Muhammad as a Slave Owner and Trader
While many Muslims view Muhammad as the perfect moral example for all time, Islamic sources reveal that he personally owned, bought, sold, and gave away numerous slaves throughout his life. Far from working toward the abolition of slavery, Muhammad normalized and participated in the slave trade as both owner and merchant.
Muhammad's Personal Slave Ownership
Islamic sources document that Muhammad owned dozens of slaves throughout his life. These included both male and female slaves, acquired through purchase, war booty, and gifts:
"The number of slaves owned by Muhammad was twenty-seven. Male slaves were nineteen, female slaves were eight... The male slaves included Anjashah, Aflah, Rabah, Abu Rafi, Thawban, Abu Kabshah, Salih, Yasār, Abu Damīrah... The female slaves included Mariyah the Copt, who bore his son Ibrahim; Rayhānah; and others." (Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Zad al-Ma'ad)
Among Muhammad's most famous slaves was Zayd ibn Harithah, whom Muhammad initially kept as a slave before adopting him as a son (an adoption later nullified when Muhammad married Zayd's ex-wife Zaynab). Another was Mariya the Copt, a slave girl given to Muhammad as tribute from Egypt, with whom he had a child.
Muhammad as a Slave Trader
Muhammad did not merely own slaves; he actively participated in the slave trade by buying, selling, and trading human beings:
"Jabir (Allah be pleased with him) reported: There came a slave and pledged allegiance to Allah's Apostle on migration; he (the Holy Prophet) did not know that he was a slave. Then there came his master and demanded him back, whereupon Allah's Apostle said: 'Sell him to me.' And he bought him for two black slaves, and he did not afterwards take allegiance from anyone until he had asked him whether he was a slave (or a free man)." (Sahih Muslim 1602a)
This hadith shows Muhammad purchasing a slave and then trading him for two other slaves, treating human beings as commodities with exchange value.
"The Prophet said, 'The freed slave belongs to the people who have freed him,' or said something similar." (Sahih Bukhari 2562)
Muhammad established legal frameworks for slavery, including rules for manumission, indicating his acceptance of the institution as normative.
Sexual Slavery: Mariya the Copt
One of the most problematic aspects of Muhammad's slave ownership was his sexual relationship with Mariya, a Coptic Christian slave girl sent to him as tribute by the ruler of Egypt:
"The Messenger of Allah had sexual relations with Mariyah in the house of Hafsah on her day. When the Messenger of Allah left, Hafsah said: 'O Messenger of Allah, you did this in my house and on my day?'" (Tafsir al-Jalalayn on Quran 66:1-3)
Mariya was never Muhammad's wife; she remained his slave concubine. She bore him a son, Ibrahim, who died in infancy. As a slave, Mariya could not refuse Muhammad's sexual advances, illustrating the reality of sexual slavery in Islamic practice.
Slaves from Military Campaigns
Many of Muhammad's slaves came from military raids and conquests. After battles, captives were divided as war booty, with Muhammad receiving a fifth of all spoils, including enslaved persons:
"The Prophet had suddenly attacked Bani Mustaliq without warning while they were heedless and their cattle were being watered at the places of water. Their fighting men were killed and their women and children were taken as captives." (Sahih Bukhari 2541)
"We went out with Allah's Messenger on the expedition to the Bi'l-Mustaliq and took captive some excellent Arab women." (Sahih Muslim 1438a)
After the Battle of Khaybar, Muhammad took Safiyya bint Huyayy as a captive after her husband was killed. Some sources indicate Muhammad freed and married her; others suggest she remained in a status between wife and slave concubine.
The Raid on Banu Qurayza
After the siege of the Jewish tribe Banu Qurayza, Muhammad ordered the execution of all men and adolescent boys (600-900 men) and enslaved all women and children:
"Then the apostle divided the property, wives, and children of Banu Qurayza among the Muslims... Then the apostle sent Sa'd b. Zayd al-Ansari with some of the captive women of Banu Qurayza to Najd and he sold them for horses and weapons." (Ibn Ishaq, Sirat Rasul Allah)
Muhammad personally selected Rayhana, a beautiful woman from the tribe, for himself as a concubine. He enslaved an entire community and traded the women and children for weapons.
Muhammad's Teaching on Slavery
Muhammad's teachings reinforced rather than challenged the institution of slavery:
"The Prophet said, 'Whoever frees a Muslim slave, Allah will save all the parts of his body from the (Hell) Fire as he has freed the body-parts of the slave.' Said bin Marjana said that he narrated that Hadith to 'Ali bin Al-Husain and he freed his slave for whom 'Abdullah bin Ja'far had offered him ten thousand Dirhams or one-thousand Dinars." (Sahih Bukhari 2517)
While this hadith encourages freeing slaves as a pious act, it simultaneously affirms the legitimacy of slave ownership. Freeing a slave is presented as optional charity, not moral obligation.
"Your slaves are your brothers whom Allah has put under your control. So he who has his brother under his control should feed him with the like of what he eats and clothe him with the like of what he wears. You should not burden them with what is beyond their capacity, and if you burden them, then help them." (Sahih Bukhari 2545)
This hadith is often cited to show Islam's "kindness" toward slaves, but it accepts the fundamental premise that humans can be owned and controlled by other humans.
Biblical Contrast
While some Biblical patriarchs owned servants, and the Mosaic Law regulated slavery, the trajectory of Biblical revelation moves toward human dignity and freedom:
"Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven." (Colossians 4:1)
"For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men." (1 Corinthians 7:22-23)
Paul's letter to Philemon demonstrates the radical transformation Christianity brought to master-slave relationships. Paul sent the runaway slave Onesimus back to Philemon, but urged Philemon to receive him "no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother" (Philemon 16).
Jesus Himself proclaimed liberty:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed." (Luke 4:18)
Christianity provided the moral foundation for the abolitionist movement. William Wilberforce, John Newton, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and countless others fought slavery because of, not despite, their Christian faith.
Questions to Consider
- If Muhammad is the perfect moral example for all times and places, what does his slave ownership teach Muslims today?
- Why did Muhammad actively participate in buying, selling, and trading human beings if he intended to end slavery?
- What does it say about Islamic sexual ethics that Muhammad could have sexual relations with women he owned as property?
- How can Muslims claim Islam ended slavery when their prophet personally enslaved entire communities?
- Why is there no record of Muhammad condemning slavery as inherently evil or working toward its abolition?
- If Muhammad had revealed a verse abolishing slavery, would Muslims today need to defend or minimize his slave ownership?