It would mean the mother could be sold but not the child, and therefore, the  mother and child would be separated. Would such a result be in accordance with the kindness the Quran demands owners have for their concubines?

Think about it. Try not to limit your learning to literal reading only. [/quote]

I don't think anyone argued that she still could be sold. The source I posted said she could no longer be sold (so says the consensus) but her freedom came only after the owner died. You said concubines were freed if they got pregnant, and that's incorrect.  I will be magnanimous and say it's an error of lack of knowledge, not a lie on your part. There were degrees of bondage, and a concubine who could no longer be sold was still property of her owner.

Presumably, you weren't the only one equipped with thinking facilities, so I'm comfortable that scholars who wrote major madhabs have done quite a bit of thinking themselves.  You didn't bring evidence. Your brought your ideas. I brought scholarly evidence, which you clearly consider lacking. Well, that's your thing. But you didn't bring any evidence.

The paragraph you posted, exhorting owners to write deeds of emancipation (in exchange for god knows what) for their slaves, doesn't refer to immediate manumission. It refers to contractual manumission in exchange for whatever slaves could deliver, usually years of service.  The kindest thing to do to slaves would have been not to enslave them at all.[/quote]

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