Thursday, January 7, 2010

Muslims and Muhammad and Sex with Slaves

At Muslims and Muhammad: the Impossible Task, I posted, "It is impossible that a man could allow his followers to have sex with their female slaves as well as their prisoners of war, whether or not they were married, and be a prophet of God."

Rumors persist to this day that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, both Heroes of our Nation, fathered children born of slaves. If they did not, certainly many other Americans did. And it is a fact that King Solomon, writer of both the Book of Proverbs and the love poem "The Song of Songs" in the Bible, had hundreds of wives and concubines. So what is the difference, one might ask, if Muhammad also had sex with slaves?

I think the differences are significant. Even though Americans admire many qualities of their Founding Father, we do not look back with pride at their slave-holding practices. And no Christian pastor or Jewish rabbi would give the marital example of Solomon as a model for young men today. The Bible itself records that in his later years Solomon's wives "led him astray" from the God and faith of his youth.

One of the best-known facts of Islam is that it allows Muslim men to have four wives. Much less understood, however, and one of the many Quranic expressions that is easily glossed over by careless readers, is the reality that immediately after Quran 4:3 allows men four wives, it also authorizes them to have sex with their female slaves. The verse states that if men fear they could not equally treat four wives justly they should marry only one, or "the possessions of your right hand", that is, their slaves. Apparently the need to treat female slaves equally was not taken into consideration, and there was no limit to the number that a Muslim man could enjoy.

This was not just a theoretical statement, but a practice carried out by both Muhammad and his followers. All the early Muslim historians, including Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, and al-Tabari, describe Muhammad's sexual relationship with slaves or female captives such as Mary the Copt and Safiya the Jewess. The authentic hadiths give Muhammad's instructions to his warriors about the rules for sex with the females they captured in their battles. Sex with pregnant captives was not allowed, since according to Muhammad it was not proper for his men to "mix their seed" with that of the man who had impregnated the women who were now their slaves. Coitus interruptus was also discouraged because according to the Prophet it made no difference whether a man ejaculated inside or outside the woman, since "Allah has already determined who he will or will not create".

It is interesting that these instructions were given when Muhammad's men complained to him that it was difficult for them to remain faithful to their wives during their raids, especially when they were capturing beautiful Arab and Jewish women. Rather then encouraging them in fidelity, he simply laid the ground rules for casual sex (we would call it rape today) with the captured women whose husbands had often just been killed by the same men who wanted sex with them. There was no stipulation or expectation that the men would marry or have any social responsibility towards these women, and they were often sold as slaves soon afterwards.

Muslims today easily defend or justify this information about their prophet. I can't do that. I cannot believe that a man who would both practice and authorize casual sex with captive female slaves could be a prophet of God.

21 comments:

dincbee said...

It would carry more weight if you could support those improprieties perpetrated with source of reference.A child can write article like this.Totally amateur writing only good for light reading.

Unknown said...

I agree that including sources would help the arguments. I agree the article is light reading, which I assume to be by design of the author. The topic however requires deep study. It's interestingto noticethat the article has better grammer than the above comment. "with A source of reference", "can write AN article like this", I don't have a problem with understanding the article. However it seems that dincbee's english is limited and therefore he struggled to understand it. He wants to bring about a certain unbiased air to his comment by attacking the quality of the writing rather than directly disputing the arguments, which in fact he strongly opposes. I strongly agree with the article. The false prophet was also a paedophile. For this accusation a will provide a source.

"The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became all right, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, "Best wishes and Allah's Blessing and a good luck." Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah's Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age. (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 5, Book 58, Number 234)

This issue is addressed on this website

http://www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/prepubescent.htm

akhter said...

And for your information all ai answering islam is 100% refuted and dealt with at -


http://www.answering-christianity.com/ac.htm

tanstaafl said...

Sources to confirm the article are easily traced to the Qur'an, the aHadith, the Sira, Sharia law and the 1400 years of Islamic exegesis.

Islam is a religion of slavers, who bought and sold human beings as we might buy and sell a pound of butter. There has been NO Islamic-based antislavery movement and it is still practiced in some Islamic countries (notably in the Sudan).

akhter said...

