He ta’ālā said, {And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the mushrikīn wherever you find them, and capture them, and besiege them, and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.} [At-Tawbah: 5].
The Yazidis present-day creed – as it has changed over history – entails the worship of Iblīs who they consider to be a fallen but forgiven angel amongst the angels who were ordered to prostrate to Ādam! He alone refused to prostrate to Ādam, and they consider this arrogant disobedience of Allah to be his noblest deed! They consider him to be misunderstood by mankind! They consider him to be good and enlightened, and claim that Allah will openly forgive him on Judgment Day after already forgiving him beforehand for crying tears of piety over a period of thousands of years! So they have made Iblīs – who is the biggest tāghūt – the symbolic head of enlightenment and piety! What arrogant kufr can be greater than this?
Their creed is so deviant from the truth that even cross-worshipping Christians for ages considered them devil worshippers and Satanists, as is recorded in accounts of Westerners and Orientalists who encountered them or studied them. It is ultimately ironic that Obama sites these devil worshippers as the main cause for his intervention in Iraq and Shām, as he sides with the peshmerga – gangs of mercenaries related to the Marxist PUK and allied with the Marxist PKK – a “terrorist” organization according to the tāghūt laws the West “believes” in.
Prior to the taking of Sinjar, Sharī’ah students in the Islamic State were tasked to research the Yazidis to determine if they should be treated as an originally mushrik group or one that originated as Muslims and then apostatized, due to many of the related Islamic rulings that would apply to the group, its individuals, and their families. Because of the Arabic terminologies used by this group either to describe themselves or their beliefs, some contemporary Muslim scholars have classified them as possibly an apostate sect, not an originally mushrik religion, but upon further research, it was determined that this group is one that existed since the pre-Islamic jāhiliyyah, but became “Islamized” by the surrounding Muslim population, language, and culture, although they never accepted Islam nor claimed to have adopted it. The apparent origin of the religion is found in the Magianism of ancient Persia, but reinterpreted with elements of Sabianism, Judaism, and Christianity, and ultimately expressed in the heretical vocabulary of extreme Sufism.
Accordingly, the Islamic State dealt with this group as the majority of fuqahā’ have indicated how mushrikīn should be dealt with. Unlike the Jews and Christians, there was no room for jizyah payment. Also, their women could be enslaved unlike female apostates who the majority of the fuqaha’ say cannot be enslaved (1) and only be given an ultimatum to repent or face the sword. After capture, the Yazidi women and children were then divided according to the Sharī’ah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations, after one fifth of the slaves were transferred to the Islamic State’s authority to be divided as khums (fifth).
This large-scale enslavement of mushrik families is probably the first since the abandonment of this Sharī’ah law. The only other known case – albeit much smaller – is that of the enslavement of Christian women and children in the Philippines and Nigeria by the mujāhidīn there.
The enslaved Yazidi families are now sold by the Islamic State soldiers as the mushrikīn were sold by the Companions (radiyallāhu ‘anhum) before them. Many well-known rulings are observed, including the prohibition of separating a mother from her young children. Many of the mushrik women and children have willingly accepted Islam and now race to practice it with evident sincerity after their exit from the darkness of shirk.
Rasūlullāh (sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “Allah marvels at a people who enter Jannah in chains” [reported by al-Bukhārī on the authority of Abū Hurayrah]. The hadīth commentators mentioned that this refers to people entering Is- lam as slaves and then entering Jannah.
Abū Hurayrah (radiyallāhu ‘anh) said while commenting on Allah’s words, {You are the best nation produced for mankind} [Āli ‘Imrān: 110], “You are the best people for people. You bring them with chains around their necks, until they enter Islam” [Sahīh al-Bukhāri].
After this discussion and as we approach al-Malhamah al-Kubrā (the greatest battle before the Hour) – whenever its time comes by Allah’s decree – it is interesting to note that slavery has been mentioned as one of the signs of the Hour as well as one of the causes behind al-Malhamah al-Kubrā.
Rasūlullāh (sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) mentioned that one of the signs of the Hour was that “the slave girl gives birth to her master.” This was reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim on the authority of Abū Hurayrah and by Muslim on the authority of ‘Umar.
The scholars mention a number of interpretations for this, some of them drifting away from actual slavery because it already was existent and common in their eras. The following excerpts are from commentaries indicating that actual slavery is a likely interpretation. This be- comes more so the case after the abandonment of slavery since the rise of tāghūt law and the desertion of jihād.
Ibn Rajab al-Hanbalī said while explaining this hadīth,“The scholars differed over what is meant by this. It has been stated that the conquests of the lands of kufr multiply as well as enslavement, and thereby concubines increase in numbers, until the slave women give birth to their mas- ters, this is because the child of the master has the status of the master [meaning he is a free man like his father], and thereby she has given birth to her master from this angle. […] It has also been stated that ‘the slave girl gives birth to her master’ indicated the increased conquests of the lands of kufr and the taking of slaves, until a girl is taken from the land of kufr at a young age, then she is freed in the land of Islam, then her mother is brought in as a slave after her, and this girl buys her mother and uses her in her service, ignorant of the fact that the slave is her mother. This has occurred in the Islamic era. This interpretation is like the one before it, indicating that one of the signs of the Hour is the increased con- quests and bringing in of slaves from the lands of kufr. […] It has also been stated that the meaning of the slave girl giving birth to her master is that people turn away from marriage sufficing with concubines alone. And Allah knows best” [Fathul-Bārī].
