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Concubinage and “what the right hands possess”: does the Qur'an endorse abuse?

The claim: "The Qur'an permits relations outside marriage with enslaved/captive women ('what the right hands possess') (4:3; 23:6). This is sexual abuse layered on slavery."

Context and the Qur'an's direction

An honest limit

We do not soften this: a relation conditioned on captivity is, by today's moral standards, gravely problematic, and that is a fair part of the objection. What the Qur'an did was not to endorse unlimited concubinage but a historical regulation tied to the slavery institution that channels it toward marriage and freedom. When slavery ends, the ground of this regulation falls away too. "The Qur'an praises abuse" is not the text's necessary conclusion; but we record the historical difficulty as it is.

Source: Qur'anic verses (M. Okuyan meal). Presented soberly and respectfully, with a text/interpretation distinction.

Related verses