#8219;itq): Islam has many teachings regarding slavery. Slaves are only taken from prisoners of war. The purpose behind slavery is not to benefit from the slaves, rather it is for them to live in a Muslim family and to become Muslim. The goal is not to make a slave remain a slave forever, instead it is to teach a disbeliever Islam and then give him social freedom after he has attained spiritual freedom. So, the goal of slavery is to free the slaves and there are many different ways to free a slave in Islam. For this reason, jurists have called this subject freeing a slave, not slavery.
Jurists have said that there are four ways to free a slave:
آ· A slave owner freeing a slave because of a religious penalty or just getting closer to Allah.
آ· Freeing part of the slave, half of him, a third of him, a fourth of him or a tenth of him for any reason.
آ· If a one enslaves his parents, grandparents, children or grandchildren. In Islam this form of slavery does not exist and the relative would be automatically freed.
آ· If a slave has certain bodily ailments, for example if he is blind or has leprosy.
7. Tadbīr, mukātabah and istīlād: These are three cases which necessitate freeing a slave. Tadbīr is when the slave owner makes a will to free the slave after his death. Mukātabah is when the slave owner and the slave make a contract for the slave's freedom after he pays some money. Allah orders the slave owners to make a contract with a slave if the slave wants and the slave is a believer. Allah also says that some money should be given to him to help him with life's expenses.[36] Istīlād is when a women slave bears the slave master's child. After the slave owner's death the mother becomes the slave of the child and, as was mentioned earlier, a child cannot be the owner of his mother, so she becomes free.
8. Confession (iqrār): Confession is one of the legal subjects of Islam. If a person claims that he another owes him money he must put forth evidence. If he cannot put forth evidence his claim will be dismissed. But, if the other person confesses to the fact that he owes the plaintiff money, his confession will take the place of evidence.
9. Reward (ju‛ālah): Ju‛ālah is similar to renting a person to perform an action, except in ju‛ālah a specific person is not rented, rather the person says that he would pay a certain amount of money to anyone who performs a specific action.
10. Vows (aymān): Aymān is the plural of the Arabic term yamīn which consists of two types of vows: h)alaf and qasam. If a person vows to perform a certain action it is obligatory on him to perform it. Of course there are conditions:
آ· If the vow was taken in Allah's name. It is not obligatory to carry out a vow taken in the Prophet's, Imām's or Qurān's name.
آ· If the action is permissible. It is not obligatory to carry out a vow made to perform a forbidden or disliked action.
Examples of correct vows are to read so and so good book from cover to cover or to brush one's teeth every day. If one does not carry out a correct vow he must pay the penalty.
11. Pledge (nadhr): A pledge is different than a vow and it has specific wording. If a person wants to pledge to perform the daily recommended prayers he must say: "lillah alayi (literally translated as for Allah on me) to perform the daily recommended prayers every day." The pledge is conditional on the fact that the action is beneficial for one's religion or worldly affairs. A pledge to perform an action that is neither beneficial nor harmful is invalid.
The wisdom behind carrying out the vow or pledge is because they are types of contracts made with Allah and it is obligatory to be true to one's contracts that he makes with other people[37], so it is also obligatory on one to be true to the contracts he makes with Allah.

Miscellaneous Rulings
The forth section of jurisprudential rulings is miscellaneous rulings. Miscellaneous rulings does not have a specific definition, rather Muh)aqiq Hillī put everything that was not worship, contracts or one-party contracts into this section. He divided this section into twelve subjects:
1. Hunting and slaughtering animals (s)ayd and dhibāh)āh): Before anything, we will say: "An animal whose meat is lawful to eat becomes lawful when it is slaughtered in a specific way, fished in a specific way, hunted by a trained dog (in relation to some animals) or hunted by a weapon that has a spearhead, like an arrow or spear."
If an animal is slaughtered or hunted in the above-mentioned method, the rulings of a tadhkīyah[38] will apply to it, not the rulings of a carcass. A carcass is spiritually unclean and is forbidden to eat.
Hunting is only allowed on the wild animals whose meat can be eaten, like gazelle, mountain goats, wild cows and the likes. Hunting is not allowed on domesticated animals like sheep and cows.
The dog that is used to hunt is conditional on his being trained, the animal that an untrained dog retrieves is not allowed to eat. Likewise one is unable to use other predatory animals.