Islam and Slavery :

Islam came when slavery was a widespread institution, and it sought to relieve humanity from its evils and vigorously called for the emancipation of the slaves . 'Umar once said, "How can you enslave people whereas they were born free?".

God has made freedom the natural birthright of all people. Islam, having found slavery a deeply rooted social and economic order, worked for its gradual elimination. Therefore, enslaving some war prisoners was permitted only in exceptional situations of necessity such as when the enemy enslaves Muslim prisoners, and therefore, Muslims had to reciprocate by enslaving the enemy's prisoners in order to exchange them for the liberation of Muslim slaves. Otherwise, war prisoners are to be either freed without any price or penalty or with payment of a price depending on what is best for the community in the situation. The Quran in this question, reads:"Now when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then it is smiting of the necks until when you have routed them, then making fast of bonds ; and afterwards either grace or ransom until the war lay down its burden". LVII, 4.

Moreover, Islam has opened many avenues for the liberation of slavery. One is that Islam has made emancipation of a slave a mandatory expiation on commitment of certain legal violations. Another avenue is that emancipation is one of the channels of dispensing of the proceedings of the zakat. A wide gate is that God has made freeing a slave one of the most charitable acts that brings a person closer to his Lord and assured him great rewards in Paradise. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, says: "Whosoever frees a slave God will free him from the punishment of Hellfire, each part of his body against its counterpart in the body of the emancipated slave."

Therefore, if we see the world having freed itself from this evil practice we realize that this was in full agreement with the teachings of Islam enlightened by its guidance and taking hints from its tenets.

Unknown said...

BUKHARI'S HADITH AND SLAVERY
Vol. 3-#765

Narrated Kuraib: the freed slave of Ibn 'Abbas, that Maimuna bint Al-Harith told him that she manumitted a slave-girl without taking the permission of the Prophet. On the day when it was her turn to be with the Prophet, she said, "Do you know, O Allah's Apostle, that I have manumitted my slave-girl?" He said, "Have you really?" She replied in the affirmative. He said, "You would have got more reward if you had given her (i.e. the slave-girl) to one of your maternal uncles."

Here a woman frees a slave girl, but Muhammad says that she would have gotten more (heavenly) reward if she had given the slave one of her uncles, thus keeping the slave in slavery.

http://www.answering-islam.org/Silas/slavery.htm

akhter said...

Islam came with a structure to free slaves
but not to create beggars and unemployed or otherwise

So you need to know more about the hadith
you can not just quite a hadith and say what does it mean
usually this goes along Fiqh school of what this means and how was it used

but from understanding the spirit of Islam
those day tell what would this woman have done is she was freed
the societies then were tribal and family based
if it was a man that would have been less danger
you need to ensure when you free some he can support himself
is such a masculine society those days what would this girl do
this is why the prophet would have been concerned
this is my impression of the incident but as I said one can not take a Hadith and say what does it mean
just like the Versus in the Quran, a person needs to know when and why and the words usage etc it is a whole science specially when it come to deducing a rule/jurisprudence

A_Nonny_Mouse said...

Forget the taqqiyah, Akhter. Muhammad was NOT a prophet of the God of Abraham. How do I know? Muhammad had a band of faithful thugs who would happily kill anyone who mocked Muhammad or refused conversion to Islam. Jesus didn't. Jesus plundered no caravans, murdered no citizens, raped no hostages, had nobody's eyes burned out. Jesus didn't justify cruelty, Jesus never authorized the worship of "alternate" gods (and therefore he didn't have to "take it all back" and claim that Satan tricked him.)

The God that Jesus served CANNOT be the same "god" that Muhammad announced to the world.

Taqqiyah that, buddy.

akhter said...

Hi,i looked up for definition of Monotheism in most dictionaries,i have to admit Sura Ikhlas in four lines delivers the
ultimate answer. may be some one else can come up with 4 better lines than the one below as non Muslims believe that Quran is not the word of Allah ,and Mohammad is the author, furthermore there stands a challange in the glorious quran , to produce a chapter similar to any in the last testament of god, see if you can do any better than the shepherd boy who never went to school, Mohammad the last messenger of Almighty.

