Slavery and Right Hand Possession in the Quran (Tafsir) - Dr. S Ammar Nakshawani - Night 24

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[0:00]especially when you look at it from a perspective that it was

[0:07]only 12 1300 years ago that by you even shedding a tear

[0:13]for imam al-hussein you risked execution [Music] when he would hold the

[0:24]azaf hussain in the house he said the police of bani abbas

[0:28]would come into the house and say what are you all people

[0:31]crying and we have inside of the hadith the imam sadiq al-islam

[0:35]would say tell to them that a small infant has died in

[0:36]our house meaning inside of the west in any western country even

[0:44]take a western country that is mole head aslan propagating atheistic behavior

[0:50]but you cannot be in that situation that islam was we have

[0:57]relatively more freedom now to cry to establish centers to establish tv

[1:03]at that time if you were seen weeping for imam al-hussein baba

[1:06]that's an execution order so we have to realize the value of

[1:14]this relative freedom that we're enjoying and this freedom this freedom is

[1:19]a result of the efforts of those scholars before us as a

[1:24]result of those pioneers before us it is those gradual efforts over

[1:28]the last hundreds of years that has got us to this place

[1:31]and if we don't take advantage of this then there is nothing

[1:37]that we have to pass on to the coming generation what do

[1:40]we have to ask ourselves what heritage are we going to leave

[1:44]for the future the generation to come that they carry the flag

[1:48]of imam al-hussein forward are we giving them more than what we

[1:51]inherited or are we reducing the efforts of those at the back

[1:57]and regressing so these guys are going to start five steps back

[1:59]then where we were when we started it is through the donations

[2:04]of our viewers through paypal through credit card through debit card pledges

[2:12]that you have [Music] i hey [Music] [Music] i'm sure all of

[3:01]you will agree with me that one of the most controversial topics

[3:04]within the holy quran concerns slavery because slavery is one of those

[3:12]aspects in society one of those conditions in society that virtually everybody

[3:18]looks at in a negative way when we watch films for example

[3:23]which depict slaves and the treatment of slavery it brings about a

[3:30]great sadness uh brings about a sense of being uncomfortable when you

[3:35]see the way people are treated as slaves in the history of

[3:39]the humanity and so therefore you find that there are many movements

[3:44]in the 21st century which seek to abolish slavery once and for

[3:49]all you always hear about campaigns where people seek to abolish slavery

[3:54]in every form whether it's political slavery that sometimes exists economic slavery

[4:00]that exists slavery in the sense where people's rights have been taken

[4:06]away from them and a sense of inequality in society where a

[4:09]person looks at some people and says you're born to be free

[4:12]and you're born to be a a slave and therefore you find

[4:19]that since time immemorial this has been an issue which every great

[4:23]thinker philosopher even heads of religion have all sought to find in

[4:31]one way or the other a solution for do we abolish outright

[4:38]do we eradicate slavery completely what do we do if we live

[4:43]in a society that already finds slavery part and parcel of their

[4:48]culture part and parcel of their customs part and parcel of their

[4:50]economy how do you for example walk into mecca where we know

[4:57]that somebody like belal had lived their life as a slave for

[5:00]years would you do all of a sudden just say that's it

[5:03]we abolish slavery we found that slavery existed in greece and hence

[5:10]you have aristotle and plato discussing slavery we found for example prophets

[5:18]such as musa asa all having to discuss slavery in one way

[5:23]or the other they're slaves all over egypt at the time when

[5:29]moses is growing up their slavery in the time of christ and

[5:33]that's why i do find it sometimes surprising when non-muslims from the

[5:38]people of the book from the jews and the christians attack islam

[5:42]about its stance on slavery when we know very well that a

[5:46]person can look throughout the bible and find that for example of

[5:53]the curses of ham from the children of noah was the fact

[5:56]that there would be people who would be slaves forever because you

[5:59]know in the bible there's that discussion in the book of genesis

[6:01]where the sons of new hallelm they see him drunk in the

[6:08]vineyard and they come and they try and cover up their father

[6:09]and so on but one of the curses that happens to one

[6:13]of the sons where there's no prophets to come from his line

[6:15]is that slavery is to come in his line and so even

[6:19]non-muslims have these discussions within their texts concerning slavery there isn't a

[6:27]prophet of god one may argue but they had to encounter slavery

[6:30]in one form or another and we face a couple of predicaments

[6:36]epistemologically speaking in looking at this topic this is not an easy

[6:42]topic this actually is a topic that brings me a sense of

[6:44]unease because it really makes me question my moral worldview especially when

[6:52]i'm looking at a book which is to me god's word and

[6:57]then i find some verses in that text where i become uncomfortable

[7:00]when i read them and you know sometimes when you become uncomfortable

[7:05]when you read these verses you don't know what to do because

[7:09]sometimes the pulpits in our mosques won't discuss them because you're going

[7:14]into a world where you're talking about females and them becoming your

[7:22]property and that's why in the books of islamic law the slave

[7:28]is in chapters like tijara and bayer chapters of trade merchandise and

[7:38]trade and buying and selling because the slave is seen as a

[7:42]property dare i say that the slave in some cases is even

[7:44]in similar chapters to the animal and this is an islamic law

[7:50]and i'm not just talking about non-shia law a person only has

[7:55]to read the works of the likes of sheikh torsi or the

[7:58]likes of the author of a book like al-um al-damashriya the damascus

[8:04]and glittering like shahid al-awwal and you'll see that within the chapters

