The history of slavery dates back to the dawn of the history of mankind; throughout this time it has existed in every kind of society, although in each society, slaves have been treated differently. In some societies, they had no rights at all, except at the mercy of their masters. When Islam came to the Arabian Peninsula, slavery existed there, as it did in many other pre-Islamic societies. Islam recognized the existence of slavery in Arabian society of the time, but did not encourage it in any way. On the contrary, Islam always encouraged freeing existing slaves and treating them in a respectful manner. This act was seen to be a virtue in Islam, and owning slaves was allowed only through war and on the condition that there was a genuine necessity.

Islam is a religion that allows submission only to Allah, limiting the superiority of one individual over another only to the degree of an individual's taqwa (God-consciousness: being constantly aware of both God's omnipresence and attributes and a reminder of their relationship and responsibility to God as his creation and servant). For this reason, Islam sees slavery in a different light. It forbids the enslavement of Muslims by Muslims, and limits the ownership of slaves and concubines to prisoners of war who have been taken in wars fought only for the sake of Allah. It also puts responsibility on the shoulders of slave masters as well as constraining the scope of the responsibilities of slaves and concubines.

The purpose of these sanctions was to gradually abolish slavery (by first weakening it, and then destroying it completely) without damaging the existing social structure in Arabian society, where slavery was one of the most important and strongest institutions of the time. The gradual introduction of foundational sanctions and changes is one of the essential principles of Islam, which was also applied in the case of slavery. To abolish it suddenly and completely would have created a great disturbance in the basic structure of society at that time.

Islam encouraged the emancipation of slaves by making this act a form of worship and stating that setting slaves free was a good deed, as well as sanctioning a contract between the master and the slave that made it possible for the slave to be free in return for working for the master for certain period of time -called mukataba in the Islamic law. In addition to this, slaves could be set free after the death of the master; in the case of female slaves, they could be set free if they gave birth to a child.

In the realm of education, since Muslims believe in the principle articulated in a hadith of the Prophet (pbuh) that reads: "All men are children of Adam, and Adam comes from the soil" (Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Musned, II, 361 and 523; Abu Davud, Adab, 111), in learning and teaching sciences no discrimination was made against slaves. An example of this attitude is the fact that in the narration of hadiths from the Prophet, the scholars of hadith not only make no distinction between a narration by a freeman and that of a slave, but they also allow the hadith criticism (jarh and ta'dil) that is made by a slave as well (see al-Bagdadi, al Kifaya, pp. 97 - 98).

An egalitarian attitude towards former slaves existed since the very beginning of Islamic history. For example, Caliph Omar granted 4 thousand dirhems to Salman al Farisi, a former slave emancipated by Prophet Muhammad. The Prophet also said to his commanders that: "If the non-Arab slaves that you set free become Muslim, add them to their former masters' group. For, whatever is good for their former masters is also good for them, and whatever is bad for their former masters is bad for them as well. If, however, these emancipated slaves want to be organized as a separate group, consider them at the same level as their former masters" (Belazuri, Futuh al Buldan, II, p. 443).

Historical sources are all in agreement that Prophet Muhammad also set all of his slaves and concubines free, setting an example for his companions and later followers. According to a report, during different times in his life the Prophet emancipated slaves or concubines at a number that was equal to his age  (Nawavi, Tahzib al Asma, I, p. 53).