Qur’anic Root A M W

1. Qur’anic forms and the principal meaning

A M W occurs twice in two Qur’anic verses, in two nominal forms.

First is amatun in Al-Baqarah 2:221: a feminine singular indefinite nominative noun, functioning as the subject of a nominal sentence after the emphatic lām.

Second is imāʾikum in Al-Nūr 24:32: the feminine broken plural imāʾ with the suffix -kum, “your,” genitive in coordination with ʿibādikum.

Early Arabic amah denotes an enslaved woman, contrasted with ḥurrah, “a free woman.”

Imāʾ is the plural of that noun: enslaved women.

Other recorded plurals include āmin, imwān, umwān, and amawāt.

Only the plural imāʾ occurs in the Qur’an.

Other verbal and nominal forms are recorded in Arabic, including ammāhā, “enslaved her,” taʾammā, “took an enslaved woman for himself,” and umuwwah for the condition or status of female slavery.

These forms do not occur in the Qur’an.

The principal meaning of this branch is:

A woman in slavery, held as another human being’s property, contrasted with a free woman; the designation itself does not judge her faith, character, morality, or abilities.

This definition identifies a social condition. Understanding the person’s rights, conduct, responsibilities, and moral worth also requires other words and verses.

2. Why A M W rather than A M M?

Amah appears to show only two root consonants, hamzah and mīm, with a final tāʾ belonging to the feminine noun’s formation.

Early lexicographers nevertheless placed the word under A M W.

Their principal evidence included plurals revealing wāw, especially imwān and umwān.

Traditional morphological explanations reconstruct amawah or amwah. In that analysis, the final root wāw was lost, leaving amah.

Grammarians and lexicographers differ over the precise original structure and the formation of its various plurals.

Some reconstruct a vowel on mīm; some analyze the pattern of āmin differently.

Disagreements over pattern, deletion, or rearrangement do not displace A M W as the traditional lexical entry.

Distinguishing amah from ummah

Study of A M M

Amah, with fatḥah on mīm, names an enslaved woman.

Ummah, with ḍammah on hamzah and doubled mīm, belongs to A M M and can denote a community, society, human group, or body sharing a bond.

Ummatan wāḥidatan, for example, concerns a single community, rather than one enslaved woman.

The unvocalized spellings may look similar, but pronunciation, root, and meaning differ.

Amatun muʾminatun in Al-Baqarah 2:221 therefore does not mean “a believing community.” It concerns a believing woman in slavery.

Likewise, imāʾikum in Al-Nūr 24:32 does not mean your communities or peoples.

Distinguishing umm, “mother”

Study of A M M

Umm also belongs to A M M and means mother.

Amah in the two verses under discussion does not identify motherhood.

An enslaved woman may also be a mother, but motherhood is not a necessary component of amah.

Nor is every mother an amah.

This distinction matters especially in early texts, where missing vowel marks can lead to mistaken root identification.

Amawāt and amwāt

Study of M W T

Lexical sources record amawāt as a plural of amah.

Qur’anic amwāt, however, is a plural of mayyit and mayt in the field of death and life, belonging to M W T.

The unvocalized forms look similar but have different roots and meanings.

The Qur’an’s many occurrences of amwāt must therefore not be added to A M W’s count.

3. Imāʾ in early Arabic and poetic witnesses

Amah: social status rather than domestic employment

Early Arabic contrasted amah with ḥurrah.

Ḥurrah described a woman who was not enslaved.

Amah described a woman regarded as another person’s property within the existing social order.

The word should therefore not be translated merely “servant.”

A servant may be a free person working for wages, with the ability to leave employment or change employer.

Historical amah identifies a position within slavery, rather than simply a kind of work or service.

An enslaved woman might be made to work in a house, a field, or elsewhere; the work itself does not determine the word’s principal meaning.

The central distinction is the person’s freedom or lack of freedom in that social order.

A pre-Islamic witness: āmin as a plural of amah

Sulayk ibn Al-Sulakah, a pre-Islamic poet, is quoted as saying:

يَا صَاحِبَيَّ أَلَا لَا حَيَّ بِالْوَادِي
إِلَّا عَبِيدٌ وَآمٍ بَيْنَ أَذْوَادِ

yā ṣāḥibayya a-lā lā ḥayya bi-l-wādī / illā ʿabīdun wa-āmin bayna adhwādi

“My two companions, take heed: there is no community in the valley, except enslaved men and women among groups of camels.”