[8:09]of nikah there is a discussion on slavery but there's also a

[8:16]discussion of slavery in chapters of bay and tijara and so you

[8:22]become uncomfortable because now in my world view as a shia for

[8:24]example i look at the quran and i clearly see sections which

[8:34]talk of me possessing slaves and i look in the world of

[8:42]hadith and i can see that most of my imams one may

[8:46]argue are the sons of slave girls imam assad allah she is

[9:02]what we sometimes refer to as an umwaled refers to this lady

[9:12]who is a slave but of course when her child is born

[9:15]that child becomes free in turn possibly freeing the mother the mother

[9:20]doesn't get sold on but slave girl imam al-jawad's mother is a

[9:29]slave girl imam al-hadi's mother is a slave girl imam al-askar his

[9:33]mother is a slave girl and of course we all come on

[9:37]the 15th of shabban and we all hear the narration of a

[9:43]story of a lady who originally was a slave previously some mention

[9:45]her being a princess but eventually she is sold do we agree

[9:50]so when i see a chapter in islamic law called the chapter

[9:55]of bay the chapter of tijara i'm looking at my own twelfth

[10:00]imam and i'm thinking that his own mother was also someone sold

[10:03]but if the twelfth imam is born a couple of hundred years

[10:08]after rasulallah died that means slavery hadn't been abolished by the prophet

[10:13]nor by the imams it means that there was a position for

[10:20]slavery if there was a position for slavery which still means that

[10:29]in our books of faith there's a section on slaves you may

[10:33]find maybe recently there may have been discussions about whether ayatollah may

[10:38]allah lengthen his life keeps that chapter on slaves but we can't

[10:43]deny that we still have the mentioning of slaves on certain kaffaras

[10:46]that we have to pay and i'll come to that very shortly

[10:49]they're still there in the answer isn't it so when you go

[10:52]to you go to a website of a manager and you're like

[10:55]okay what do i do if i've not fasted today yes sir

[10:58]for example if he didn't fast today and now he's wondering what's

[11:03]the kafara what's the phidia and you see this list of things

[11:06]that you have to do and what's the first thing that's always

[11:10]written free a and you're thinking hold on a minute if the

[11:14]religion of islam is a religion whose intention was to abolish this

[11:21]why in 2021 do i still have fecal laws that are telling

[11:24]me free a slave and then what does everyone do they jump

[11:26]to the next section what's the next one tell me the next

[11:29]one fast two months in a row bro forget that one what's

[11:31]the next one feed 60 people straight away phone call africa feed

[11:36]60 people but the reality is that in our books the quran

[11:40]we always say the quran is a book until the day of

[11:44]judgment and of course that that has its nuances you can't just

[11:49]say because the quran is the book until they are that means

[11:52]every verse applies to every time there are some which will there

[11:56]are others which are open to discussion so when i've seen my

[12:03]moral compass now i'm asking myself a question deep down when i

[12:09]hear that islam didn't abolish slavery and that islam actually says that

[12:16]there's no problem with having a slave deep down morally what do

[12:22]i start thinking what do i do because when a person leaves

[12:27]islam this is one of the main reasons they leave this topic

[12:35]sometimes i'm interested when i see non-muslims who attack the quran and

[12:40]its discussion of slaves or concubines and i see in the bible

[12:43]there are many who've got concubines all around them but then there

[12:48]are some people who are atheists and i think the atheists will

[12:53]agree with me that whether you're the head of a religion or

[12:56]you're a philosopher the debate concerning how you ensure that slavery is

[13:06]reformed abolished is always there it's always there but we cannot deny

[13:14]that it was custom in many societies because societies that didn't even

[13:19]believe in god so to say that muslims are the only ones

[13:21]who who accept it look their societies that never believed in god

[13:24]and we then deal with another moral issue before i go to

[13:30]the verses on on slavery in the quran we deal with another

[13:32]moral issue and that is do you agree with me that there's

[13:35]certain things which were customs maybe maybe customs 20 years ago and

[13:43]are seen as taboo today do you agree so we we can

[13:49]work on on on different angles homosexuality 40 years ago 50 years

[13:55]ago was taboo today society has said it's accepted especially in a

[14:01]couple of continents in the seven in the world if we look

[14:04]from the other hand cousin marriages cousin marriages let's start with that