. SURAH IKHLAS THE SINCERIT

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ

اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ

لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ

وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ



Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem

Qul hu Allahu Ahad

Allah hus Samad

Lam ya-lid

wa lam you-lad

wa lam ya kullahu kuf-uwan ahad



In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

Say: He is God, the One and Only;

God, the Eternal, Absolute;

He begetteth not, nor is He begotten;

And there is none like unto Him.

Cyril Lucar said...

Akhter,

What?!!!

Are you aware of how crazy (and mentally deficient) you people sound when when someone is challenging your beliefs in a logical argument and you revert to some non-sequitur Koranic verse? We're all aware that the Koran is the great miracle is Islam. We've read it. It bores us; it frightens us with violence and self-serving justifications for rape and murder; we're flummoxed as to why its simple and inconsistent moralism holds such sway.

Of course the other argument-ender for Muslims is an eruption into cursing, rage and threats.

Has it ever occurred to you that it doesn't increase our respect for your religion when you enter into a logical discourse, make a tiny attempt at winning the argument and then bail out into unrelated Koranic poetry? We just assume you're out of arguments and you are admitting defeat while still holding up the pretense of faith.

akhter said...

http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/quote1.html

Cyril Lucar said...

Wow, Akhter, a link! Pretty impressive. Maybe you could hire a Philippino or Indian to type for you. I noticed that in a lot of Islamic countries you guys are allergic to work. Don't worry, doing the extra work to type won't make you into an infidel. You have to work a LOT harder to do that.

Unknown said...

To Cyril,

Muhammad never claimed himself to be a perfect man. But he was called Al-Sadiq and al-Amin even before receiving God's message. Muslims believe that he was a true messenger of God who (simply without adding or deducting anything from God's message) conveyed it to the people. His opponents from the day one have been trying to smear his character for that's what people do when they are scared of a leader who brings out the truth. I will keep writing about Muhammad's life and all the false stories and misconceptions that float around.

Cyril Lucar said...

To ابالاياجامبالايا (abalayajambalaya)

It doesn't really matter if Mohammed (mhbh) ever taught that he was the perfect man, most Muslims think he was and believe they should, on some level, follow his example. Since your own texts portray quite a violent and sexually predatory fellow, the more fundamental a Muslim (ghm) becomes, the most vile he behaves. Our fundamentalists drive buggies and refuse to serve in the military.

We only use your sources when describing your "prophet" (tol), if there is a source we are using that the ummah doesn't find authentic, let us know.

This is the part where you either ignore this challenge or respond in some way without actually addressing the subject. As our blog author has mentioned. Your prophet is indefensible.

ps Are you aware your name means "old soup"?

Unknown said...

It does matter. There are hundreds of millions of Muslims who follow his example in becoming a truthful person, a God fearing person.
Among all the trivia about his life you can only see the acts which are seemingly violent. Muslims believe that he was a true prophet
and messenger of God. All the previous messengers before him have different personalities, different divine duties to perform.
You just mentioned that your fundamentalists drive buggies and refuse to serve in the military (I believe you mean Amish
people), I like them they are nice people. So I guess you are Christian. Well Christians always try to compare Muhammad with
Jesus. Why is that? Muslims never say that Muhammad was better than Jesus or something. I don't know which books you use as your
source. But FYI all Muslims believe in one almighty GOD (Allah), they believe in all the messengers including Jesus. They
believe in all the divine books as they were revealed to their respective prophets and messengers. The believe that the
present versions and varioations of those divine books are not Word of God in their entirety. Since when an ordinary
Christian has become a scholar of Islamic Jurisprudence. Quran (Muslim Holy book) was revealed to Muhammad 14 centuries ago.
Muslim scholars are still working on the interpretation of it. Quran and Islam are nothing but a final and the best of a
series of holy books and way of life that man's Creator has been sending for the guidance of mankind. Jesus as God wanted
him to be a simple, honest, God fearing man, a great true prophet, messenger of God. He was not a politician, neither a State-
sman, nor a military commander. Moses was a great prophet, a true and sincere messenger of God, he was also a leader who gathered
children of Israel and led them out of Egypt and finally to Israel. David was a true messenger of God and a military commander
who fought the Palestinians, killed the Goliath.