ʿAbīd refers to enslaved men; āmin is a plural of amah.

In this transmission attributed to the pre-Islamic Sulayk, āmin is the plural of amah. Its indefinite nominative or genitive form is transmitted with kasrah nunation; āmun with ḍammah nunation is therefore unsuitable in this witness.

ʿAbīd alongside āmin also shows distinct Arabic designations for enslaved men and women.

Lā ḥayya bi-l-wādī may reflect the speaker’s conception of an independent community. A single line, however, cannot establish every relationship or social judgment of that period.

This poetic judgment should not be accepted as a truth about enslaved people’s human worth. The witness matters for the word’s usage and its period’s social language.

Imāʾ and imwān in poetry

The following is attributed to Al-Qattāl Al-Kilābī. His dating is reported differently: Tāj Al-ʿArūs calls him pre-Islamic, whereas Khizānat Al-Adab and the commentary on the Ḥamāsah identify him as an Islamic poet of the Umayyad and Marwanid period. This witness should therefore not be presented as undisputedly pre-revelation:

أَمَا الْإِمَاءُ فَلَا يَدْعُونَنِي وَلَدًا
إِذَا تَرَامَى بَنُو الْإِمْوَانِ بِالْعَارِ

ammā al-imāʾu fa-lā yadʿūnanī waladan / idhā tarāmā banū al-imwāni bi-l-ʿāri

“As for enslaved women, they do not call me their son when the sons of enslaved women exchange accusations of shame.”

The line contains two plural forms: imāʾ and imwān.

Imāʾ is the same plural used in Al-Nūr 24:32.

Imwān is an early plural relevant to identifying the final root consonant. Umwān, with ḍammah on hamzah, is also transmitted. Alternative openings include anā ibnu asmāʾ and ammā al-imāʾu fa-lā tadʿūnanī abadan. These differences matter when using the witness historically.

Socially, the poem describes a setting where descent from enslaved women could become an object of contempt or dispute.

It reflects the poet’s or society’s valuation, rather than amah’s lexical meaning or the Qur’an’s judgment of an enslaved woman’s child.

Using poetry as linguistic evidence must therefore remain distinct from accepting its social valuations.

Umuwwah: the condition of slavery

Early Arabic records umuwwah for the condition of female slavery.

Amati al-marʾatu and related forms describe a woman becoming enslaved.

One Arabic explanation describes a woman who had been free and subsequently became enslaved.

Amah is therefore not simply an inherent, unchanging description of a group of women. Under slavery, a person could enter that condition.

Leaving slavery likewise had distinct linguistic and social expression.

Semantically, amah does not name a woman’s essential nature or a separate kind of human being. It names a position assigned to her within a social structure.

4. Wa-la-amatun muʾminatun khayrun: a believing woman in slavery

Al-Baqarah 2:221 states:

وَلَا تَنْكِحُوا الْمُشْرِكَاتِ حَتَّىٰ يُؤْمِنَّ وَلَأَمَةٌ مُؤْمِنَةٌ خَيْرٌ مِنْ مُشْرِكَةٍ وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَتْكُمْ وَلَا تُنْكِحُوا الْمُشْرِكِينَ حَتَّىٰ يُؤْمِنُوا وَلَعَبْدٌ مُؤْمِنٌ خَيْرٌ مِنْ مُشْرِكٍ وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكُمْ أُولَٰئِكَ يَدْعُونَ إِلَى النَّارِ وَاللَّهُ يَدْعُو إِلَى الْجَنَّةِ وَالْمَغْفِرَةِ بِإِذْنِهِ وَيُبَيِّنُ آيَاتِهِ لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَذَكَّرُونَ

wa-lā tankiḥū al-mushrikāti ḥattā yuʾminna wa-la-amatun muʾminatun khayrun min mushrikatin wa-law aʿjabatkum wa-lā tunkiḥū al-mushrikīna ḥattā yuʾminū wa-la-ʿabdun muʾminun khayrun min mushrikin wa-law aʿjabakum ulāʾika yadʿūna ilā al-nāri wa-allāhu yadʿū ilā al-jannati wa-l-maghfirati bi-idhnihi wa-yubayyinu āyātihi li-l-nāsi laʿallahum yatadhakkarūna

“Do not marry women who associate partners with The God until they believe. A believing enslaved woman is certainly better than a woman who associates partners, even if she pleases you. Do not give women in marriage to men who associate partners until they believe. A believing enslaved man is certainly better than a man who associates partners, even if he pleases you. They call toward the Fire, while The God calls toward the Garden and forgiveness by His permission, and explains His signs to people so that they may remember.”

