In the latter case...

You had replied in summary and for a more thorough answer had referred me to volume six of your “ Al-Tafsir al-Mizan ”. But I did not find my answer there. Let me repeat my question. In the early years of Islam, due to certain circumstances, slavery was condoned. But then, considering that the progress of human reason would one day compel him to renounce the enslavement of human beings by other human beings as inhuman and irrational, why was it allowed to endure?

If the reason for sanctioning the subjugation of infidels in captivity was to reform their souls in the Muslim community, then why were their children, although Muslim confined to bondage? To reply that Islam had at the same time established a variety of measures to facilitate their freedom would not justify its sanctioning of slavery in the first place and its subjecting many of the slave’s religious matters to his master’s discretion.

Answer You write that you did not find your answer in volume six of “ Al-Tafsir al-Mizan ”; that the progressive human mind condemns slavery, which is to rob a human being of freedom; that slavery is not rational; that if Islam sanctioned the subjugation of the infidels to reform their souls in the Muslim society, for what sin were their children sentenced to the same plight in spite of their embracing Islam?

To reply that Islam had established certain measures to facilitate their freedom is insufficient, for the main problem lies in sanctioning slavery in the first place. Evidently, the discussion I referred to in “ Al-Tafsir al-Mizan ” was not read with due attention. Thus, it seems necessary that I repeat the explanation. To begin with, the human being, although endowed with the faculty of volition and thus a free creature, can never pursue his liberty uninhibited.