Muhammad (peace be upon him) treated his slaves with unmatched kindness and even married some to free them, showing Allah's mercy. The Qur'an urges, ‘Righteousness is… to free the slave' (Surah Al-Balad, 90:13), and he lived it—he freed Zayd ibn Haritha, made him family (Sahih Bukhari), and married Safiyyah (may Allah be pleased with her) after freeing her (Sunan Ibn Majah). He said, ‘Your slaves are your brothers' (Sahih Bukhari), sharing food and clothes with them.
Jesus (peace be upon him) taught compassion—‘We gave him the Injeel, in which was guidance and light' (Surah Al-Ma'idah, 5:46)—and the Qur'an says, ‘The Messiah, son of Mary, was no more than a messenger' (Surah Al-Ma'idah, 5:75). The Prophet's care—‘We have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds' (Surah Al-Anbiya, 21:107)—echoed Jesus' way, lifting slaves to honor so they could worship Allah alone.
This claim attempts to equate Islamic slavery with Christian compassion, but a rigorous polemical analysis reveals a deep moral and theological divide. While the user highlights "kindness," they overlook the systemic nature of slavery that was codified in Islamic law, contrasting sharply with the transformative freedom found in the Gospel message and New Testament writings.
The claim that Muhammad "freed" slaves through marriage or adoption ignores the broader reality of war captives and concubinage within Islamic jurisprudence.
While the Quran encourages freeing slaves, it also codified the right to own them as "those whom your right hands possess" (Surah 4:24). This includes the permission for sexual relations with female captives, even if they were already married before their capture.
The script mentions Safiyyah bint Huyayy. She was "married" to Muhammad immediately after her husband and father were killed in the raid of Khaybar!
Dr. Robert Spencer in The Truth About Muhammad (2006) argues that this "marriage" occurred under extreme duress, which would be categorised as a violation of human dignity in any other ethical framework.
This is in startk contrast with Jesus: Jesus never owned, traded, or codified the rules for "possessing" another human being. He stated, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me... to proclaim liberty to the captives" (Luke 4:18).
The script quotes the Hadith calling slaves "brothers." However, this "brotherhood" remained within a hierarchy of ownership that Jesus explicitly dissolved.
Jesus says in John 15:15, "No longer do I call you servants ... but I have called you friends". In Christ, the slave-master relationship is not merely "improved" by kindness; it is abolished.
While Muhammad "adopted" Zayd, he later abolished legal adoption to marry Zayd’s ex-wife, Zaynab (Surah 33:37).
Christianity offers eternal adoption into the family of God (Romans 8:15). In Islam, even a freed slave like Zayd was ultimately stripped of his "sonship" to facilitate her divorce and remarriage to Muhammad.
The script cites Surah 21:107 to describe Muhammad as a "mercy." However, the Christian rebuttal focuses on the method of that mercy.
In Islam, mercy is granted through adherence to a law that still permits the institution of slavery.
In Christ, mercy is granted through the Self-Sacrifice of the King.
Philippians 2:7: "but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men"
Muhammad was a master who occasionally freed slaves. Jesus was the Master who became a slave to free the masters and slaves.
Dr. Rodney Stark in For the Glory of God (2003) demonstrates that while slavery existed in the Christian world, it was the specific Trinitarian theology of "All are one in Christ" that provided the intellectual and moral tools to eventually abolish slavery globally—tools that remained dormant in the Islamic world until Western pressure in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Letter to Philemon stands as a "silent grenade" that detonated the moral foundations of slavery. While Islamic tradition regulated slavery as a permanent legal category, Paul’s letter to Philemon introduces a theological logic that makes the master-slave relationship ontologically impossible among believers.
The letter concerns Onesimus, a runaway slave who encountered Paul and converted to Christianity. Under Roman law, Philemon had the right to punish or even execute Onesimus.
Under Islamic law, a runaway slave is often viewed as committing a sin against the master and even seen as an act of rebellion (unbelief) against God.
Sahih Muslim 68 (67a): "When a slave runs away, his prayer is not accepted."
Sahih Muslim 69 (67b): "If any slave runs away from his masters, he has committed an act of disbelief (kufr) until he returns to them.
Paul does not merely ask for "mercy"; he demands a total re-categorization of the human being. In Philemon 1:15-16, Paul writes that Onesimus is returning, "no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother... both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord."
You cannot "own" your brother. By elevating the slave to the status of "beloved brother," Paul creates a spiritual friction that eventually forced the legal gears of slavery to a halt in the West.
The "mercy" of Muhammad was a conditional release within a system that remained intact and Islam did nothing to stop. The "mercy" of the Gospel is a total redemption that destroys the master-slave system and has done much more to prevent slave-trade.
Islamic Argument: "The Prophet was kind to his slaves". It is just a better version of bondage!
Christian Response: "Jesus made His slaves His brothers and died to pay their debts. He didn't just regulate the chains; He transformed the slave into an heir of the Kingdom."
The relationship between Allah and humanity is defined by submission (Islam). The relationship between the Biblical God and humanity is defined by adoption (Huiothesia = "to be placed as a son").