Al-Baqarah 2:221

Amatun is a singular noun, qualified by muʾminatun.

Amah identifies the woman’s social condition.

Muʾminah concerns her belief.

The two words therefore do not have the same meaning.

A woman can be enslaved and believing, just as a free person may choose another course in belief and conduct.

Wa-la-amatun: emphatic lām rather than a preposition

The lām before amah in wa-la-amatun muʾminatun khayrun is emphatic and introduces the nominal statement.

It does not mean “for.”

Amatun is the grammatical subject, mubtadaʾ, and khayrun its predicate.

The construction therefore means “a believing enslaved woman is certainly better.”

Khayrun expresses superiority within a comparison.

That superiority does not come from A M W itself. The qualification of belief and the marriage context establish the comparison’s subject.

What is the criterion of comparison?

The enslaved woman’s belief is contrasted with another woman’s association of partners.

This comparison addresses a society where freedom and slavery were distinct social positions, and slavery could lead to a person being regarded as inferior.

Despite that social distinction, the verse identifies the believing enslaved woman as better within the comparison.

Her legal or social position alone is therefore not the criterion of superiority in this judgment.

This does not erase every existing legal distinction between free and enslaved women within this verse.

The statement prioritizes belief in the marriage context, rather than presenting the full range of rules concerning slavery and freedom.

Must mushrikah mean a free woman?

Some early explanations understand mushrikah in this comparison as a free woman who associates partners.

That reading is understandable within the social contrast: someone regarded as lower in position is preferred through belief to someone socially or outwardly more desirable.

The Arabic expression itself, however, does not contain ḥurrah, “free woman.”

It says khayrun min mushrikatin.

The second woman’s freedom should therefore not be presented without explanation as mushrikah’s explicit lexical meaning.

It may be discussed contextually, but is not part of the direct wording.

Wa-law aʿjabatkum

Even if the woman impresses or pleases the addressees, belief remains central to the comparison.

Aʿjabatkum belongs to ʿ J B and concerns impressing, pleasing, or causing wonder.

The appeal may concern beauty, social position, ability, or another quality; the verse does not identify its exact cause.

Restricting the translation to “even if her beauty captivates you” excludes other possibilities.

The corresponding comparison involving men

The verse continues:

Wa-la-ʿabdun muʾminun khayrun min mushrikin.

Here too, an enslaved man is compared with a man who associates partners.

ʿAbd belongs to ʿ B D and here refers to an enslaved man.

Amah and ʿabd nevertheless belong to different roots.

In the context of slavery, these nouns can designate women and men, while having different derivational structures.

The parallel shows that the verse does not apply its criterion only to women.

Both comparisons contrast belief with association of partners; outward appeal or personal preference is not the final criterion.

Does this verse cover every non-Muslim woman?

The explicit subject is mushrik women and men: those associating partners.

Al-Māʾidah 5:5 separately addresses marriage with chaste women of the People of the Scripture.

Without examining the relevant verses together, mushrik in Al-Baqarah 2:221 should not automatically be applied to every woman and man of every other religion.

This distinction matters for understanding the marriage passage, but does not change A M W’s meaning.

Amah here is an enslaved woman, qualified as believing. The extent of mushrik requires a separate study of that term and the related marriage passages.

5. Wa-imāʾikum: marriage for enslaved women

Al-Nūr 24:32 states:

وَأَنْكِحُوا الْأَيَامَىٰ مِنْكُمْ وَالصَّالِحِينَ مِنْ عِبَادِكُمْ وَإِمَائِكُمْ إِنْ يَكُونُوا فُقَرَاءَ يُغْنِهِمُ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ

wa-ankiḥū al-ayāmā minkum wa-l-ṣāliḥīna min ʿibādikum wa-imāʾikum in yakūnū fuqarāʾa yughnihimu allāhu min faḍlihi wa-allāhu wāsiʿun ʿalīm

“Arrange marriage for the unmarried among you and those suitable for marriage among the enslaved men and women whom you own. If they are poor, The God will enrich them from His bounty. The God is ample in bounty and knowing.”

