Picture a woman stripped of all freedom, her body reduced to a commodity, passed between men like an object to satisfy fleeting desires. Under Islamic Sharia, the already brutal institution of slavery gave rise to an even more dehumanizing practice: the “temporary” exchange of slave girls between owners, declared permissible (halal) by divine law.

This was not mere private vice—it was a religiously sanctioned betrayal of human dignity. A man could satisfy his lust for another’s slave woman by offering his own in return, treating their lives, emotions, and worth as utterly meaningless. How could a faith that claims divine compassion allow such callous exploitation?

Tafsir Mazhari — a widely taught Hanafi commentary — openly endorses this practice in its explanation of Quran 33:52 (which prohibits exchanging free wives):

Ibn Zayd said regarding the verse {nor to exchange your present wives for other women}: In the time of ignorance, people used to swap their wives… Upon this, Allah revealed the verse forbidding the exchange of wives. However, slave women are excluded from this ruling—you may exchange them, and there is no harm in doing so.

While free Muslim women were shielded from such bartering, enslaved women were left completely unprotected. Their bodies could be traded for pleasure with no moral limit. The Quran’s silence on safeguarding these women speaks volumes about the priorities embedded in the system.

The cruelty went further still. If an owner desired the wife of his own male slave, no exchange was even necessary. He could simply take her—ripping her away from her husband to use her sexually at will. This heartbreaking reality is recorded in Sahih Bukhari (Book of Marriage) through the Companion Anas ibn Malik:

Anas said regarding the verse {And [forbidden to you are] married women except those your right hands possess}: Married free women are forbidden except those your right hands possess (slave women). There is no harm if a man takes his female slave away from his male slave [to have relations with her].

This ruling shattered even the fragile family bonds that enslaved people managed to form. A husband could lose his wife overnight to the whims of their shared owner, with no appeal and no protection.

These were not fringe opinions or misinterpretations—they were mainstream teachings preserved in the most authoritative sources of Islamic law and hadith. For centuries, enslaved women lived under the constant threat of being loaned, swapped, or seized, their dignity erased in the name of religious permission.

This is not merely a historical detail. It is a stark reminder of a system that placed male desire and property rights above the most basic human bonds.