The weapon used to hunt is conditional on it being made out of iron, or at least another material that is mined, so it is not allowed to hunt with a weapon made out of rock. Another condition is that the person hunting or slaughtering an animal must be Muslim and must start his action by the name of Allah. There are other conditions as well.
2. Food and drinks (at)amah and ashrubah): There are a series of rulings in Islam regarding eating and drinking, given to make sure one uses nature beneficially. Examples of these are hunting and slaughtering animals, which have been mentioned, and food and drinks. Islam generally permits beneficial items and forbids harmful items, but does not satisfy itself with this general principle. In some cases the harm of a certain item is mentioned which necessitates staying away from it or the benefit of an item is mentioned which allows the usage of it.
There are two types of food: animal and non-animal. Animals are divided into two categories: sea animals, land animals. None of the animals in the sea are allowed except fish that have scales. Land animals are divided into two categories: wild and domesticated. From amongst the domesticated animals cows, camels and sheep are permissible. Horses, mules and donkeys are also permissible but it is disliked to eat them. Dogs and cats are forbidden to eat. From amongst the wild animals predatory animals and insects are forbidden to eat, but wild cows, wild donkeys and mountain goats are permissible. Rabbits are also forbidden to eat, even though they are not predatory animals.
Different kinds of birds are allowed to eat, for example pigeons, ducks and chicken. Predatory birds are forbidden to eat.
It is forbidden to eat non-meat items if they are a spiritually unclean substance or a spiritually clean substance that has become spiritually unclean. It is also forbidden to eat anything that is harmful according to the general public. So, for example, it is forbidden to eat poison, even if it is tasty.
It is forbidden to eat dirt, if it is harmful or not. It is also forbidden to drink any intoxicating substance or eat someone else's food without their permission.
3. Usurpation (ghas)b): Usurpation is using the property or rights of another without his consent. This is forbidden and one would owe the owner if his property becomes destroyed. It is forbidden for one to use anything that has been usurped, so one's wud)ū would become invalid if performed with usurped water or one's prayer would become invalid if performed wearing usurped clothes or in an usurped place.
4. Right of pre-emption (shuf‛ah): The right of pre-emption is the right that a partner has to purchase the partnership of a third party who bought it from his partner. So, if two people purchase an item and one of them sells his share the other has the right to purchase the share from the third party at the same price.
5. Cultivation of virgin land (ah)yā' al-amwāt): Cultivation of virgin land is a piece of deserted land which one uses, even if he brings water or anything else in order to use the land for farming. The Prophet of Islam (s) said: "Whoever cultivates a piece of virgin land, it is for him."
There are many issues dealt with in this section.
6. Lost property (luqt)ah): The general meaning of lost property is property that that the owner lost and nobody else has obtained it. There are two kinds of this lost property: animal and non-animal.
The finder does not have the right to take the property as his own if it is an animal and he does not fear that it will die. But, if he does fear that it will die, for example, if he finds a sheep in the middle of the desert, he can take it as his own but he must search for its owner. If he finds the owner he must give the sheep to him, but if he does not find the owner then it becomes property with an unknown owner which should be spent on the poor with the permission of a jurist.
If the lost property is not an animal and worth less than half of a mithqāl[39] of a silver coin, the finder can take it as his own. But, the finder must announce that he has found the lost item and search for its owner for one year if it is worth more than the above mentioned amount (of course, items that would go bad, like fruit, are not included in this ruling). If the owner was not found and the finder found the item in the Holy Mosque of Mecca, the finder can do one of two things: he can give it away as charity and give the price of the item to the owner if he ever finds him or he can keep it for the owner. If he found it anywhere outside of the Holy Mosque of Mecca he can do one of three things: he can take ownership of the item and owe the owner the price of the item if the owner is found or he can give it away as charity and pay back the owner if found or keep it as a trust for the owner.
If there is no sign on the item there is no need to announce that one has found it, rather the finder will be able to choose between the three above choices.
7. Inheritance (farā'id)): The rules of inheritance in Islam are obligatory to follow. It is not permissible for the deceased (during his life) to split up the inheritance however he desires or to give all of his possessions to one person. The division of property is done on three levels. If there is a person on one level, the lower levels do not receive inheritance.
The first level: Parents and children and if one's children died, grandchildren.
The second level: Grandparents, brothers and sisters and if one's brothers and sisters died, nieces and nephews.
The third level: Aunts and Uncles and their children.