Al-Nūr 24:32

Imāʾikum combines imāʾ, “enslaved women,” with -kum, “your.”

It follows ʿibādikum.

Here, ʿibādikum concerns the enslaved men owned by the addressees, while imāʾikum identifies enslaved women.

The verse’s principal verb, however, concerns marriage.

Wa-ankiḥū: arranging marriage

Ankiḥū belongs to N K Ḥ and is Form IV.

The construction concerns giving someone in marriage or facilitating another person’s marriage.

It therefore does not require the owners themselves to marry the enslaved women.

Nor does imāʾikum itself mean “your wives.”

The noun identifies women living in slavery. Ankiḥū concerns arranging their marriage.

This distinction matters because slavery and marriage are different legal and social relationships.

An enslaved woman may be married or unmarried.

Slavery itself does not imply marriage.

Who are al-ayāmā?

Al-ayāmā belongs to A Y M and is a plural of ayyim.

It concerns someone without a spouse, whether woman or man.

Early Arabic ayyim is not restricted to a widow. An unmarried woman or man can also be described by it.

Al-ayāmā minkum should therefore not be translated only “widows among you.”

Its root also differs from imāʾ.

Ayāmā belongs to A Y M, while imāʾ belongs to A M W.

Their similar appearance within one verse does not establish a shared root.

Al-ṣāliḥīn: morally righteous or suitable for marriage?

Al-ṣāliḥīn occurs in wa-l-ṣāliḥīna min ʿibādikum wa-imāʾikum.

One reading concerns moral righteousness and upright conduct.

Another understands suitability and readiness for marriage.

Both possibilities can be examined through language and context.

The word alone does not mean every unmarried enslaved woman or man is morally unrighteous.

Nor should al-ṣāliḥīn be made, without examination, a condition depriving people of every right to marry.

The passage encourages and facilitates marriage. Detailed legal conditions require consideration of other verses too.

Is poverty an absolute barrier to marriage?

The verse continues:

In yakūnū fuqarāʾa yughnihimu allāhu min faḍlihi.

The clause considers poverty among those who are to marry.

It indicates that poverty alone should not cause despair of divine bounty and relief.

It should not become an immediate, quantifiable promise that everyone necessarily becomes wealthy after marrying.

The verse specifies neither the amount, timing, nor manner of enrichment.

A M W itself also does not concern poverty or wealth.

Imāʾikum identifies slavery; fuqarāʾ identifies poverty; yughnihim concerns enrichment or freedom from need.

These concepts share one sentence without sharing a lexical meaning.

6. Enslaved women across Qur’anic passages: marriage, rights, and exploitation

The root’s two direct occurrences are insufficient for understanding amah and imāʾ across the Qur’an.

Other verses discuss enslaved women through different expressions.

These expressions clarify the word’s social and legal field, despite belonging to different roots.

Al-Nisāʾ 4:25: fatayātikumu al-muʾmināt

Al-Nisāʾ 4:25 discusses women under ownership, described as fatayātikumu al-muʾmināt.

Fatayāt belongs to F T Y.

It can denote girls or young women, but also describes enslaved women in a slavery context.

The verse concerns marriage with them and payment of the marriage due.

Baʿḍukum min baʿḍ, “you are of one another,” also appears there, recalling the human connection among members of the community.

The expression alone does not abolish slavery within that verse, whose other parts still refer to differences in legal status.

Both realities must therefore be recognized: the Qur’an acknowledges slavery among its addressees and discusses women’s faith, marriage, and rights within that setting.

Al-Nūr 24:33: prohibiting coerced sexual exploitation

The verse following imāʾikum, Al-Nūr 24:33, addresses two important matters.

First, it discusses contracts for freedom with enslaved people who request such arrangements.

Second, it prohibits forcing enslaved women into prostitution for worldly gain.

This illuminates imāʾikum’s social setting: women in slavery could be exposed to exploitation by those holding power over them.

“Female servants” is therefore insufficient for imāʾ. It can obscure their dependency and legal vulnerability.

Conversely, the prohibition of exploitation does not establish that every form of slavery was abolished within that same verse.

Nor should the prohibition be narrowed to manufacture permission for forcing women into exploitation in other circumstances.

