The Sins of the Father: Theodicy, Salvation and Slavery in Early Kalām

This article traces how kalām (Islamic rational theology) came to feature reflections on slavery in the context of debates about theodicy. It tracks the development of this theme by exploring texts from the second/eighth to the seventh/thirteenth century produced by a variety of competing theological tendencies and sects. The discussion of slavery emerged from early debates about the otherworldly fate of the children of polytheists (awlād al-mushrikīn), as well as the (closely related) legal question of the illicitness of their killing. Jurists quickly came to agree—after a period of initial divergence—that the intentional targeting of minors in war is unlawful. The contrary view, attributed to various early Khārijī sub-sects, was marginalised, apparently before the consolidation of the classical legal schools around the fourth/tenth century. Slavery first appears in kalām in the context of the related debate about what happened to such children in the Hereafter. A variety of opinions emerged, from those supporting children’s damnation alongside their unbelieving parents to those that held that such children, being free of sin, could not justly be condemned to Hell. Early Sunnīs were divided on the question, owing to the existence of contradictory ḥadīths on the subject, whereas the early Muʿtazila (and those who found their absolute commitment to divine omnibenevolence appealing) rejected the possibility of children’s consignment to Hell. It is in the course of these arguments and counterarguments about the justice of this-worldly punishment and otherworldly compensation that slavery first arose as a point of discussion, no later than the early fifth/eleventh century. This theological discussion of slavery, in turn, reflects how mutakallimūn (rationalist theologians) considered questions of communal identity and belonging, as well as broader notions of divine justice or ʿadl.