“The reward of those who make war against God and His Apostle, and strive after violence in the earth, is only that they shall be slaughtered and crucified, or their hands cut off, or their feet on alternate sides, or that they shall be banished from the land, a disgrace for them in this world, and for them in the next a mighty woe, save for those who repent before ye have them in your power.” Ibid., Surah V, vs. 37.
“The spoils are God’s and the Apostles’; fear God and settle it among yourselves.... Fight them then, that there should be no sedition, and that the religion should be wholly God’s; but if they desist (to disbelieve) then God on what they do doth look. But if they turn their backs, then know that God is your Lord ... and know that whenever ye seize anything as a spoil, to God belongs a fifth thereof, and to his Apostle and to kindred and orphans and the poor the wayfarer.” Ibid., Surah VIII, vs. 1, 40–42.
[32] D’Ohsson, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 35.
[33] D’Ohsson, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 142.
[34] Ameer Ali, op. cit., p. 256.
[35] “And unto such of your slaves as desire a written instrument allowing them to redeem themselves, or paying a certain sum, write one, if ye know good in them, and give them of the riches of God which he hath given you.” Koran (Sale’s Trans.), Surah XXIV.
Mohammed accepted the institution of slavery, but urged gentleness in dealing with the slave. Muir thus quotes a speech made by Mohammed in his last year at Mina: “And your slaves! See that ye feed them with such food as ye yourselves eat, and clothe them with the stuffs ye wear. And if they commit a fault which ye are not inclined to forgive, then sell them, for they are the servants of the Lord, and not to be tormented.” Muir, Life of Mahomet, p. 458.
Cf. also Syed Ameer Ali, A Critical Examination of the Life and Teaching of Mohammed (London, 1873), chap, xv, p. 257. “The masters were forbidden to exact more work than was just and proper. They were ordered never to address their male and female slaves by that degrading appellation, but by the more affectionate name of ‘my young man’ or ‘my young maid’.”
[36] Parliamentary Papers, Slave Trade, 1860, B. P., 130. Quoted by Young, op. cit., vol. ii, note, p. 167.
[37] Fatma Alieh Hanum, Les Musulmanes Contemporaines (1894, Paris).