[14:10]cousin marriages 20 years ago i don't think a lot of people

[14:15]were batting eyelids if you married your first cousin even 40 years

[14:20]ago but now do you agree with me that when you speak

[14:22]to your friend and you're like i'm married to my cousin you

[14:25]might even have some muslims who are like are you married to

[14:30]your cousin that's disgusting and you're like why is it disgusting she's

[14:34]like my sister yeah well if the laws of hijab have been

[14:37]removed from all of you then yeah she's like your sister but

[14:41]originally the laws of hijab dictate that you can't be hugging your

[14:46]cousin every aid party and at her wedding you don't go and

[14:48]kiss her because she is still she is someone who's in the

[14:59]laws of what so for us when we look at this area

[15:02]cousin marriages were accustomed at a certain time i only talked about

[15:07]30 years ago today you're scared to tell your workmate that listen

[15:10]i'm married to my first cousins your first cousin it's not that

[15:17]it's something forbidden but even certain jurists look at it now and

[15:20]they ask the question that listen it's gone for three generations four

[15:22]generations where there are some families by the way they literally only

[15:26]marry from their cousins and they only marry from the same village

[15:29]even the cousin has to be someone right across the road not

[15:33]even a cousin like seven continents away and so they marry one

[15:38]after the other then medicine came on how about child marriages 30

[15:41]40 50 years ago marrying someone 12 13 14 years old i

[15:45]can show you states in america where people would do that what

[15:50]i'm saying is that when we enter this discussion we need to

[15:56]understand arabia wasn't alone in having slavery as a custom where the

[16:00]people found it normal all the prophet is doing is living within

[16:05]a custom which is seen as being normal but where he wants

[16:13]possibly a rethinking of the way you deal with this class of

[16:16]society in the same way i may have lived in a particular

[16:23]society and i see the customs of this society likewise my prophet

[16:27]literally is one of mecca he's one of medina the the area

[16:31]of slavery most people have an issue in and i'm going to

[16:34]in the quran right now the area of slavery most people have

[16:40]an issue with is the captives of war i think i think

[16:42]the other areas a lot of people don't have an issue with

[16:46]most people have an issue with the verses that say and what

[16:48]your right hands possess before we get to that area how many

[16:57]different words are there for slave in the quran which goes to

[17:02]show you that we're not talking about one particular category in the

[17:07]quran there are a number of words for slave give me one

[17:12]word for example for slave in the holy quran what would you

[17:16]say is one of the words for slave in the quran you

[17:21]agree abd is the word for slave in the quran if you

[17:26]look in surah 16 asir verse number 75 of the holy quran

[17:30]you'll see that allah uses the word for slave what does allah

[17:38]state okay so here god says i put forward the simultitude of

[17:52]two men one of them is what abden slave we agree that's

[17:59]why in salah look how beautiful this is in the quran god

[18:02]uses the word slave at the time in arabia abd they look

[18:07]at him law allah and salah looked at the abd and said

[18:10]he is the highest in sujud you go down as an abd

[18:15]you become the highest whereas in arabia and abd was seen as

[18:18]the lowest in tashahood we said that a few nights ago what

[18:27]did i say suddenly god's prophet is called abd so we have

[18:44]the word abd which other word for slave in the quran who

[18:48]can show me another word for slave in the quran because it's

[18:54]interesting that most muslims if you ask them what is the word

[18:56]for slave in the quran they'll say to you abd but further

[19:01]than that there are they don't mention any others if i find

[19:06]for example in the quran has to be given given to freeing

[19:11]a slave what would that word be anyone remember any verses about

[19:16]freeing a slave look at the verse for example in surah 9

[19:24]60 which yes well done surah 9 verse number 60 of the

[19:31]quran god mentions another word for the slave in arabian society in

[19:37]surah 9 verse number 60 bismillah rahim there are these categories is

[19:55]to be given to the poor and the needy and those who

[20:00]work in the administration of the distribution of zakat and those whose

[20:04]hearts are inclined and who and the ransoming of the slave or

[20:10]in this sense the captive okay because you may have a slave

[20:15]works in your household you may have a slave who's a captive

[20:17]do you remember when i spoke about the the issue of the

[20:21]rihar you are to me like the back of my mother in

[20:25]surat al-mujadallah when when the man would say to his wife you're

[20:30]to me like the back of my mom the kafara would mention

[20:35]the freeing of a slave in surah 58 go to surah 58

[20:39]of the quran verse number 3 and by this time my dear

[20:45]brothers sisters were only on night 24 of the holy quran and

[20:47]i know that all of you are flowing and finding the verses

[20:49]surah 58 verse number three of the quran is those who abandon

[21:04]any of their wives through rihar and then they recall what they've

[21:09]uttered they may free a slave okay so here we see taharir

[21:16]so another word for slave in the quran what's the first word

[21:21]we said for slave in the quran second word for slave in

[21:23]the quran third word if i have a female slave working for

[21:29]me at home yes that female who's working for me at home

[21:34]what's her name in the quran emma sometimes you may see an

[21:43]iowa ancestor another of the names for the slave and the house

[22:07]okay do not marry an idol worshiper why can i not marry

[22:17]a mushrika say i can marry maybe the people of the book

[22:19]christian and jewish let's say maybe but here the quran says you

[22:25]cannot marry someone who mushrik i cannot marry for example some people

[22:29]ask why can we not marry hindu or sikh or buddhist for

[22:36]example and they mention other religions as well some of these don't

[22:39]believe in god at all some of these believe in one god

[22:42]but they put partners to god or they put images of god

[22:44]this is the do not marry an idol worshiping woman until what

[22:51]until they believe well female slave sometimes the translation is bonds woman

[23:05]a believing female slave for you to marry interesting for you to

[23:12]marry interesting rather than maybe just the idea that she's my slave

[23:19]that means she's my property it's interesting that the word nikah has

[23:21]mentioned here because the main debate will come later on if she's

[23:26]your property do you need nikah but here is interesting so here

[23:43]comes another section of slave what sections do we have now we

[23:46]mentioned the word we mentioned we've mentioned emma these are all different

