Chapter: The saying of Allah the Exalted: “And whoever among you cannot find the means to marry free believing women, then [let them marry] from what your right hands possess of believing slave girls. And Allah is Knowing of your faith. You are from one another. So marry them with the permission of their owners and give them their due compensation according to what is acceptable. [They must be] chaste, not promiscuous, nor taking [other] lovers. But when they have been taken in marriage, if they then commit adultery, their punishment is half of that for free [unmarried] women. That is for whoever fears hardship among you, but if you are patient, it is best for you. And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.”

The reader: The chapter on the saying of Allah the Exalted:

The Shaykh : The author’s statement: The chapter on the saying of Allah the Exalted: meaning whoever does not find the means, i.e., the wealth to pay a mahr to a free woman. For this reason, he said: The “muhshanat” here refers to free women, as evidenced by his saying: meaning from the slaves, the female slaves. meaning Allah is Knowing of your faith, and you have no knowledge except of the apparent. So if this girl is a believer, she is a believer in your eyes, and what is with Allah is with Him, Glorified and Exalted is He. meaning you are all from the children of Adam. He only said this so that a man would not say: “This is a slave, in the position of a beast that is bought and sold.” Their owners are the masters. And his saying: contains evidence that the slave woman does not have the right to give permission, and that the master is the one to be asked for it. But Allah the Exalted said in another verse:
The mu'adhdhin: Allah is the Greatest.

The Shaykh : Allah the Mighty and Majestic said: His saying: meaning so marry them. The address in his saying: is for those who do not own them, because the owner does not marry what he owns; rather, he has intercourse with her by the right of ownership. Intercourse by the right of ownership is stronger than marriage. For this reason, marriage does not take precedence over ownership, meaning that a man does not marry his concubine because his intercourse with her by right of ownership is stronger than his intercourse with her by the contract of marriage. So “from what your right hands possess” means from what you own, not what others own. But we all know that the Muslim community is one body, so the address is for everyone. And his saying: it is derived from this that it is not permissible to marry a female People of the Book slave, because of his saying: So if a person does not find the means to marry a free woman but finds the means to marry a female People of the Book slave, we say: It is not permissible for him to marry her, because there is a deficiency in her: a deficiency in religion and a deficiency in freedom. It is not permissible to marry a female People of the Book slave. Even if, had she been free, he would have married her, but since she is a slave, he does not marry her. And his saying: We have previously stated that this indicates that a slave woman is not married except with the permission of her master, even if she requests marriage and her father gives permission, he has no right over her. The intended meaning of “ajur” (wages) is mahr (dowries), because they are paid in exchange for enjoying the woman. And his saying: meaning according to what is customary, so it is a payment without delay and without reluctance. meaning in the state of being chaste. So Allah the Mighty and Majestic stipulated three conditions for the marriage of a slave woman: First, that he is unable to pay the mahr of a free woman. Second, that she is a believer. Third, that she is not promiscuous and does not take lovers. This was specified because most slave women at that time took lovers. Then he said: When they have been taken in marriage, meaning by intercourse. The punishment that can be halved is the flogging, whereas stoning cannot be halved. Accordingly, there is no stoning for a slave woman, even if she has been married, because stoning cannot be halved. Will she be exiled or not? Some scholars said: She is exiled, due to the generality of the hadiths regarding this. Some said: She is not exiled, because that would deprive her master of his right, and because it is feared that it would open the doors for slave women; whenever one of them is displeased with her master, she would commit zina to be exiled. Some said: She is exiled for half a year, because just as the flogging is halved so that she is not flogged more than fifty lashes, so too is the exile halved, because it can be halved. This is the closest opinion. As for the master, it is said that this is one of the misfortunes that befall him in his slave, just as if she were afflicted by a divine decree, such as falling ill, which would be a loss for him. This one was afflicted by what? A legal matter. He said: The reference is to the marriage of slave women, i.e., that ruling regarding the marriage of slave women is for whoever fears hardship among you, i.e., the difficulty of not marrying. If he is able to be patient, he should be patient, because there is no need to marry a slave woman as long as he is capable of patience. For this reason, he said: The wisdom behind prohibiting the marriage of slave women except with these three conditions is that he does not find the means to marry a free woman, that she is a believer, and third, that she is not promiscuous. If you wish, you can omit this, because even for free women, the woman must be chaste from zina. The third condition is that he fears hardship. If the conditions are met, the marriage of slave women is permissible. The wisdom behind this is that if a free man marries a slave woman, his children become slaves and are sold, except in two cases: if he stipulates their freedom, or if he is deceived by her. If he stipulates freedom, his children become free. If he is deceived by her, meaning he marries her thinking she is free and it turns out she is a slave, then his children are also free. In cases other than these two, his children are slaves. For this reason, Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) said: If a free man marries a slave woman, half of him becomes a slave. How does half of him become a slave? His children are part of him. Now, if he stipulates to the master of the slave woman that the children will be free, is it permissible to marry a slave woman without the three conditions? The correct view is no. And Shaykh al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him) held the view that it is permissible to marry a slave woman if it is stipulated that the children will be free. But his statement is weak in this issue, because Allah the Exalted stipulated conditions, so we must observe these conditions. And our saying that the 'illah (operative cause) is that his children become slaves is a derived 'illah; it may be this 'illah, or it may be another 'illah besides this. The 'illah may be that if a man marries a slave woman, this is a lowering of his dignity and honor, that he marries a slave woman, and this is injustice to himself. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: He may be pointed out with the finger every time he passes by, saying: “Look, this is the husband of the slave woman.” It may even become a title that goes with him. Do you know so-and-so, son of so-and-so? He said: Yes, he is the husband of the slave woman. It is possible that he is mocked for this. Meaning, we cannot say that the 'illah is that his children become slaves. For this reason, we say that the correct view is that if the conditions mentioned by Allah the Mighty and Majestic are not met, it is not permissible for him to marry the slave woman. Why did al-Bukhari cite these verses? Because of his saying: Now, if she has not been married, meaning she committed zina while not being married, does she have half of the punishment of the married women? The scholars differed on this. Some said that she has half of the punishment of the free woman. Some said: No, she only has ta'zir (discretionary punishment), because Allah stipulated and said: And “idha” (if/when) is a conditional particle. And if the punishment differs for a free woman between married and unmarried, then let it be so for the slave woman. And we say if she has not been married, she is given a ta'zir that deters her and those like her.