Miscellaneous Benefits from Antwerp, Belgium

🇧🇪 Benefit 8 Slavery is a Form of Punishment Before engaging in battle against a non-Muslim nation, Muslims are required to follow a specific sequence of steps: 1⃣. Invite them to Islam 2⃣. If they decline Islam, they may remain upon their beliefs and live under Muslim protection by paying the jizyah (tax for non-Muslim citizens). 3⃣. If they reject both options, then warfare may be initiated. After victory in battle, those who are captured may become slaves. Shaykh ʿAbdullāh Lamḥ Al-Khawlānī (ḥafidhahullāh) explained that enslavement serves as a punishment, similar to other prescribed legal penalties in Islam—such as the cutting of the hand for theft or stoning for adultery. If any of these slaves later accept Islam, they may eventually regain their freedom through various acts of expiation (kaffārah) that include the freeing of slaves, such as: - Expiation for unintentional killing - Expiation for dhihār (a pre-Islamic form of divorce) - Expiation for breaking an oath - Expiation for sexual intercourse during the daytime of Ramaḍān...