Unveiling Modern Slavery: Islam's Teachings and Contemporary Challenges in Pakistan

The project is regarding slavery’s concept in the light of Islam and todays modern slavery. Nowadays slavery has become an integral part of most countries (developing) where people are deliberately kept underprivileged which force them to be slaves without being entitled as slaves. Feudalists, kings’ rule, deprived regions are some main reasons for slavery today. In Pakistan the wages are very low and now it’s a huge problem in the society.

Basically, slavery is the trade f body and a soul of a person.

A person is forcefully compelled to follow whatever command is given to him from the master. War captives, sex trafficking bonded labour and debt bondage are common form of slaveries that are coming from age, unlike servants, slaves are never paid for their services but instead they are most vulnerable to face denial of basic rights.

How Muslims adapted the slavery’s concept from Hindus: Social stratification among Hindus, a century ago divided them among 4 social groups, Shudras being the lowest and Kashtaria being the highest, the Shudras had no basic rights and were forced to do slavery for survival.

Get quality help now

KarrieWrites

Verified writer

Proficient in: Modern Slavery

5 (339)

“ KarrieWrites did such a phenomenal job on this assignment! He completed it prior to its deadline and was thorough and informative. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

However, Muslims of subcontinent exploit people in their society according to their wealth. Mostly people from underprivileged backgrounds are compelled into slavery.

Despite of the fact that a lot of international agreements have been done that declared slavery illegal but it has continued to strive in Pakistan. According to the global slavery index 3.19 million eestimated number of people living in modern slavery in Pakistan. There are lot of categories of labour but the most common type in Pakistan is child labor along with the boned labour. Child labour in Pakistan is very common as the children usually of the age between 8 to 16 work as labours 18 hours a day with very low wages as they don’t have any right to negotiate or ask for a raise in their wages and almost 12 million children are victim of it.

38.8 percent of the population is living in poverty. For many citizens, it is hard to find a job to provide for a family and usually the parents of the child labors are uneducated and which makes it easy for them to send their kids to work to earn money because for them even if a child educated he is still going to do a job so why not from the kid starts to earn, other reason is that there is no family planning so 1 male has to look after 10 family members.

The two most prominent sectors characterized by a significant use of bonded labour are agriculture and brick kilns. Research carried out by PILER in Pakistan in 2000 indicates that up to 1 million brick kiln workers in Pakistan are bonded. A 2004 survey of brick kilns in the Punjab district in Pakistan by the FBS found that nearly 90 per cent of brick kiln workers were bonded. Also, surveys suggest that agriculture and brick kiln work are of the worst and harshest kinds due to the physical strain, and hazardous working conditions.

In bonded labour the generation after generation works at a specific place like brick kiln or agricultural area and is passed so on to the next generation i.e. father to son and from mother to daughter. It keeps on going because the poors take loans with interest on it and with time it keeps on getting high and wages remain constant and the loans passes onto the next generation and it never ends. Most brick kiln workers live at the factories, or they have their own but camps but they live in really bad conditions with no facilities at all not even clean water is available to them. As a lot of workers don’t have their National Id cards because when they start to work at the kiln, their id cards are taken by the owners so they won’t run away.

At just 12 years old, Jheeni dreams of becoming a teacher but his dream is a far cry from his job, where he is forced to work long hours for paltry wages. He works in morning till its dark. Yasmin works at one of the approximately 20,000 brick kilns in Pakistan. Her story is not much different from the 4.5 million people who work on kilns across the country. She is facing debt that has spiralled out of control while working as a bonded labourer. 'It wasn't by choice. Husband's illness, no money for medicine, deaths, children, desperation, household expenses and other problems forced me to take this route,' Yasmin, a mother of four, told the reporter.

Many child workers are often abused where they work, suffering beatings or torturee, they get physically and mentally effected. Many children are sent to live with middle class and elite class families to perform as domestic servants. The unemployment will increase as the kids of today will remain uneducated and the economy will be more burdened, the illiteracy rate will increase, the human talent will be wasted as their only goal on lives will be to work as labours and earn money, as there will be malnutrition and deficiency of vitamins that can cause insomnia and aggression which might lead to illegal criminal acts.