These are according to family relations, but if one is related because of a reason, for example marriage, they inherit in every level.
The amount that everyone inherits is explained in detail in the books of jurisprudence.
8. Judgment (qad)ā'): What is meant is the judgment made between people in order to settle their disputes. There are many issues addressed in this section that cannot be explained here, but we will mention some brief points: The court system in Islam is a special system that makes sure that justice is served in a precise way. One of the ways to prove this is by mentioning the special conditions that Islam gives for one to become a judge. Some of the conditions are: He must be a mujtahed on a scholastic level and his ijtihād must be established. His morals must also be in congruence with Islam. Another condition is that he must be pious and stay away from sin, even the sins that have nothing to do with being a judge. The judge is not allowed to take money from the defendants or plaintiffs, rather he is awarded a large sum of money from the Muslim treasury.
Confessions and witnesses (and nowadays oaths) are effective in proving or disproving one's claim in the Islamic court system.
9. Witnesses (shahādāt): Witnessing is a branch of the section of judgment. Confessions are the same. If one claims, for example, that another person owes him money, the other person can either confess or reject the claim. If he confesses it is enough for the judge to order that the money be paid. If he rejects the claim, the plaintiff must bring evidence to prove his claim. One way to bring evidence is having a witness. If he has a witness and all of the conditions of being a witness and giving testimony are observed, his claim will be proved. The defendant does not have to bring proof that he is innocent. Sometimes the defendant has to give an oath that he is innocent.
10. Fixed and open legal punishments (h)adūd and ta‛zīrāt): These punishments are related to Islam's penal system and are also related to the sections of judgment and witnesses. Islam has given certain punishments for certain crimes which are supposed to be carried out in every situation, every place and every age. These punishments are called h)adūd. There are some punishments that are up to the judge to determine, where he can look at the situation and make the punishment more or less severe. These punishments are called ta‛zīrāt.
We will mention some of the h)adūd, briefly, because mentioning them in length should be done in other books.
آ· The punishment for adultery of two married people who can easily be with their spouse is stoning. If one of the adulterers was not married or could not easily be with his spouse he or she would be given 100 lashes, except if the adultery was committed with one of his or her close family relatives (muh)āram) where the punishment would be death.
آ· The punishment for homosexuality is death by the sword, throwing him or her off of a high mountain or building or burning him alive.
آ· The punishment for wrongly accusing someone of a crime is 80 lashes. Wrongly accusing someone of a crime means accusing a man or woman of committing adultery without having enough witnesses.
آ· The punishment for drinking alcohol or other liquid intoxicants is 80 lashes.
آ· The punishment for theft is cutting off the four fingers of the right hand with the condition that the stolen item was worth at least a fourth of a dinār.
آ· The punishment of an enemy who took up arms against the people is either killing him by the sword, putting him on the cross or cutting off his right arm and left leg or his left arm and right leg.
11. Retaliation (qas)ās)): Retaliation is another form of punishment that Islam allows. In reality, this is the right of the victim if he was injured, but not killed or for his inheritor against the criminal. The crime was either murder or seriously injuring one of the victims body parts and the crime was either committed intentionally, similar to second-degree murder or accidentally.
Intentional murder is when the criminal hits the person with the intention of killing him, if he used a weapon or not, and the victim dies. The important thing here is the intention.
Second degree murder is when the criminal intentionally hits the person but without the intention of killing him, but he dies. For example he wanted to wound the person but ended up killing him. Or, if the person wants to punish a child by hitting him and the child dies.
Accidental murder is when the killer did not have any intention at all.
If the murder was committed intentionally the inheritors of the victim have a right called qas)ās. They can use this right and have the murderer executed in an Islamic court. But the murderer is not executed if the murder was committed in the second-degree or unintentional.
12. Fines (dīyāt): Fines are another right that is given to the victim or his inheritors. The difference is that in qas)ās) there is the eye for an eye feeling but a dīyah is a fine.
Notes:
[33] Imām al-Khomeinī آ®, Tah)rīr al-Wasīla, page 4
[34] Shaykh T)ūsī, al-Mabsūt), volume 1, page 4
[35] Imām Khomeini آ®, Tah)rīr al-Wasīla, volume 2, page 3
[36] Refer to Sūrah Nūr, verse 33
[37] Refer to 5:1
[38] Opposite of a carcass.
[39] An ancient form of measurement.

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