[23:55]groups in arabian society you may have gambar working in your house

[24:00]you may have for example fiddler working in your house you may

[24:04]also have situations where prophets marry girls like this can we agree

[24:16]that some of his wives were not captured from war but were

[24:19]rather given to him as a gift such as mariel mary the

[24:24]coptic okay so what we have is that arabia clearly look what's

[24:28]happening i see abd i see i see emma clearly this society

[24:34]is one where part of the custom is that you have these

[24:36]slaves at home was a slave who was he the slave of

[24:43]omaha okay was the person looking after the temple used to look

[25:02]after his whole family it didn't mean you had to be muslim

[25:04]to treat a slave well you could have been a meccan quraishi

[25:08]and you have a slave like bilal you've seen bilal grow up

[25:12]you've seen bilal's parents grow up as your slaves in the house

[25:16]he used to treat bilal the best ways that's why he got

[25:18]so angry when bilal converted what did i ever do wrong to

[25:25]you you're my black abyssinian slave what did i do wrong to

[25:29]you for you to join that magician's way but that magician who

[25:34]you call a magician and we call it rasulullah he was the

[25:38]one who was coming to try and bring some ethics to this

[25:44]custom one group of muslim scholars want to push the idea that

[25:50]there's a theory that he wants to abolish but it'll take time

[25:56]others say that no it's a custom slavery it can exist in

[25:59]some context and in other contexts no but the main thing is

[26:05]that the way you deal with such people has to be ethical

[26:08]notice that the quran started to say to us that there are

[26:16]certain acts where there's a kaffar if you do not what if

[26:22]you do not perform them properly so for example i just mentioned

[26:27]about those who call their wives you are to me like the

[26:30]back of my mom when i mention those who say you are

[26:34]they are to me okay these people what's their kafara free a

[26:40]slave we're not gonna outright abolish slavery but we certainly are gonna

[26:47]find ways in which maybe we can make conditions less harsh maybe

[26:54]we can free some slaves and allow them to find their freedom

[27:00]maybe others are happy where they're living you know maybe there are

[27:04]some who are living in houses where they're like listen i'm a

[27:06]slave but i'll tell you why i probably have a better life

[27:09]than you do but you found that some of the kaffara that

[27:12]would be there within the holy quran would start to be instituted

[27:17]seemingly with the prophet maybe not wanting to abolish outright but somehow

[27:22]trying to bring more equilibrium in society that you know what if

[27:27]you do for example something unintentionally wrong then you have to pay

[27:32]what you have to pay a particular kafara and you'll see in

[27:36]the quran allah will tell us on numerous verses about how a

[27:40]kafara has to be paid for example which we see in the

[27:44]books of law we see for example that if you miss a

[27:47]fast then what do you have to do you have to free

[27:48]a slave someone says you know which slaves i'm saying at that

[27:53]time because i've got also put my seventh century thinking caps on

[27:55]when i'm seeing the discussion of slavery if i'm living in mecca

[27:59]it's normal to have slaves everywhere yes we now reach a situation

[28:02]in the 21st century where most of the world does not have

[28:07]any slaves but while i'm living in mecca i can see that

[28:11]a kaffar be righteousness one of the means of being righteous was

[28:16]to free a slave we all want to be with the abrar

[28:25]on the day of judgment yes i want to be with the

[28:29]abrar and therefore i ask the question what is ber what is

[28:33]righteousness sometimes i find an eye of the quran telling me the

[28:39]quran tells me you'll never achieve righteousness until you give away that

[28:41]which you love the most sometimes the quran addresses the arabs and

[28:45]says you know what real righteousness is not how much you pray

[28:50]or how much you fast but that there are certain acts if

[28:52]you perform them they are acts of righteousness one of them concerns

[28:58]slavery surah 2 surat al-baqarah verse 177 in surah 2 verse 177

[29:06]we find god addressing those who define righteousness literally as salah the

[29:11]more i pray the more righteous i am as how many do

[29:14]you know who pray their salah but are some of the most

[29:16]vicious people oh i might have been sad as an example in

[29:20]kerbela yes or others in safin or others in general vicious people

[29:26]but they'll fight a little bit and they prayed they just prayed

[29:28]surah 2 verse 177 what did it say righteousness isn't that you

[29:40]turn your faces towards the east and the west righteousness is the

[29:45]one who believes in allah attack and the day of judgment the

[29:53]last day and don't come to me only praying and fasting and

[30:05]you are a stingy human being don't come to me praying and

[30:10]fasting and you don't care about others in the society who may

[30:12]have been going through difficult years and that you give away the

[30:21]wealth out of love not out of obligation because there's some of

[30:26]us only if it's what we give only if it's when the

[30:34]fifa comes at the end of this month ya allah i suppose

[30:39]i have to give baba what do you mean i have to

[30:41]give give bo there are so many poor people in the world

[30:43]say how much is it three pounds 71 per household i will

[30:47]give we have six in the house that will be 21 pounds

[30:53]33 pence i'm giving you 22 give me 67 pence back the

[30:57]quran wanted us to be those who are generous now imagine this

[31:02]in arabian society where the arab is thinking righteousness is that i

[31:06]pray quran says that's not righteousness righteousness is that you check of

