Islamic Views on Concubines and Marriage

So what is Islam's view on concubines?

In, in essence, uh, generally, in, in classical Islamic, uh,

thought, it, it is taken for granted that, uh, a, a Muslim

man, uh, can have, uh, up to four wives at once.

In addition, in addition to the four wives,

he can have an unlimited number of

concubines, um, which, uh, refer to women

who are basically, uh, uh, have, they have slave status.

Uh, when they are owned by her master, uh, a woman owned by

her master, um,

has to freely give of herself to, to the master.

The master has the right to have, uh, sexual relations with her as

though she were one of his wives. The classical Muslim interpreters of the

Quran, some of them said that the, that, uh, the woman's, uh, uh,

main responsibility in a marriage is to fulfill the sexual

needs of her husband, and, um, uh, for that reason, the

husband has the right and the claim to this,

and she cannot refuse.

Uh, so the, some of them even speak of the, of

the possibility that the man could force himself onto his wife, and

she cannot, uh, refuse because that is his right.

Mm-hmm.

The, the woman in marriage itself did not, uh, have so much, uh,

rights as, as, as we might expect of women today,

and we would argue for today even

within the Islamic context.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, so, uh, when, when women did not have this, uh,

full right, then, you

know, it's not a far cry from the, uh, from the position of

slavery.