Muhammad brought the truth initially to his own people. The pagans, the idol worhippers of Mecca. Told them about one God. The
God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ismail, Noah, Moses, Jesus. He led his followers out of Mecca to Medina. He fought for the
true religion of God against pagans and idol worshippers. He was not just a true prophet and a true messenger of God, he
also was a leader and a military commander. He was a loving father. He had four daughters. His first marriage was with a 40
year old widowed. His subsequent marriages were norm of that society in those times. People would marry a woman sometimes just
to put off a fire of revenge. To bring peace to warring tribes. You have to understand the psychology of the people of that
region in those times. Please don't just hold with your teeth all the bad but untrue stories about this true prophet. Read and
remeber all the good stuff that this great human being has to offer i.e. is guidance towards the right path of the Creator without the help of
idols, priest, clergyman, mullah, fundamentalist, whatever. God bless you, you really need to read not just the mere translations of Quran
and Hadeeth but read the (Tafseers, explanations) of Quran and Hadeeth to get rid of all the negative images that you have
about Muhammad (peace be upon him and all the messengers).

pela68 said...

"It does matter. There are hundreds of millions of Muslims who follow his example in becoming a truthful person, a God fearing person."

And there are atleast a hundred billion flies that eat shit. Then they must be right- right? Logical fallacy!
Moreover, why should anyone be "god fearing"? THAT does not sound like any god I would want to believe in. If I choose to loose my braincells and belive in a god, the "I love you god" would be my first choise. It seems to me you have made a very, very bad choise.

"Among all the trivia about his life you can only see the acts which are seemingly violent. Muslims believe that he was a true prophet
and messenger of God. All the previous messengers before him have different personalities, different divine duties to perform."

I could easily look over one or even two violent incidences- no not really when it comes to a "profhet"! Mo is supposed to be perfect! Atleast according to you muslims...
A true prophet in any sane mind does not raid caravans, instigate to murder, be a pedophile, an adulturer etc. Is it not so that the quran is "perfect and timeless"? Shit! Mo was crazier than a mule in an ass kicking contest. Just swallow the hard truth. (That is IF he ever really existed. You would think that this "great" war lord and warrior would have made SOME sort of impression on the nearby countries. But as I understand it, no "muhammed" is ever mentioned outside of muslim text of the age he was supposed to live in.

Arrgh! I could go on and on and on. You just does not deserve the time. So if you want to believe in some hokus pokus (which I amusingly have heard is haram inside islam) then knock your forehead flat at the carpet where thousands of smelly feets have been before but please stop protelyzing (something that also is haram) about some semi existing (or not) historical person that was a vile, vile being even considering historical context and coustoms.

There are indeed some universal rules of behaviour and Mo seems to have broken EVERY ONE of them.

dincbee said...

The infidels just lack critical thinking or chose not to recognize that any sexually abused child would manifests her traumatic experience physically or mentally.Also one has to see the profiles of the Prophet's other wives. Would a pedophile have diverse partners?
Soli for the bad manglish.lol

akhter said...

The real age of aysha!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRlRmfOsTLg

akhter said...

Real age of Ayshia!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRlRmfOsTLg

Ingenue Once Ingenue Always said...

Peace people!! There is only one thing that all religions teach - love. Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism...they are all paths to the realization of a greater self, a better person who contributes positively to his society and builds relationships of love, trust and respect.
We all know that and still we are fighting...such a shame...we profess to follow our prophets, great teachers and yet refuse to embrace the the crux of all they tried to preach - love and respect your fellow beings, honour their choices and live in peace and harmony with each other.
If there is ever an infidel , then it is only people like you who in trying to defend the glory of his own faith abuse others.

Sebastian said...

Is it open to muslims to deal with sex with slaves? I'm just curious, how lucky they are for having such high libido in their life. If I just can turn back the time where my sex drive is still active I will do the same, hahaha But unfortunately I got nothing and my sex drive gets lower and lower. Can you help me?