Slavery & Captives

This verse permits men to marry up to four wives, but introduces an alternative if financial equity between wives cannot be maintained: taking concubines from among "those your right hands possess" (ma malakat aymanukum). Under Islamic law, enslaved women did not carry the financial rights of maintenance or equity in overnight stays required for free wives, offering a distinct legal category of sexual access without marital obligations.

Surah An-Nisa verse 24 lists categories of women forbidden for marriage. It explicitly excepts married women who are captured in war and become property ("except female captives you own"). Classical commentators (such as al-Tabari, Ibn Kathir, and al-Qurtubi) explain that capture by a Muslim army automatically dissolved the captive woman's existing marriage to her non-Muslim husband, rendering her sexually permissible to her new owner once a single menstrual cycle passed to ensure she was not pregnant (istibra').

This canonical Hadith provides the specific historical context (asbab al-nuzul) for Quran 4:24. During the campaign at Autas (following the Battle of Hunayn in 630 CE), Muslim soldiers expressed moral hesitation regarding sexual relations with captive married women whose husbands were still living. The revelation of 4:24 resolved this hesitation by confirming that military capture annuls prior marital bonds, permitting intercourse with captured women.

Surah Al-Anfal verse 41 establishes the law of khums (the fifth-share). After military campaigns, all spoils of war—including wealth, livestock, and captured human beings—were pooled together. One-fifth of the total loot was allocated to the Prophet Muhammad and designated state purposes, while the remaining 80% was divided among participating soldiers.

This verse formally declared spoils of war (ghanima) to be religiously lawful (halal) and pure (tayyib) for Muslims. Prior to Islam, early Arabian and Near Eastern customs regarding war booty varied; this verse codified the acquisition of property and captives taken in battle as a legitimate divine sanction.

Describing the outcome of the campaign against Banu Qurayza, verse 26 explicitly records the division of defeated populations into executed males ("a party you killed") and enslaved women and children ("you took captive a party"), while verse 27 affirms the divine inheritance of their lands, homes, and movable property.

This narration illustrates the administrative procedure for distributing human spoils following military campaigns. Captives were assigned to individual combatants as shares of booty. When Safiyya bint Huyayy (daughter of the leader of Banu Nadir) was initially assigned to Dihya, companions noted her high status, prompting Muhammad to exchange her for seven other slave captives, manumit her, and enter into marriage with her.

In classical Islamic law, captive women and children were considered state assets or personal booty that could be retained as concubines/servants, ransomed back to their families for money, or traded in regional commercial markets to purchase military supplies such as steeds and armament.