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.

And 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, uh, her master, uh, a woman owned by

her master, um,

has to freely give her- 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, uh,

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, right 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.