Not so long ago in Western history, slavery was a brutal practice that saw humans put in chains, abused, murdered with impunity and left to die when no longer useful. Slavery was used to provide a key backbone in European economic exploitation of the ‘new world’ and colonies further afield.

However after the abolition of formal Slavery and Western moral systems readjusted to justify its abolition, much criticism has been anachronistically laid upon Islam for its alleged lack of providing an abolition of Slavery by Prophet Muhammed (saaw). In light of the many English translations available of Islamic texts, many Muslims have found it hard to discuss the topic in the West and explain how Muhammed (saaw) can be a universal paradigm while seemingly never having abolished slavery in his time. But is this true? Did the Prophet Muhammed (saaw) never abolish Slavery? or did he?

This paradigm shifting lecture looks at the question from an Orthodox Islamic perspective as well as the Western perspective, and demonstrates how according to both, Islam actually abolished Slavery of man to man.

The video will take you on a journey of human history and the history of slavery in both the Eastern and Western worlds and explore more deeply the role that Islam has played in the treatment of human beings, and whether Islam advocates, or actually abolished slavery before today’s contemporary society.

See the video below. The lecture was held on 24th March 2017, at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) [University of London], UK