Dr. Ewis El Nagar (عويس النجار) is a board member Quebec Council of Imams (Conseil des Imams Québec) and the head of its Islamic Edicts Committee (لجنة الفتوى). He also serves as the imam of Canadian Islamic Center Al-Jamieh in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec.
In a Q & A session at the Canadian Islamic Center Al-Jamieh mosque (The video was published on YouTube on August 21, 2011), Dr. Ewis El Nagar said the following (originally in Arabic, 04:10-05:02):
An important question still remains open. Are the [Quranic] verses dealing with ‘right hands possess’, which we had mentioned some of them… at the beginning of our hadith [narration attributed to Mohammad], and are these [Quranic] verses abrogated or not? And is this ruling still applicable or not? And the answer is that [the Quranic verses dealing with ‘right hands possess’] are not abrogated and the ruling [‘right hands possess’] is applicable once the reason for it exists. There is a question called the hypothetical question. In a hypothetical case in which the time turned back and the jihad returned, and the wars returned, the legitimate [wars], then the ruling [‘right hands possess’] is not abrogated in the book of Allah [The Quran] glorified and exalted be He.
An assistant summarized in English Dr. Ewis El Nagar’s answer (08:25-08:37):
One question remains unanswered. Can we still marry our slaves in part in these days? And the answer is no, because the reasons for these marriages are inapplicable.
“The Quran” (Saheeh International) that is being distributed for free across Canada by Islamic groups provides the legal basis of this ruling. Verse 24 of Surah (chapter) an-Nisa (The Women) states:
And [also prohibited to you are all] married women except those your right hands possess.177 [This is] the decree of Allah upon you. And lawful to you are [all others] beyond these, [provided] that you seek them [in marriage] with [gifts from] your property, desiring chastity, not unlawful sexual intercourse. So for whatever you enjoy [of marriage] from them, give them their due compensation 178 as an obligation. And there is no blame upon you for what you mutually agree to beyond the obligation. Indeed, Allah is ever Knowing and Wise.
The book’s modern commentary of this verse explains [Footnote 177] that the term ‘right hands possess’ refers to cases such as “slaves or war captives who had polytheist husbands” and the ‘compensation’ [Footnote 178] to “the mahr, a specified gift to the bride required of the man upon marriage.”