[31:10]the sola deen you tick them off and also that you give

[31:13]out of your wealth to who to the near ones to the

[31:16]orphans to the poor to the one traveling and he's got lost

[31:24]got no money to the needy and to those who are enslaved

[31:30]so therefore when rasulullah is looking at this the holy prophet is

[31:36]trying to look at a custom in arabia and when he's looking

[31:41]at this custom he's encouraging people get married to you know marry

[31:46]the slave girl you find that there's these traditions which we collect

[31:51]that if you free a slave heaven is guaranteed for you then

[31:55]you see other traditions where you know what some companions were doing

[31:57]they have a slave at home they free her and then marry

[32:02]her i now free you and now i want to marry you

[32:09]i don't want you to look at yourself as still a slave

[32:12]no you're freed and now i want to marry you and there's

[32:15]this wonderful discussion which i've i've discussed in my lectures in the

[32:17]past when imam al-jawad salam is asked by yahyaba that famous question

[32:25]what's the kaffar for someone who goes hunting while in the state

[32:34]of icharam what's the kaffar for someone who goes hunting while in

[32:38]the state of animal jawad says it's a vague question it goes

[32:41]to mean imam was only about nine at the time he goes

[32:43]there's a vague question he goes up he goes day time or

[32:49]night time outside mecca inside mecca wild animal or normal animal and

[32:54]this person was baffled then the imam turns it around on the

[32:57]chief judge of baghdad and he says to him let me ask

[33:00]you a question who is it that in the morning was a

[33:01]slave then became free then became a slave then became free then

[33:04]became slave then became free then became persons like who and then

[33:07]he began to explain to him a man had a slave girl

[33:10]he then freed her and then he married her and then he

[33:11]and he began to explain to him stage by stage of what

[33:16]happens so rasulullah begins to tell the people around him that righteousness

[33:21]is that some of these slaves that you have if you free

[33:26]them heaven awaits you if you free and marry them this is

[33:30]even a greater reward for you if you perform a sin then

[33:33]the kafara is what free a slave isn't that true yeah the

[33:36]kafara free a slave and so on and so forth so all

[33:41]of us understand this at this point and i think many many

[33:43]people in the world appreciate that listen okay we understand that in

[33:47]his time there's slavery and he's trying to find ways in which

[33:50]things can be a bit more ethical between the people because let's

[33:54]face the facts there are some countries up until 60 years ago

[33:57]they had slaves in their plantations the holy peace be upon his

[34:03]family as i mentioned earlier do we find that he's abolished slavery

[34:06]we can't prove that because shaykh torsi and shaheed al o well

[34:10]are still giving us laws about slaves and some of these laws

[34:14]i'm not going to deny you know i you sometimes don't want

[34:18]people to go and look at some of these laws but i

[34:25]can't deny that in in chapters like in kitab and nikah you'll

[34:30]see concepts such as tahalil you know what tahlil is when you

[34:35]for example um maybe allow because you're the master you allow your

[34:41]slave to be loaned out to someone to enjoy for sex for

[34:47]a certain period and you know look there are certain sections in

[34:53]our books of fair that you're looking at customs which today as

[34:59]i said earlier child their cousin marriages today is taboo but a

[35:02]few years ago it's normal to say i'm married to my cousin

[35:04]and i think that some of these sections in the books are

[35:08]fick we always have people who ask us the questions for example

[35:11]about when when they look at thying for example and what is

[35:16]this idea that you know a girl who isn't even bilic a

[35:18]person uh can touch her and so on and so forth and

[35:22]and you look at some of these some of them are discussed

[35:26]theoretically others of them however it's not theoretic it was it still

[35:29]is in our textbooks until today what's clear however is that the

[35:37]slave was seen as property and that islam somehow even though it

[35:42]still accepts the slave as property wants to give a human aspect

[35:47]to the existence of that creation that doesn't deny that the laws

[35:50]for the slave are not the same as the law for the

[35:54]free the law for the slave for example even the word edda

[35:59]isn't used for a slave when you when you're when a slave

[36:04]has that period before they get married for example they can move

[36:06]on in their life after a marriage you'll sometimes see words such

[36:10]as esteban instead of edda and even the period for a slave

[36:15]is half of that of the free person so i'm not going

[36:21]to deny that the laws of the jurists who lived even after

[36:26]our imams we said imam all married slaves all our imams from

[36:30]number seven till our 12th imam are the children of slaves and

[36:35]we're proud aren't we i'm i'm proud that's right the other day

[36:39]if a person is a slave their ethics may be better than

[36:41]those who are called free in this world today there are certain

[36:45]people who live a life of servitude but to allah and there

[36:48]are others who live a life of freedom but to the shaytan

[36:52]but that doesn't stop us from what isis did isis caused the

[36:56]big problem well ice has caused a few problems but of their

[37:01]biggest problems that they caused was when they took yazidi girls which

[37:06]hajj mustafa masala had done a wonderful documentary on as slaves as

[37:15]their partners wives whatever you want to call it property now we

[37:21]know do you agree that isis some of their leaders know the

[37:26]quran better than most of us i think you can agree that

[37:30]they probably memorized the whole book some of them now we saw

[37:33]in memorizing the quran doesn't mean that you'll have love for a

[37:35]little bit but we cannot deny and just say and say well

[37:38]you know what they they these people all they do is read

[37:41]the quran and they memorize it but they're not good humans like

[37:44]me listen to memorize bakara alone forget the whole book you've done

[37:49]all right unfortunately their worldview was skewed and how their worldview was