The subject is prohibiting exploitation and coercion in a particular setting. Broader legal application requires independently examining the verse’s construction and other Qur’anic principles.

Freedom from slavery in other verses

Al-Balad 90:13 includes fakku raqabatin among difficult and valuable actions.

Al-Nisāʾ 4:92 discusses freeing an enslaved person in certain circumstances of unintentional killing.

Al-Tawbah 9:60 includes fī al-riqābi among the recipients or purposes of zakāh.

Leaving slavery is therefore also discussed in the Qur’an.

A M W itself, however, does not mean liberation. Amah names an enslaved woman; her liberation is expressed through other words and constructions.

A root study should therefore not replace comprehensive research on slavery in the Qur’an.

This article clarifies a lexical family. Slavery and paths to freedom require examining the relevant verses together.

7. Distinguishing A M W from related roots and expressions

A M W (amah) and ʿ B D (ʿabd)

Study of ʿ B D

ʿAbd belongs to ʿ B D and has a broad Qur’anic range.

It can concern servitude and worship of The God, while also identifying an enslaved person in social contexts.

Al-Baqarah 2:221 has amatun muʾminatun in the comparison involving women, and ʿabdun muʾminun in the comparison involving men.

The parallel clarifies amah as an enslaved woman and ʿabd as an enslaved man here.

This contextual overlap does not make every Qur’anic ʿabd someone enslaved by another human being.

ʿIbādu allāhi in many verses identifies The God’s servants. Its relation to worship and the human relationship with the Lord must be understood contextually.

In Al-Nūr 24:32, the human possessive suffix and imāʾikum alongside it identify ʿibādikum as enslaved men within that social order.

A M W (imāʾ) and F T Y (fatayāt)

Study of F T Y (Not yet published)

Fatayāt belongs to F T Y.

Some uses concern girls or young women; slavery contexts can identify enslaved women.

Al-Nisāʾ 4:25 and Al-Nūr 24:33 contain indications of ownership and social status identifying women in slavery.

Fatāh should not, however, mean “enslaved woman” in every Arabic use.

A young free woman can also be described by it.

Amah, by contrast, directly identifies female slavery in its familiar social use.

The words can therefore refer to the same people in some verses without sharing lexical meaning or root.

A M W (imāʾ) and A Y M (ayāmā)

Study of A Y M

Ayāmā belongs to A Y M and concerns unmarried people.

Imāʾ belongs to A M W and identifies enslaved women.

The words occur together in Al-Nūr 24:32.

One identifies marital status; the other identifies social and legal status.

A woman may be free and unmarried.

An enslaved woman may be unmarried or married.

Being unmarried and being enslaved are therefore independent conditions.

Their occurrence together does not merge their meanings.

A M W (amah) and Ḥ R R (ḥurrah)

Study of Ḥ R R

Ḥurrah describes a free woman.

Early Arabic contrasted it with amah.

The primary distinction concerns freedom and slavery.

A legal contrast should not become a contrast in human worth.

Free and enslaved women are both human beings; either may have faith, righteous conduct, or wrongdoing.

Al-Baqarah 2:221 also shows that social position alone is not the final criterion within its comparison.

A M W (amah) and M L K (milk)

Study of M L K

Milk and malaka concern ownership and possession.

Qur’anic mā malakat aymānukum relates to human ownership of other humans in the society addressed.

The expression can encompass enslaved men and women.

Amah specifically identifies a woman in that condition.

Mā malakat aymānukum and imāʾ therefore do not have identical referential scope.

Nor does mentioning ownership mean every verse permits any conduct a powerful person chooses toward someone enslaved.

The boundaries of conduct and rights must be examined through the relevant commands and prohibitions.

A M W (amah) and R Q B (raqabah)

Study of R Q B

Raqabah directly means neck.

In liberation contexts, it can stand for the enslaved person.

Expressions such as fakku raqabatin concern freeing a person from slavery.

Amah names a woman in that condition.

Raqabah in legal usage can refer to an enslaved person of either sex.

The words therefore relate to one social reality while having different scope and semantic structure.

8. Does amah mean a woman of lesser worth?

Slavery held an inferior position in early Arabic society.

Some early poetry also shows that the condition could involve contempt, exclusion, and discrimination.

