Hawl Shubhat al-Raqiq - ضمن "Muhadarat al-Shinqiti
- Author died
- 1393 AH
- Editions
- Dār ‘Aṭā’āt al-‘Ilm
Hawl Shubhat al-Raqiq (Around the Misconception of Slavery) is a treatise and public lecture by the Mauritanian Islamic scholar Muhammad al-Amin al-Shinqiti (d. 1393 AH / 1973 CE), written to address and refute contemporary misconceptions regarding the institution of servitude in Islamic jurisprudence .
Context and Delivery
Al-Shinqiti composed the text in 1385 AH (1965 CE) for the cultural festival season at the Islamic University of Madinah . Accounts differ regarding who read the text on his behalf: one account records that it was delivered by his student Muhammad Rashad Salim in the author's presence , whereas another account states that it was delivered by his student ‘Atiyyah Salim .
Contents and Core Arguments
The treatise sets out to defend the wisdom and justice of Islamic legislation concerning slavery (milk al-yamin) as established in the Quran and the Sunnah :
- Legal cause of servitude: Al-Shinqiti argues that the foundational cause of enslavement in Islamic law is disbelief and waging war against God and His Messenger, rather than lineage, race, or unlawful kidnapping and coercion .
- Treatment and manumission: He emphasizes that Islamic law preserves human dignity by obligating masters to provide proper clothing, food, and fair treatment, while actively encouraging emancipation (‘itq) through expiations (kaffarat), contracts of manumission (kitabah), and other legal mechanisms .
- Servitude following conversion: Addressing why a captive remains enslaved even after embracing Islam, he invokes the legal principle that a prior established right is not nullified by a subsequent right (al-haqq al-sabiq la yarfa‘uhu al-haqq al-lahiq), as the captors' legitimate entitlement preceded the captive's conversion .
- Refutation of modern views: He rejects claims asserting that Islam permitted slavery only for a temporary historical phase, as well as arguments based on modern international consensus .
- Hermeneutical responses: He refutes the interpretation that Surah Muhammad, verse 4— فَإِمَّا مَنًّا بَعْدُ وَإِمَّا فِدَاءً ("either grace thereafter or ransom")—restricts the treatment of captives solely to release or ransom, citing Ibn Jarir al-Tabari and principles of legal theory (usul al-fiqh) and logic to show that this phrasing does not denote exclusiveness or abrogate enslavement .
Publication
The work was initially published as a standalone monograph introduced and annotated by Muhammad Rashad Salim . It was subsequently incorporated as the eighth lecture in Muhadarat al-Shinqiti, a compilation of al-Shinqiti's lectures published within the Athar al-Shaykh al-‘Allamah Muhammad al-Amin al-Shinqiti collection under the supervision of Bakr Abu Zayd .
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