[37:53]screwed was when they started to say that these yezidi girls and

[37:56]if i'm not mistaken not just yazidi who else did they take

[38:03]as christians shia they said the quran says that you can have

[38:10]slaves and then we reply by saying no no quran says treat

[38:12]the slave well then they're like how about the right hand possession

[38:15]there's 15 times i found maybe there's more others might correct me

[38:20]15 times in the quran you see these ayahs i mean what

[38:33]your right hands possess by the way is there left hand marriage

[38:41]this is called right hand milk eliamine is there milk can you

[38:50]have left hand marriage yes you can if you actually search online

[38:58]there is a custom called the morganatic practice more genetic is when

[39:04]someone from like a royal descent marries someone of a lower status

[39:08]so they're not seen as being those who can continue their children

[39:12]cannot continue and inherit the position so they would hold them in

[39:16]their left hand to say that this is her position subhanallah that's

[39:21]left-hand marriage we have right hand possession google it if you want

[39:28]more genetic morgan natick we have in the quran all of these

[39:36]verses which cause us a major problem like and they're so blatant

[39:41]these verses by the way go to surah 23 saw it till

[39:45]morning because all of us want to be on true monty we

[39:49]want to be of those who are counted having done so many

[39:53]a mile in the last few nights that some of us are

[39:55]so dizzy at the moment surah 23 verse number one of the

[40:02]quran and everybody at home please read with me the surah qaddaf

[40:23]those who are humble in their salah so that discounts about nine

[40:28]of us here no we're all humble in our salah and sha

[40:30]allah insha allah although the big test is now when the munch

[40:36]is there and you see that lamb and you've got salah this

[40:43]is a huge test it's a major test it's a huge test

[40:51]those who keep away from vain words what's vain words there's stuff

[40:56]like the the musical people say is there a verse about music

[40:59]in the quran this is seen as the most famous one on

[41:02]music because the words of many musicians although in some cases it's

[41:06]nice but in other cases if it contradicts quran that means it's

[41:11]vain words and those who give zakat for purification okay those who

[41:26]guard their private parts those who guard their private parts the signs

[41:32]of mutman those who guard their private parts except for their wives

[41:41]oh god now we're in trouble now isis possibly has a point

[41:48]you see there's two who have a issue here isis on the

[41:53]one hand we have to deal with and those others who are

[41:57]like so you're telling me that the prophet muhammad peace be upon

[42:01]his family could literally go to a battlefield because what when talking

[42:06]about mameliket him we're talking about captives of war you guard your

[42:17]private parts except from your wives or those whom their right hands

[42:31]possess hold on you've got men in the muslim community saying hold

[42:35]on i've got married but where's the right hand possession law because

[42:39]allah he's saying to me get married and if you have a

[42:45]right-hand possession then you don't guard your private parts from both of

[42:48]these categories so when isis decided that they wanted to take the

[42:59]yazidi ladies or the shia ladies or the christian ladies they said

[43:04]in the quran god has given us two categories of marriage all

[43:08]one may argue is it one category of marriage because the question

[43:14]here is if the right hand possession you have to marry them

[43:23]then how comes god says you're those who you are your wives

[43:29]or your right-hand possession aren't right-hand possession under marriage or is it

[43:33]that because your right-hand possession are your property there is no need

[43:38]for nikah is that the custom in arabia and are there certain

[43:42]customs that islam says well we're not going to remove that if

[43:45]everybody knows that if we're going to have a punch-up in battle

[43:49]if i end up catching or capturing the ladies from your side

[43:55]you bring them to war it's your your risk the prophet is

[44:01]dealing in what is real quality is dealing in real life you

[44:05]see i know that there are certain people i know that there

[44:10]are certain people who you'll look at and they'll want to somehow

[44:15]try and get the prophet to do something else but you know

[44:22]and i'm sure you know mustafa and others i'm sure they'll they'll

[44:26]agree with me that you must have come across lectures where you

[44:32]hear a story about one of the prophets marriages and you're like

[44:37]hold on how did he get married so i'm not getting this

[44:39]because like if i look at for example say the khadijah it

[44:43]looks like a very normal marriage but when i look at safiya's

[44:49]marriage to now in many of our mosques these ladies aren't mentioned

[44:55]you know so many times all you know in the mosques are

[44:59]the likes of you know khadijah and aisha and you might hear

[45:03]um but the rest of the wise we don't really hear much

[45:06]about do you agree okay so you've got this lady safiya and

[45:11]you've got this lady called joey riya and they're both seemingly the

[45:17]children of people who were enemies of the holy prophet peace be

[45:19]upon families and safiyah is a jewish lady who from heiber as

[45:23]soon as khabar finishes the prophet marries her and you're thinking why

[45:31]would he marry her and how can he marry her that quickly

[45:38]the question is is the first option when you capture these ladies

[45:43]in war is it straight away that you've got these thousand horny

[45:47]soldiers who just want to capture all the ladies because i'll be

[45:51]very frank with you the way it looks is bad when people

[45:56]do their research online it looks like that some of these men

[45:59]they took ladies from the opposite take them home and they just

[46:05]have relations with them do you agree i'm not gonna when i

[46:07]say this i say it very frankly because if you look online

[46:13]all the attacks are regarding this issue if now the prophet peace

[46:17]be upon him family wanna khandak or all that better and he's

[46:23]caught the prisoners which options does he have logically speaking what can

[46:28]you do what's his options free them if not free them or

[46:35]if free them possibly with what a ransom we agree do they

[46:44]always have to pay to be freed or could they do something

[46:50]else teach at the beginning we need to understand that the prophet

[46:54]peace be upon him his family is given this option surah 47

[46:56]verse number 4 of the quran surah 47 verse number 4 of

[47:04]the holy quran and the option that's given is so what happens

[47:18]is when you meet those who disbelieve smite their necks okay those

[47:23]who attack you you have to defend yourself okay until when you

[47:37]have wounded them making them helpless take them as what as captives

[47:42]we agree either you set them free as an obligation or you

[47:54]ransom them they may be ransomed anything here mentioned about taking them

