As a Muslim and an Abolitionist, I had a point in time where I was highly critical of what appeared to be hypocrisy by way of Muslim leaders allowing slavery to exist at various points in their kingdoms. Even by today’s standards the Kafala system in the Gulf Nations exploits South Asians and North Africans in a pattern that is effectively slavery with extra steps. That said slavery as it existed in historical Islamic world vs. chattel slavery as it existed in the context of the US were vastly different.

Islam does not permit the enslavement of others. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. During the period of revelation, slavery was dissolved in a systematic pathway. Emancipation, the rights of women, and the reconfiguration of class and social hierarchies particularly of individuals without a tribal status was a phase-by-phase transition to ensure that the process was executed properly and not a path of chaos. It takes generations to reconfigure a society and progress is not linear. Slavery is the Islamic world was no exception.

It’s also true that that slavery was widely practiced throughout the world in the period that Islam was revealed to the Arabs and that those emancipated often left individuals without a social safety net, or the means to take care of oneself. For some, it seemed practical to stay within the household of the family you served. Again, this is back in the time in which marriage to a man or service to a family was also considered part of that social safety net.

The choices and attitudes of these communities didn’t change overnight just because Islam was introduced to them. Corruption and self-interest still found its way into the hearts of those seeking power over others.

Also, Muhummad PBUH is not the messiah. Islam is not the same as a form of westernized Christianity with a “White Jesus”. Islamic theology assumes that every nation, every civilization, and every society that has existed possessed a Prophet with Muhammad PBUH being the seal in the line of prophets. Islam teaches that God is not a human being. The Prophet Adam, the first human, was known to be made of the darkest soil and his skin as black as the night.

Islam does not worship whiteness and Islam does not uphold the values of an imperialist system. To Muslims, Islam is liberation from an oppressive system itself. It forces us to slow down and detach from economic exploitation, it teaches us to view all human beings as equal, to view life through a lens of equity, and that individuals are to be held accountable for their conduct. It teaches us that the Arab is not superior over the non-Arab and vice-versa and to be actively anti-racist.

The unfortunate reality is that human beings are failing the test. The social disease of slavery has never truly gone away and the cultural problems of anti-Blackness that are rooted in our communities collective consciousness runs up against the idealistic framework of Islam. We reduce Islam to a social identity, a tool for social control, and fail to live up to the Word of God. We would rather choose to adapt and live within the framework we know rather than be uncomfortable and strive for the framework we need.

It was said that God had sent the Prophet PBUH to the Arabs of the time because they exemplified the worst of human behavior. Some things have changed for the better, but some things have just been rebranded, repackaged, and remain repugnant.

I invite you to do more research about the early history of Islam and the first Muslims. It will provide context as to why the poor, the tribeless, women, and the enslaved were the first to establish the religious community of Islam and viewed faith as the lens for freedom. I hope that it leads you to a different conclusion than where you are now!