Raping Married Captive Women

Investigate Islam made a video claiming that An Ayah in the Quran shows that Muslim men can rape their married and unmarried female captives of war.

The ayah he quotes is from Surah 4:24 of the Qu’ran, Here is the English Yusef Ali Translation:

4:24 Also (prohibited are) women already married, except those whom your right hands possess: Thus hath Allah ordained (Prohibitions) against you: Except for these, all others are lawful, provided ye seek (them in marriage) with gifts from your property,- desiring chastity, not lust, seeing that ye derive benefit from them, give them their dowers (at least) as prescribed; but if, after a dower is prescribed, agree Mutually (to vary it), there is no blame on you, and Allah is All-knowing, All-wise.

Response 

First of all before i demonstate how the prophet Muhammed (pbhu) forbade the raping of captives. We need to understand that Slavery was a trade Even Before Islam (its even biblical) Slavery was interlinked into the economy and it was a part of life. Slavery realistically speaking was a job to be done, it provided slaves with things they need, like food, shelter, security, job, money etc which was very valuable for illeterate slaves. So If Muslims tried to Ban Slavery overnight the consquences would be bad. Slavery had to be phased out. So to begin with Slaves were automatically given the right to respect, good treatment like any human being in Islam. Raping of slaves in islam is forbidden, BUT islam gives men the permission to have have consentual sexual intercourse with their slave. This was because if you have a baby with your slave, she no longer is a slave and she becomes your wife and free. The man has to marry her and giver her the full rights. Here are a few Quranic Verses showing how we have to treat slaves and captives of warfare

Surah 76:7-9

‘They perform (their) vows, and they fear a Day whose evil flies far and wide. And they feed, for the love of Allah, the indigent, the orphan, and the captive (Saying),"We feed you for the sake of Allah alone: no reward do we desire from you, nor thanks’

So clearly we have to treat captives of war with kindness and we have to feed them.

Surah 4:19

‘O ye who believe! Ye are forbidden to inherit women against their will.’

Now Let Me show Hadiths proving that Muslims are not allowed to rape captives of war.

Bukhari, Iman, 22; Adab, 44; Muslim, Iman, 38–40; Abu Dawud, Adab, 124

The prophet  (peace be upon him) said:

Your servants and your slaves are your brothers. Anyone who has slaves should give them from what he eats and wears. He should not charge them with work beyond their capabilities. If you must set them to hard work, in any case I advise you to help them.

 Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 2 ,4

Not one of you should  [ when introducing someone ] say ‘This is my slave , ‘This is my concubine’. He should call them ‘my daughter’ or ‘my son’  or ‘my brother’.

What about Females who were married?

Mufti Ebrahim Desai in his fatwa comments:

After their return to Islamic territory. Each soldier was then entitled to have relations only with the slave girl over which he was given the right of ownership and not with those slave girls that were not in his possession. This right of ownership was given to him by the  “Ameerul-Mu'mineen”  (Head of the Islamic state.) Due to this right of ownership, It became lawful for the owner of a slave  girl to have intercourse with her (this does not mean you can rape the slave, you need her permission and you still have to treat her well as the quran and hadiths prove.

If a slave woman was married previously in enemy territory to a non-Muslim, and is then captured alone, i.e. without her husband, it is not permissible for any Muslim to have relations with her until her previous marriage is nullified, and that is done by bringing her to an Islamic country and making her the legal possession of a Muslim. Bringing her into Islamic territory necessitates the rendering of her previous marriage as null and void by Islamic law because with her husband in enemy territory and she in Islamic territory, it becomes virtually impossible for them to meet and live as man and wife. That is why it is not permissible to have intercourse with a woman whose husband is also taken into captivity and put into slavery with her. Another resemblance between the two is that, just as a divorcee has to spend a period called "Iddat" before another man is allowed to marry her, similarly, a slave woman has to spend a period called "Istibraa" before her owner can have coition with her.

Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam) enjoined his followers to treat the slaves kindly, gently, and, above all, to regard them as members of the family. In this way, they were made to feel wanted; which was far better than treating them as outcasts and leaving them to wander the streets of a strange society in a peniless, destitute condition. Such treatment would have ultimately forced them to take up evil occupations such as prostitution in the case of slave woman in order to fill their hungry stomachs. The First World War in 1914 was a clear reflection of the evils involved in setting captive women free to roars about in a strange society with strange surroundings. During that war, German and English women prisoners on either side were set free to roam the streets with no-one to feed them. The result was obvious that they resorted to other unrefined and uncivilised methods of income on the streets. Thus, it is evident that the Islamic treatment of women prisoners of war was conducive towards better social relations and led to the refinement of their overall social lives.

Over and above all this, History will show that Islam did not encourage slavery but rather encouraged moves towards the extirpation of slavery. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam has said something to this effect in a Hadith, that: "Whosoever freed a muslim slave, the Lord would redeem all his limbs - in compensation for each limb of the slave, so much so that the private parts for the private parts - from the Fire of Hell. If a slave woman becomes pregnant from her owner, and delivers his child, she automatically gets her freedom after the death of her master whose child she gave birth to.

Moreover, there are many wrongs and sins for which the liberation of a slave serves as a compensation and atonement. This was a further incentive for the extirpation of slavery. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam also taught that whosoever teaches good manners to his slave girl, adorns her with politeness and good education, then frees her and gets married to her, for him there is double recompense and reward.