[47:58]and sleeping with them anything about sleeping with them or or taking

[48:06]those girls free them or ransom them so therefore when we're looking

[48:16]at this the prophet had options peace be upon family i better

[48:20]when these were caught he said will you teach our soldiers yes

[48:25]that's it that's your ransom there may have been cases where two

[48:31]things happen one is that someone cannot afford a ransom someone says

[48:39]okay even if that person cannot afford a ransom what's your issue

[48:43]having to take these ladies for yourself why not let them come

[48:48]to medina and chill one of the problems you face after war

[48:54]in any society is the possibility that somebody either becomes a prostitute

[49:02]or is forced into prostitution just to make money for herself and

[49:10]her family there are many countries in the world today where because

[49:16]of war their ladies ended up selling their bodies because they can't

[49:21]afford until today there are people sadly from countries which have either

[49:25]seen dictatorships or seen injustice whether it's in arab countries like syria

[49:33]whether it's in east europe where ladies are literally slaves but we

[49:38]don't call it slave anymore because you shouldn't don't mention slaves say

[49:45]that these are working girls say that these are earning a living

[49:49]say that these are having every right yeah but every day that

[49:54]person's soul is dying if we're looking at the custom at that

[50:00]time there's a strong possibility that they're they're going to be forced

[50:06]into prostitution they're not going to fend for themselves you don't have

[50:09]ceo of bank managers and medina bank or ladies aslan even now

[50:14]some of the most perverted shop owners in the world are arab

[50:19]and muslim shop owners if you see some shops only men are

[50:22]working the lady by the time she feels she feels the man

[50:27]has undressed her i know people who go to pakistan their ladies

[50:29]are like you know what i can't even be comfortable because there's

[50:32]men who are working in this ladies clothes job it feels uncomfortable

[50:36]the customer at that time wasn't that the lady was going to

[50:39]be given a job the customer at that time was they're going

[50:42]to look for a pimp who's going to be selling them the

[50:47]holy prophet peace be upon his family if that lady or family

[50:52]members can ransom her then that lady is to be ransomed some

[50:58]of these ladies and i know look i know what i'm about

[51:03]to say is going to sound apologetic i must admit some of

[51:08]these ladies just meeting rasulullah meeting the prophet and seeing his manners

[51:13]in contrast to the manners of who they were before straight away

[51:17]from their shahadah non-muslims out there might turn around to me and

[51:21]say to me this is apology look and then there i've seen

[51:25]enough from my prophet before he became a prophet where people who

[51:27]didn't even believe in him called him the truthful and the trustworthy

[51:30]so i don't see why he would need to change his character

[51:36]safiya there was even abuse from her husband about her character when

[51:44]she one day mentioned i saw a moon fall in my lap

[51:49]and he goes you're enchanted by muhammad but some of these ladies

[51:53]when they heard the rumors about what rasulallah used to teach they

[51:55]wish that they could join that religion but how did you get

[52:00]out you belong to a group who hate religion in some cases

[52:03]are mushrik follow their own customs so imagine when finally they are

[52:06]captured some of them would say we would prefer to live with

[52:10]one of you now what happens if that lady for example is

[52:15]still married to someone mushrik you know if you are a mushrik

[52:18]and your wife is a muslim the marriage is annulled we don't

[52:23]agree we agree and that's why one of our arguments for abu

[52:27]talib's iman was that fatherhood asset should have left islam he should

[52:32]have divorced him because if these ladies are mushrik or their husbands

[52:44]are mushrik and they become muslim their marriage is an old does

[52:47]that mean there is no monthly cycle for them to observe you

[52:51]have to because she's pregnant from the ex-husband so that doesn't mean

[52:55]that you go straight away to somebody you still have an edda

[53:00]period and i mentioned earlier in the discussion that the edda period

[53:06]differs could be half of the free woman or could be just

[53:09]even a month and even the wording for that the period differs

[53:13]well but the image still looks bad i think because if i'm

[53:19]not living at that time i can't understand how i can turn

[53:21]up for war and be like i want her i want her

[53:26]you give me her and that's where i think two things i

[53:28]think number one we have hadith collections which are very problematic and

[53:33]some people might say to me why do you guys always blame

[53:38]the hadith collections listen if there's a hadith collection which is called

[53:43]sahih follan and on that in that book it tells me what

[53:47]happened when the wife of the prophet would teach people how to

[53:50]do husol and how she would tell people about when the prophet

[53:52]would ejaculate exactly how she'd wash his clothes and about how they

[53:55]would be in bed and jibril listen when books like that can

[53:59]write these things they can write other things as well and i'm

[54:02]not just talking non-shia books sometimes even in our books there are

[54:06]certain things a person cannot just blindly submit to a person has

[54:11]to reconcile some of these traditions as well but the reality is

[54:17]that when you do look at the legal literature do they become

[54:23]property or is there at zawaj there's a big question do you

[54:26]agree do you ever from the way i've explained i want you

[54:30]to tell me hand on heart and don't worry there's only a

[54:33]couple million people watching you but i want you to tell me

[54:36]hands on heart would you have a problem if it was property

[54:42]meaning that milkily i mean is this reality in arabian society that

[54:47]if you're going to come you're going to come to my ends

[54:52]and fight me you can bring your your ladies you know what

[54:54]the score is because these ladies also don't have to be bought

[54:57]here in some cases you bring the lady so the men get

[55:02]a bit you know they're on it so would you have a

[55:07]problem if there was a custom in arabia that that person you've

[55:14]caught in war becomes automatically your property would you have a problem

