And let those who cannot find the means to marry be continent those who do not have the bridal money or the means for financial support needed for marriage let them restrain themselves from fornication until God enriches them until He improves their means out of His bounty and they marry. And those who seek a written contract of emancipation from among those whom your right hand owns of male slaves and female slaves contract with them accordingly if you know in them any good such as trustworthiness and the ability to earn income in order to fulfil the amount stated in the written contract which might be worded for example thus ‘I contract you for the amount of two thousand to be paid over a period of two months at one thousand a month and if you fulfill this you are a free man’ and the other would say ‘I accept’; and give them — this is a command for the slaves’ owners — out of the wealth of God which He has given you in the measure that will help them to fulfill their commitment to you the action of ītā’ ‘giving’ here suggests that some of the amount to which they have committed themselves should be waived. And do not compel your slave-girls your handmaidens to prostitution fornication when they desire to be chaste to abstain therefrom this ‘desire’ is the cause of the act of ‘compulsion’ so that the statement is not properly a conditional that you may seek through such compulsion the transient things of the life of this world — this was revealed regarding ‘Abd Allāh b. Ubayy who used to force his slave-girls to earn money through fornication. And should anyone compel them then surely God after their compulsion will be Forgiving to these slave-girls Merciful to them.
