Redefining Slavery

A few weeks ago, the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation released its 2013 Global Slavery Index (http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/). From among the top nations listed by the Index, Pakistan and Nigeria, two of the most densely populated Muslim nations, had the dubious honor of being in the top four (India and China rounded out the list). Needless to say, I was disappointed to read about the high incidence of human trafficking and slavery in these Muslim-dominated states (It should be noted that India itself has a sizable Muslim population which additionally figures in my disgust).

Two points come to mind.

First, it reveals the depths to which we Muslims have fallen with respect to fulfilling our huqooq-al-ibaad (rights of our fellow man). We have forgotten the teachings of our beloved Prophet (saw) when he declared that a Muslim’s blood, wealth, and honor are sacred. We all know that crime and corruption are rampant in the Muslim world, with this Slavery Index but the most recent blotch on our dismal record.

Sadly, this phenomenon is not solely restricted to Pakistan and Nigeria. In Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, it is well-documented how workers’ rights are so regularly violated that to term their plight as indentured servitude is only a slight exaggeration. And so, it’s not coincidental that these lands are host to extremely twisted readings of our deen, which enable and empower these practices and sometimes lead to violent extremist groups (Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda Arabian Peninsula, and Tehrik Taliban Pakistan).

Second, it is our responsibility to shed light on the real definition of slavery. Modern society and science have a terrible habit of concerning themselves with the physical, perceptible world, while turning a blind eye to the more powerful world of the unseen. In reality, slavery is more than chains and shackles, sweatshops and prostitution rings. The physical component of slavery is the mere tip of the iceberg.

What about the emotional strains of financial slavery pushed into most every Western home? Have we not become the property of these financial institutions, ensnared by their interest-based tentacles?

What about the misery of third world factory workers mired in a life of toil and desolation, all to satisfy first world consumers?

Is not the educational system enslaving graduates with debts many will never pay off?

What about the racial inequality in the criminal justice system in America where blacks make up 15% of the US population but comprise 40% of the jail population?

Let’s not forget the inherent inequalities of free-market capitalism and modern-day globalization leading to countless migrants who end up as fodder for human trafficking, prostitution, and indentured servitude?

What about the millions and millions of consumers who are slaves to their corporate-manufactured desires, relentlessly in search of depraved ways to feed their insatiable nafs?

Who is free and who is a slave?

Thanks to modern liberal society and its convenient, guilt-avoiding definitions of slavery and freedom, most are absolved from the deeper considerations involved with such questions. Annual reports such as the one cited above free most people from any substantial self-evaluation.

And what of the spiritual slavery wrought on most of the 'free' world?

Modern man lives in a society that affords him countless freedoms – freedoms without boundaries, including the freedom to act as an animal. And so, man is free to indulge his desires. Man is free to wreak havoc. Man is free to lord over the entire world. Man does as he pleases. Man is free because he submits to no one. Submission is portrayed as a sign of weakness. The individual is king. His or her very humanity depends on his or her individuality, we are told.

I think therefore I am.
I speak therefore I must be heard.
I act therefore I must be seen.
I feel therefore I must be of consequence.
I choose therefore I must be in control.
I am lord of my world.

This all results in the deepest, most sinister form of slavery – slavery of the soul. Man has made his own desires into objects of worship. Man has truly become enslaved to this world – financially, socially, emotionally, and spiritually.

True freedom, on the other hand, is acknowledging one’s Creator, one’s humble origin, one’s utter dependency on that Creator, one’s interdependent relationship with all of creation, and one’s ultimate demise and return to that same Creator. Freedom is freeing oneself from the mental and spiritual shackles of other men. Freedom is submitting wholeheartedly to no one, but the One – the One Who gave us thought, speech, action, feelings, and choice.

Until then, we are all victims of slavery.

Where is the Global Index report declaring these truths?