Social subordination does not mean an enslaved woman has less humanity or moral capacity than a free woman.

Al-Baqarah 2:221 explicitly names amatun muʾminatun and prefers her to a woman who associates partners within its comparison.

Al-Nūr 24:32 also includes enslaved women among those whose marriage receives attention and a command.

These verses therefore do not present an enslaved woman merely as a will-less item among possessions. Her belief, marriage, and living condition are discussed.

This does not make slavery’s legal position identical to freedom among the Qur’an’s addressees.

The distinction between amah and ḥurrah itself identifies different social and legal positions.

Fully assessing the differences requires separate research into ownership, marriage, freedom, financial rights, and prohibitions of exploitation.

Lexical research establishes that amah names a woman’s condition of slavery, rather than a lower degree of humanity.

9. Translation proposals for Forqan

Two English equivalents of amah are defensible:

“Bondwoman” is a concise, familiar historical equivalent.

“Enslaved woman” is clearer for present-day readers and identifies the social condition more explicitly.

Words such as “handmaid” can now suggest literary devotion or domestic service, weakening awareness of actual historical slavery.

“Enslaved woman” therefore provides a more precise explanatory equivalent in a root study.

“Bondwoman” remains usable in a concise verse translation, provided its historical meaning is made clear.

Al-Baqarah 2:221

For wa-la-amatun muʾminatun, the proposed translation is:

“And a believing enslaved woman is certainly...”

In the complete sentence:

“A believing enslaved woman is certainly better than a woman who associates partners, even if she pleases you.”

“A believing bondwoman” is also concise and lexically sound.

“Female servant” is unsuitable because it can confuse slavery with free, contractual employment.

“A socially disadvantaged woman” is insufficient too: someone may be financially or socially deprived without being enslaved.

Al-Nūr 24:32

For wa-imāʾikum, the proposed translation is:

“And the enslaved women whom you own.”

Alongside ʿibādikum, natural prose can say:

“And the enslaved men and women under your authority and ownership.”

This preserves historical ownership without equating slavery with domestic work.

“Your bondwomen” is a shorter alternative.

“Your women” is imprecise: in English it can suggest wives, whereas imāʾ here identifies enslaved women who are not necessarily the addressees’ wives.

Other Arabic forms

Plural imāʾ means “enslaved women” or “bondwomen.”

Āmin is an early plural of the same noun.

Imwān and umwān are also early plurals.

Umuwwah in this family concerns female slavery.

Ammāhā can be translated “enslaved her” or “placed her in slavery.”

These forms are recorded in early Arabic, but only amah and imāʾ occur in the Qur’an.

10. Conclusion

A M W’s familiar Qur’anic branch concerns a woman in slavery.

Amah is the singular noun, imāʾ its plural.

Early Arabic also records plurals such as āmin, imwān, and umwān. These help reconstruct the final root consonant, wāw.

Poetic witnesses show that these words were known in pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabic, alongside designations for enslaved men.

The Qur’an uses the root twice.

Al-Baqarah 2:221 prefers a believing enslaved woman to a woman who associates partners. Faith is the comparison’s central criterion, rather than freedom, slavery, or outward appeal alone.

Al-Nūr 24:32 includes enslaved women alongside enslaved men in the command concerning arranging marriage.

These occurrences acknowledge slavery among the Qur’an’s addressees, but the word itself does not morally endorse slavery.

Nor do the two verses alone establish complete abolition.

Other verses, such as Al-Nisāʾ 4:25 and Al-Nūr 24:33, concern marriage, rights, and prohibiting exploitation of women in this condition. Other passages also address liberation from slavery.

A comprehensive judgment about slavery in the Qur’an therefore requires considering these passages together.

Etymologically, amah differs from ummah, “community,” umm, “mother,” ayāmā, “unmarried people,” and amwāt, “the dead.”

Each comparison must preserve distinctions of root, morphology, and context.

Forqan’s final definition of A M W:

“A woman in slavery, held as another human being’s property, contrasted with a free woman. Amah is the singular and imāʾ its Qur’anic plural. The word names social and legal status within slavery; it does not itself judge a person’s faith, morality, or human worth. The Qur’an uses amah for a believing enslaved woman in a marriage comparison, and imāʾ for enslaved women in a command concerning facilitating marriage. Their rights, freedom, and complete circumstances require independent examination of other Qur’anic passages.”