Ibn Rajab also said, “This indicates the conquest of lands and the high occurrence of taking slaves until concubines and their children increase in numbers. The slave girl becomes a slave to her master while his children have the status of her master over herself. This is because the child of the master has the rank of the master, and thereby the child of the slave girl has the status of her owner and master” [Jāmi’ al-Ulūm wal-Hikam].
An-Nawawī explained the hadīth by saying, “The majority of scholars say that this foretells the increase of concubines and their children in numbers, because the child of a concubine has the status of her master” [Sharh Sahīh Muslim].
Ibn Hajar commented on this interpretation saying, “But this suggested interpretation is questionable, because a slave girl giving birth was an occurrence that existed in the era when the statement was made. Also, most of the conquests of the lands of shirk, the enslavement of their families, and the taking of their women as concubines, occurred at the beginning of the Islamic era” [Fathul-Bārī].
Again, it appears that those who drift away from the literal interpretation of slavery do so because it was already existent and common in their era in such a manner that they found it hard to understand it as referring to actual slavery. But after the abandonment of slavery by Muslims and its subsequent revival, this literal interpretation becomes much more plausible.
Additionally, a hadīth that one should reflect over is the long hadīth of Dābiq reported by Muslim on the authority of Abū Hurayrah. In the hadīth it is mentioned that the Romans say to the Muslims after the Romans have lined up in ranks near Dābiq, “Leave us and those who were enslaved from amongst us so we can fight them.” The Muslims then respond, “Nay, by Allah, we will not abandon our brothers to you.” The bloody, final battle begins after this short discussion.
An-Nawawī commented on this hadīth saying, “It was reported in two forms, ‘those who enslaved some of us’ and ‘those who were enslaved from amongst us.’ Al-Qādī said in ‘Al-Mashāriq,’ ‘‘Those who were enslaved from amongst us’ is the report of the majority and it is the correct one.’ I [an-Nawawī] say that both of them are correct, because they are enslaved first [as kuffār] and then enslave the kuffār thereafter. This occurrence exists in our times. Rather the majority of the Islamic armies in Shām and Egypt were originally enslaved [as kuffār] and now they enslave the kuffār, walhamdulillāh. They have enslaved them numerous times in our era. They enslave in just one occasion thousands of the kuffār. All praise is due to Allah for having strengthened and honored Islam” [Sharh Sahīh Muslim].
After this, it becomes clear where Shaykh Abū Muhammad al-‘Adnānī ash-Shāmī (hafidhahullāh) gets his inspiration from when saying, “And so we promise you [O crusaders] by Allah’s permission that this campaign will be your final campaign. It will be broken and defeated, just as all your previous campaigns were broken and defeated, except that this time we will raid you thereafter, and you will never raid us. We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah, the Exalted. This is His promise to us; He is glorified and He does not fail in His promise. If we do not reach that time, then our children and grandchildren will reach it, and they will sell your sons as slaves at the slave market” [Indeed Your Lord Is Ever Watchful].
Before Shaytān reveals his doubts to the weak-minded and weak hearted, one should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffār and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Sharī’ah that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Qur’ān and the narrations of the Prophet (sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sal- lam), and thereby apostatizing from Islam.
Allah ta’āla said, {Successful indeed are the believers who are humble in their prayers, and who shun vain conversation, and who are pay- ers of the zakāh, and who guard their modesty except from their wives or the [female slaves] that their right hands possess, for then they are not blameworthy, but whoever craves be- yond that, such are transgressors} [Surat Al-Mu’minūn: 1-7]. |
Finally, a number of contemporary scholars have mentioned that the desertion of slavery had led to an increase in fāhishah (adultery, fornication, etc.), because the shar’ī alternative to marriage is not available, so a man who cannot afford marriage to a free woman finds himself surrounded by temptation towards sin. In addition, many Muslim families who have hired maids to work at their homes, face the fitnah of prohibited khalwah (seclusion) and resultant zinā occurring between the man and the maid, whereas if she were his concubine, this relationship would be legal. This again is from the consequences of abandoning jihād and chasing after the dunyā, wallāhul-musta’ān.
May Allah bless this Islamic State with the revival of further aspects of the religion occurring at its hands.
And all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
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1)The enslavement of the apostate women belonging to apostate groups such as the rāfidah, nusayriyyah, durūz, and ismā’īliyyah is one that the fuqa- hā’ differ over. The majority of the scholars say that their women are not to be enslaved and only ordered to repent because of the hadīth, “Kill whoever changes his religion” [Sahīh al-Bukhārī]. But some of the scholars including Shaykhul-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah and the Ahnāf (Hanafis) say they may be en- slaved due to the actions of the Companions during the Wars of Apostasy where they enslaved the apostate women. This opinion is one also supported by evidence, wallāhu a’lam.