Islam is a religion of peace and surely is a solution to every problem faced in a society. As there is a vast history of how the slaves were treated in the time of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) “And surely, we have honoured the children of Adam ...”  Allah has crated everyone equally with no differentiation between the humans irrespective of their caste color or creed and in this modern era we really need to learn that we should treat others equally and as humans. This world is a cruel place, in this modern community that has forgotten the teachings of Islam should think of making this world a better place and by that they can also get benefit in their hereafter. Prophet SAW said:

'There is no superiority for an Arab over a non-Arab, nor for a non-Arab over an Arab. Neither is the white superior over the black, nor is the black superior over the white -- except by piety.' Benefitting others will indirectly benefit you as well because when you help someone that also makes you feel better about yourself and you feel at ease. All the young slaves that are bonded in labor should be protected at every cost as usually these kids and other adults too are either orphans or not so educated and people take advantage of their helplessness.

In the modern slavery all the laborers that also include the educated people who are in search for a job as for them the only difference is that they get to work by sitting in a cubical while the other laborers get to construct the building with cubical. Slaves should not be looked down upon as a commodity but as a human being who has the same soul similar to that of his master and should not be humiliated

“Your slaves are your brothers. God has set them as a trial under your authority. Therefore, whoever has mastery over one of his brothers should feed him from what he eats himself, and should clothe him with what he wears himself, and should not burden him with tasks beyond his strength, and should assist him in doing whatever hard work he asks him to do.”

Once Imam Ali bought two garments, One was of 2 dinars and other was 3 dinars he gave the expensive one to his slave, Qanbar, to which his slave said that Hazrat Ali should keep the expensive one because he delivers sermons to people and deserves to wear it and Iman Ali replied that he heard Prophet Muhamamd saying “Clothe them with what you wear yourselves, and feed them with what you eat’’. Hazrat Bilal a negro slave when he accepted Islam he already had suffered torture from his master but after entering Islam he was made the muezzin in Madinah on the behalf of prophet Muhammad(PBUH).

Yaser and Nader were slaves of Imam Ridha . Imam Ridha told them: “Whenever you see me while you are sitting down and eating, do not move until you finish your meal.” And they give food out of love for Him to the poor and the orphan and the captive By giving charity to the poor not only the taker will be benefitted but also the giver. And if (the debtor) is in strainess, then let there be postponement until (he is in) ease; and that you remit (it) as alms is better for you, if you knew.

We should be aware of who is in need and help them as much as its possible, for bonded labours it’s not easy to repay the loan now here we are supposed to follow our Islamic teachings and be a reason of easy for others. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: “No one is allowed to say this is my slave or that is my maid. You should say this is my young man, and that is my young lady.” A lot of things were done to honor and support the slaves in Islam, no one was allowed to beat his slave as he would be called the ‘worst person’. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said:

“The worst people are those who travel alone, do not admit guests, and beat their slaves.” Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) married off many of the women from noble families to the slaves. He married off his aunt’s daughter named Zaynab bint Jahsh to the slave Zayd ibn Harithe. Then he married off the daughter of the head of the Bani Bayazeh tribe - the daughter of Zeyad ibn Lobayd to Jowbayr. In addition to this, he appointed Usama ibn Zayd to be the head of the Islamic armed forces and go to Syria to fight with the Roman enemies this gesture made the slaves more respected.

In conclusion, the Government should make laws in which the there should be a crackdown where the mafia for the child and bonded labors are hidden and should have serious punishments for them and they should also aware people about the family planning in social media, the education for the poor kids should be free and with that they should be given free food so deficiencies could be overcome to some extent, in the private sectors whenever jobs are given there should be a full procedure where the employee’s rights are protected and is not forced to do extra work in the same pay and to make this world a better place everyone should contribute equally like giving zakat regularly will help the poor people to maintain a better life style, by following the Islamic principles in this regard will benefit everyone in this Umah.