[55:19]with that now that i've explained how they all knew what the

[55:22]customs were it wasn't some random thing of like okay now of

[55:24]course and so on would you have a problem with that with

[55:27]this explanation or would you prefer that there is still say there

[55:30]still has to be a like before it's done which one would

[55:34]you prefer so i'm going to use p for property and i'm

[55:40]going to use uh a for akid we agree okay so i'll

[55:45]go around you tell me either p or you tell me a

[55:49]a p or a property or akkad what would you prefer property

[56:14]hey p property a the africans between themselves they had all these

[56:22]years of slavery now they're telling us what should be done yasser

[56:26]be aussie normally joking p or a a it's very interesting because

[56:35]our moral framework is also very much affected at times by an

[56:41]innateness and that's a major debate between the mortezala and the shia

[56:45]that do we have an innate moral system of understanding or is

[56:51]that what god says has to go it's a major debate although

[56:58]foreign the direction to innate understanding of morality lan you know is

[57:05]to stick something down someone like down their throat that's you know

[57:10]what brings you and the fujor is as if it's within our

[57:16]nafs the last verses we want to look at are interesting because

[57:20]there is a mention of nikah related to the slave but maybe

[57:28]not related to the captive so if you look for example 24

[57:32]and all of you sort of yeah sort of 24 yeah sort

[57:36]of 24 from verse about 30 yeah 31 um no 32 surah

[57:46]24 32.

[57:49]it's the one that we all hear in weddings so straight away

[57:55]we have the word nikah which by the way literally means yeah

[57:58]nikah in our mosques we call nikah wedding but literally means physical

[58:06]intercourse it's very hard sometimes if you're you you're in the indoor

[58:09]pack coming to your community and you're like today is the day

[58:11]of the deca and as an arab you're thinking this just never

[58:15]sounds right but like for everyone else that's wedding wedding we never

[58:21]say and that the hierarchies won't say come to my nikah because

[58:24]that the you know the sheikh will be looking at you thinking

[58:29]you disgusting human being you know but anyway marry those amongst you

[58:34]who are single [Music] from who from your male slaves and your

[58:45]female slaves was will make them rich father-in-law stop stressing about money

[59:15]interesting here there's an excuse being made for those who can't find

[59:26]uh you know someone to be in a relationship with hatta yogniyah

[59:30]allah this we're talking about marriage marry the slaves but if you

[60:04]don't have money you're excused those of those you possess your right

[60:10]hand possession try and have an agreement with them where it's made

[60:15]clear to them a time period where they may be with you

[60:17]and then they may be set free this is called okay so

[60:25]it's interesting whether there is an arcade required considering the context of

[60:33]these verses is anika but then we move on to this concept

[60:38]of mukata a contract between the the the man who manages the

[60:41]property and the property itself i'm sorry to talk in such terms

[60:45]but we're talking seventh century arabia this is the customs of the

[60:51]time problem is what if you want terms and your your husband

[60:53]your manager your owner wants other terms that could be the only

[60:56]problem although the imams don't want us to take it too long

[61:02]give them of the wealth that's what that god has given you

[61:09]now next verse if we don't do these things then what problem

[61:11]do we face prostitution this verse don't force don't compel your slave

[61:23]girls to become prostitutes when they desire to be chased clearly in

[61:31]arabia previous captives you're gonna be selling yourself as a prostitute for

[61:37]me suddenly islam is saying slavery is a custom slavery is a

[61:41]practice but don't let it get to a stage where you think

[61:44]that this lady has no soul rather build a life with her

[61:49]set a time period you're going to be together with her if

[61:52]she has a child then that child is free many other customs

[61:55]did not allow a child to be free you are still a

[61:59]slave because your mom's a slave whereas for us the imams the

[62:05]imams their mothers even companions of imam hussain from karbala some of

[62:10]them their mothers were slaves but when they gave birth to that

[62:13]person they became um and they become free quran here says don't

[62:17]force these girls into prostitution just because you know you've got this

[62:21]person who you possess the authority over as a property don't start

[62:28]selling her and that's where i have to admit and i'll leave

[62:31]on this note that when you look at some of our medieval

[62:35]texts on and you look at some of the concepts concerning what

[62:38]a master can do with their slave without a doubt there were

[62:46]certain customs at some times which couldn't be abolished other practices that

[62:52]required reform and others of them the reality is that only god

[62:56]knows when the right time is when the human being will not

[62:59]look towards others in this way different scenarios meant that maybe slavery

[63:05]calmed when we had the industrial revolution because we looked at these

[63:09]people as workers so when machines came we don't need slaves anymore

[63:12]maybe it wasn't the human side or the empathetic side and once

[63:16]again it remains illegal and it remains a moral issue as well

[63:21]and we can only look at it and hope for the best

[63:24]for every human being who allah subhanahu wa ta'ala whichever way and

[63:27]whichever family you're born into created you free inshallah [Music] [Music] am

[64:16][Music] the holy month of ramadan is upon us once again and

[64:31]inshaallah allah will be accepted imam hussain development and relief foundation once

[64:37]again are running the ramadan food basket campaign each food washing contains

[64:44]food essentials such as flour rice oil meats vegetables tea lemons and

[64:50]not forgetting dates each food wild skate is only 20 pounds or

[64:56]25 us dollars i can feed a family of four for up

[64:59]to 10 days you can donate via paypal bank transfer or why

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[65:13]orphans the widows and also the impoverished families all over iraq [Music]

[65:27]you

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